Pushkar

Pushkar is a really chilled place to stay. The absence of noisy polluting traffic is very appealing. It's a very common hotspot for foreign backpackers and Indian nationals. In 2005 it was reported to have 16.12 million visitors of which 60,000 were foreign and yet, unless it is Pushkar's annual camel fair, it never seems that busy.



Fruit and vegetable sellers in the main square.

Flower sellers at the entrance to one of the temples. Hindus buy the flowers to take into the temple to make offerings to the Gods.

This young budding entrepreneur decided to set up his push bike as a shop selling flowers. He sits in that bent down position for hours on end. I can't even get down into that position never mind maintain it!

Heading home in the family 'car' after a day's work.

An old Ragasthani in traditional dress. On the wall, Indian graffiti looks much better than ours.

The chai (tea) stall opposite our guest house. Shiva that owns it is a really nice guy. Great wee place for breakfast, meeting people and passing time sitting drinking chai and watching the world go by. As  you can see there is only a couple of seats so often people just grab a pew on the stairs and the roadside.

This guy has his shop just diagonal to the chai shop. I had to take this photo as it was the only time I ever seen him at his shop. He spends all day in Shiva's chai shop taking to anyone who is also there.

Colin watching the football in The Monkey Cafe.

This chai shop in an institution in Pushkar and is in the middle of the square. It has been there forever.  It's very popular with foreign tourists and when we go to Pushkar, a day doesn't pass that we don't frequent the establishment. It is owned by a family and 3 male members run it. They're quite a crew. The big guy to the left of the photo is one of them. His role seems to be standing in the street, looking cool  dripping in gold chains, bangles and rings and accosting every person that tries to pass him so that they will sit and have a chai.

These are the other two guys that run it. The one on the right side of the photo is the chai maker. He dresses like an old rocker from the 70's and doesn't say much. The one on the left is the star of the show. His role is just to look cool and he has plenty to say. He has the most greased back hair that I've ever seen.

No post about Pushkar would be complete without a photo of monkeys, as they are everywhere. You have to be really careful with them as they're evil (used to be a monkey lover but that romantic notion soon changed after being in India). I know they're evil from several personal experiences with them. One day I was sitting on the roof of Sai Baba guest house drinking chai. Colin was sitting facing me and suddenly started pointing like a man possessed and shouting 'monkey'. I obviously ignored him as I thought he was taking the mick. When Colin started to get up and make a bee-line to the door I thought I'd better look round. There was indeed a very large monkey about 10 feet away from me and it was walking toward me. I jumped up, shouted at it and waved my arms about but it just kept advancing towards me. I ran over to the doorway and picked up a big stone and pretended to get ready to throw it but the mad monkey still kept advancing. Next thing, in a split second, it grabbed my chai and biscuit  and ran off. Obviously it wasn't my good looks and personality that it was after. Looks like Monkey 1- Frances 0.