Pushy Pushkar

G’day all,
Well I’ve spent the past three nights in the small town of Pushkar in Rajasthan and have just arrived in Jaipur by train today. I took a first class train from Jodhpur to Pushkar and it was such a nice experience. I had air conditioning, leg room and even peace without a hundred people trying to sell me things while I try to sleep. Every train station over here is full over homeless people and it’s such a shocking sight every time I catch a train. There are often hundreds of dirty, diseased, and often limbless peoples laying on the ground looking half dead begging for money. You also see many people with no legs wheeling themselves around on a skateboard with blooded bandages on their scabbed up hands. It’s also common to see people with huge infected open wounds on display with dirt and flies buzzing around their cuts and gashes. One thing that hits you when you come to India is that you should never complain about anything as just to live in Australia makes you the feel like the richest person on earth. The poverty and quality of life over here is beyond shocking and believe me we have nothing to whine about ever. I didn’t know what to expect from Pushkar as I’ve heard so many things about it yet knew not a thing about the place. The town is very small and it’s all based around a holy lake called Pushkar Lake. Surrounding the lake is 52 ghats and 400 white temples. The town in total has 1000 temples and the population is of Pushkar is only 14,000 people. So basically it’s a pretty holy place and apart from the lake there is sweet bugger all to do but chill out. It’s a weird mix of very religious Hindus and Hippies in this town and 1 blonde haired Aussie wearing a Crows guernsey. When I first arrived I found some nice cheap accommodation then went for a stroll to check out the lake. As soon as I got down there some fake priest tried to rip me off so I was too scared to go back for another 2 days. The next day I had 2 Gypsy girls shake my hand before starting to draw a henna tattoo on my hand and wanted a lot of money for it. The town didn’t sit too well with me as everyone tries to rip you off so badly. They often do it by being so nice then making you feel guilty and then scamming money off you. They are so good at it they almost brainwash you. Apart from the lake there was nothing to do so I just chilled out with these great Israeli guys and a really cool older English bloke for the next 2 days. All we did was chill out by the swimming pool and hang out on hammocks so it was really nice just to do nothing for once. The one cool thing about being in Pushkar at this time of the year was that it has just become the wedding season here. Each day there is about 70 crazy weddings going on around the place and if you thought Greek weddings were big you should see an Indian Wedding. Hundreds of people dance like jack hammers up and down the street all night as Indian dance music beats the night away up full blast. The ceremonies are huge and whole palaces are rented out and packed for the night. Last night I finally braved the lake again and bought this “passport” thingo which is really a bracelet which tells the scammers to leave you alone and it worked. It was really nice by the lake but the water looked like green pea soup. If the Ganges is septic this lake would have been 10 times worse. They have everything from snakes to floating body parts to weird fish jumping out of it yet people still bathe in it. Today I went to this Brahma Temple and almost got scammed again. I was so annoyed that I don’t think I’m going to really miss pushy Pushkar. It’s not just Pushkar that’s like this it’s the whole of India but I found Pushkar was the worse of all. It is impossible to not get scammed at least a few times over here. Everyone is after commission from guest houses and dodgy travel agents. The taxi or rickshaw drivers tell you “oh there has been a train crash you must take the bus now” or “that guest house burnt down in a fire but this one is good and cheap” or if you just ask to be dropped at a landmark like the clock tower they will say “which clock tower”. The whole country is so corrupt and without the Lonely Planet travel guide book I would be stuffed trying to get around. Every Indian business is so desperate to get their name into the Lonely Planet as it boosts their customers 10 fold. I’ve recently found a method of getting one back on the Indian scammers. I now tell them I’m an editor for Lonely Planet on a research trip searching for things to add to the book. So far it works a beauty as they go from trying to rip me off to them being honest and giving me the best deals. If I’ve just been ripped off I tell them afterwards and leave the buggers with a few sleepless nights. Not long now and I’ll be back in Pommy Land.

Keep it real…Woodsy

India…..I love it, but I hate it……but I love it!!

G’day all,
Well again it has been just a massive few days in India. How can any day not be massive in this crazy old country? If I could put India in 3 words it would almost be impossible but I would have to choose crazy, spiritual, and colourful. I think in any one day in India just walking the streets you could see 1000 things that would just blow you away and things that could only happen in India…that’s why I love it here. I think life without India again is going to be so uneventful but I’m also kind of looking forward to normality again. Anyway enough of my daydreaming back to the past few days. My short 44 hour bus ride from Kathmandu to Delhi ended up being pretty close to torture but finally arriving felt so good again. I met this cool Japanese/French bird named Naomi on the bus so we kept each other sane by just cracking jokes for the whole bus ride as nobody else spoke English on our so called “tourist bus”. The highlight of the bus ride was seeing a UFO out of the window and watching it for a good hour or more. I first spotted this strange cigar shaped bright light out of the window and thought it was moving but couldn’t be sure as the bus ride was pretty shaky. When the bus stopped for petrol I watched this light hover up and down and left and right for a good 10 minutes and I was so pumped when I realized this thing ain’t human. It bounced around the sky like nothing I’ve seen before and moved so fast and silent and smooth that I can honestly say I’ve seen a UFO now. We had to stay a night on the border of Nepal and India as the border didn’t open until 6am. The hotel we stayed at was so rank and ever since that night both my hands and my feet have thousands upon thousands of tiny bite marks all over them and it’s really annoying me. I stayed a day in Delhi before catching an overnight train to Jodhpur in the desert state of Rajasthan towards the Pakistan border. I was very close to missing my train as my cheapness almost got the better of me. I spent too long bargaining with the rickshaw drivers until it got to the point of ‘pay anything now and leave or miss the train’. The rickshaw driver went nuts to get me to the train station on time hitting two pedestrians and a straw cart on our 20 min thrill ride. I arrived at the train station at 8:45pm, the same time the train was due to leave. I then ran to Platform 16 assuming it was mine and launched myself into the moving train Tom Cruise style pushing everyone out of my way and pulling myself and my 30kg bag into the train. Luckily it was the right train however I was about 9 carriages away from where my bed was waiting for me and I was stuck in the standing refugee section for a few hours until the train finally stopped again. Anyway I’ve been in Jodhpur for two days now and it’s an incredible city to be in. It’s called the “Blue City” as many buildings are painted sky-blue to apparently keep the insects away and to keep it cool (as it’s so bloody hot here- many 50+ days) Towering above the sea of ancient blue buildings is a huge 125 meter old fort called Meherangarh. I found the fort almost as impressive as the Taj Mahal and it was a top surprise as I pretty much just came here to see the blue buildings. I spent a fair few hours exploring around the fort and they had a great audio tour included too. It took me ages to find my way back to the guest house as this town looks like something out of a “Where’s Wally” book with a million identical alleyways in a labyrinth of boxy blue buildings. If yesterday was hot then today was boiling. I think it would have been close to 50 degrees so I decided to spend the day in style…in the Great Thar Desert! I vibed my way to the bus station and caught a government bus to the desert town of Osiyan, 65km north of Jodhpur. I was the only tourist I saw all day and being on this crowded bus with a heap of Indians staring at me, I felt as uncomfortable as a fart in a spacesuit. One bloke started taking this piss out of me and saying stuff in Hindi to me in front of everyone then they all laughed at me. The only comeback I could come up with to make it even was to whip out some hard Aussie slag that they had no chance of understanding. I had a little chuckle and nose laugh to myself as I came back and said “settle petal, pull out the big guns shirley ya flam’n galah, think ya top brick don’t ya, ya dopey mongrel…so suffer in ya jocks…ya tool…now rack off ya clown”. I felt like I had the whole of Australia behind me at the time so I had nothing to lose however I think he must have thought I was from Antarctica or something with a language like that. It was one more crazy bus ride to add to the collection but I finally got there and boy was she stinking hot. The town was dusty and tourist free and full of Indians with turbans on their heads, white gowns and tweaked moustaches. After drinking about 3 litres of water I found a little kid that could take me on a 2 hour camel safari through the sand dunes so before I knew it I was smack bang right in the middle of the Indian desert sitting high on a camel. It was such a great feeling being the only tourist or person even to be seen riding a camel through this surreal sandy desert. It was like something out of a movie it was so picture perfect but I was guttered that my camera was broken. As we approached this tiny desert village I was amazed as this mini tornado whipped through the village out of nowhere and almost ripped the roofs off the huts. It hung around for almost 5 minutes and got within about 20 meters from us as it roared and zigzagged around violently ripping up shrubs, sticks, and dust, and spinning them at least 50 meters into the air. I’ve seen many whirly winds before but nothing like this. It made such a loud noise it sounded like a V8 and would have easily been strong enough to pick me up and perhaps the camel too. I was almost in a state of shock but this kid seemed to think nothing of it as it happens all the time here but he said they are very dangerous if you get caught in one. He also said he has been picked up and thrown from one before. I was surprised it didn’t rip the roof of this hut it passed right over but I guess they are designed to withstand mini tornados and they looked quiet strongly built. I had a cup of tea with the local village then rode back through the dunes into town again. After a looking at a couple of ancient temples I was buggered and caught the bus back to Jodhpur again. Tomorrow I head of to the Hippy town of Pushkar so I’m sure as eggs will have more crazy stories to add from there.

Oorooo Cockatoo…Woodsy

PS: Incase your wondering I scabbed another travellers photos for the blog :)