The queue at Ajmer rail station
Jodhpur Photos
The deluxe bus to Pushkar was smooth enough, apart from the guy across the isle from me constantly spitting on the floor. When I got to Ajmer seemed like there wasn’t much to do so jumped straight onto the local bus to Pushkar. Got chatting to a local guy who worked at a hotel in town and arranged to look at a cheap room when we got there. The Pushkar camel fair was about to reach its climax and I had been warned to expect hugely inflated accommodation prices. The room itself was better than the one in Jaipur so I booked it for a couple of nights. On first impression Pushkar seemed like a pretty chilled out place, from what I could make out in the dark it was in a nice location, built around a lake with a few temple mounted hills surrounding.
Being a holy city alcohol was meant to be banned but the guy who sorted me out with the room instantly offered to get me a beer, I gave him some money and he came back 20minutes later with a large bottle of strong strength larger and some whisky for himself ( I think the money I passed over was paying for both of us to drink ). We drank on the roof terrace for a while and then I went down to the festival site or “Mela”. It was pretty much like Glastonbury after the bands finish, lots of people, loud music from sound systems + stalls selling overpriced goods and food. Only there was no booze and all the music was Hindi. I walked by a Ferris wheel that looked like possibly the most dangerous thing I would see in India. Absolutely no safety precautions looked like one rusty bolt was holding the whole thing together….not for me thanks.
After a hour or so of walking around and talking to the locals ( every one wants to know your name + where your from ) went back to the hotel and crashed out around 2am.
The next morning the drawbacks of my room became painfully obvious….the windows had no glass meaning that all the noise of motorcycles and people talking ( shouting by Uk standards) in the street woke me up. Also there was a pungent smell of burning garbage filling the room, think someone was warming their chai stove below my room. I haven’t had a proper nights sleep since I got to Rajasthan. There is usually noise of the hotel staff talking/shouting loudly until the early morning in the corridors, and then again early in the morning + traffic sound if your near the front of the building. Not sure if the Rajasthani population are generally loud, but don’t remember it being this noisily last time I was in India.
After a while got up, the sun was out and the streets were fairly busy with people, decided to head straight up to the Mela ground to have a look at the camels that had enticed me to the festival. After getting to the area the camels were kept it was pretty obvious that most of the livestock was already gone….turns out most of the camel trading was at the beginning of the week…still saw some pretty impressive beasts though. Like most festivals the Pushkar fair had attracted all manner of traders and scam artists from outside of town. Was approached by many a gypsy woman trying to entice me into a private dancing session via asking me to take their picture and buy them a cup of chai in exchange. I bought the first one a tea for free and had a chat while constantly declining her offers of a free henna tattoo. Still was interesting talk to people from a totally different background.
After getting tired of offers for a camel ride ( worse than at the Pyramids ) decided to climb to the top of one of the nearby hills to visit a Hindu temple and get a view of the town from above. After a few wrong turns eventually made it to the base of the path up the hill….got chatting to a couple of local cops about cricket on the way up, a common conversation when talking to Indians who don’t speak great English. ( as football is in most other countries) I managed to bluff my minimal knowledge about test cricket into a decent enough conversation then continued up….passed a lot of pilgrims on the way everyone was super friendly. At the top the view was spectacular on one side the town and the lake with surrounding hills, and on the other the Rajasthani desert stretching out to the horizon. Stayed up there for a hour or so talking to people and watching a monkey trying to steal food from a families picnic.
Afterwards had a quick look at the Ghats ( Hindu devotional platforms) surrounding the lake in town( quick as it is quite common to be approached by an unscrupulous priest offing to do a blessing or “puja” and then demanding extortionate rates for the service after ).
Then I wandered into town and got some street food on a plate made of dried leaves. After finishing looked round for a bin ( a rare sight in India) and not finding one decided I would do as in Rome and litter. Unfortunately the place next to a tree I decided to put my used plate down to turned out to be a mini shrine to Shiva. I was instantly under extreme verbal attack from an old woman. Did my best to apologise and ease the situation, but ended up having to leave the scene post haste…typical that my first act of littering would insult a religion…from now on I’ll find a ready formed garbage pile in the streets to add to.
Spent the rest of the day walking the streets to the point of exhaustion, there seemed to be more and more people arriving at the fair, until by late afternoon the streets with choka block full. Its estimated that at its height 200,000 people are at the festival, one and a half times the amount at Glastonbury in a smaller area. Went up to the temple on the hill opposite the one I had gone up earlier to watch the sunset ….chatted with some other travellers who were up there….a really spectacular view again. That night watched an impressive fireworks display from the hotel roof and then wandered the streets again. The town was now at bursting point with party going Indians…got the impression I wasn’t the only one in town sneaking a drink in…..got lost for about an hour on the way home and finally made it back to the hotel at midnight….by the sound coming from outside of my room all night at that point the party had just started …..
Next morning got the bus back to Ajmer to catch a train to Jodhpur (the city the riding trousers are name after). The streets were still packed with people as even more came to town for the final day of the fair. Had to walk about 2km with my pack while refusing many an offer to have it carried on a baggage cart. I got to the bus stop to find a few busses that were already jammed packed full and a few empty ones…..Went to a empty one to try and avoid the crowd…..I asked the driver loudly if the bus was going to Ajmer and as soon as he replied “yes” I was instantly engulfed in a crowd of locals who pushed me out of the way of the door and then began pushing each other. It was every man for himself, women and children being pushed out of the way while the men tried to get their own families on. A bunch of people simply bypassed the Queue ( for lack of a better term) and climbed in through the windows…eventually got on and was offered a seat…the funny thing is after all the commotion there were enough seats for nearly everyone to sit down. Ended up giving mine to an old woman and standing for the 25minutes ride anyway…..at the station in Ajmer the rush to get off the bus was just as intense….crazy but good fun!.
I walked the 2km from the bus station to train station surrounded by another entourage of local youths who had been on the bus from the camel fair . They all had replica bow staffs from the festival and declared themselves my personal body guard…hilarious we marched the streets at pace in formation as was running late for the train…. fairplay they got me to the station and showed me where the ticket office was……….my heart sank to see the ticket office itself was rammed full of people ( see photo)…had to queue for 40 minutes to get my ticket and only got it with 5minutes to spare before the only train to Jodhpur left. Seeing a tourist at the front of the queue about 3 people behind me tried to jump in front when I started buying my ticket, I got pissed off and shouted at one of them to back off and the ticket seller started going mental at them drawing the attention of club wielding policeman who were supervising the queue…was left in peace to make my purchase… my ticket was second class no seat reservation……5.5 hours on a train for less than a pound …cheap even by Indian standards British rail take note……well having said that did spent the first hour of the journey standing near the toilet block surrounded by other people but at least I had leg room…... After a few stops someone who was lying on a luggage shelf offered me to share half the space so I spent the next 4 hours sat next to my pack on the edge of the shelf above a packed bench of locals with my head ducked under the ceiling…..not the most comfortable but still better than next to the toilet and “that” smell. The dude who gave me the seat didn’t speak good English but insisted on feeding me. I shared dinner with him and his friend…and talked about test cricket……For every person in the country that is trying to befriend you for your spending power there seem to be ten who are completely genuine like this guy……wish I could have made better conversation, will have to work on my Indian language skills (and cricket knowledge for that matter )
Got to Jodhpur station at 8pm and met a guy from England called Tom who was travelling round with a guitar. We were both on a similar budget so got a rickshaw into the old city and found a cheap room after doing an hour or so of bargaining around various guest houses. Was cool to meet another guitarist ( and have access to a guitar after a few weeks,) and Fairplay the guy could play some awesome alt tuning blues slide stuff… gave me some good ideas to try develop my style. Ate on the roof top and had a couple of beers. The fort in Jodhpur was massive and dominated the hill above the hotel. On first impression the city seemed way more chilled that Jaipour.
The next morning sorted myself a single room out for a couple of nights in the same hotel then went up to the fort. It was raining by the time we got there and not cheap to enter , 300hundered rupees ( still only £4.50 mind , ) but the view from the battlements was awesome. Jodhpur is called the “blue city” as most of the buildings in the old city are painted blue.( See photo for image that doesn’t do view justice ) Afterwards checked out a bit more of the city by exploring the winding streets but the rain was heavy enough by this point to give them that special “Download festival feel” so spent most of the afternoon in the guest house patio using the free wifi ( a real rarity in India).
That evening got chatting to a kiwi and Irish guy over dinner and then retired fairly early…..not long after getting to my room began to feel really ill. Nausea and stomach pains…..had been wondering how long I could last with out getting sick…..my guess was around a week and a half before I came and proved to be bang on…..had a rough night but felt a lot better in the morning.
Decided to have a recovery/admin day as it was still raining and I would have another chance to see the city on the way back from the desert. Spent most of the afternoon sorting out bits and bobs online for the south Asia leg of the journey in the new year. That evening decided to go to a nice restaurant and spent double my usual dinner budget in hopes it would help my stomach. ( still came to less than a fiver ) Never thought I would get tired of cheaply priced curry, but the lack of anything else on the menu ( apart from Chinese or badly prepared pizza/spaghetti) was starting to bring me down…still the food in the Nirvana restaurant tasted fresh and the dinning area was clean…after dinner wandered the streets for a bit and then came back to the hotel to rehydrate myself . (Incidentally I highly recommend dissolvable rehydration salts as a hangover cure, you can get them from most chemists/pharmacists. Trust me they will work miracles if you drink before bed or first thing in the morning after a heavy session )
Decided to have an early night, get a bus to Jaisalmer in northern Rajasthan the following morning and then try and find a decent camel trek once the weather had improved.
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