Linda and Mals Asian Adventure: Ajmer & Pushkar

Ajmer: Arrived in Ajmer after a two and a half hour bus journey. Ajmer is off the usual tourist track in favour of the much more renown Pushkar. Ajmer has many hidden gems and has the advantage of being better connected as far as onward bus journeys are concerned. We stayed in an old Haveli in the centre of Ajmer ( along with a small family of mice ! ) that apart it was quite ok if a bit grubby. The home cooked food was delicious.

The Red temple or Nasiyan, houses one of the most bizarre and interesting collections so far. In a two storey building filled with golden models depicting the Jain concept of the ancient world ( basically a round flat earth with 13 continents and oceans ( a bit like disc world ? ). Words are hard to describe this so the picture below gives some idea.

Nasiyan Jain temple and the ancient world.

Wandering around India, we have seen a varied collection of four legged animals roaming the streets, Cows we expected but Pigs? yes there is no shortage of our porcine friends. Some even make use of the local open sewers to bathe.. lovely. Ajmer was no exception.

Happy as a pig in ??

Ajmer has a couple of decent parks and a rather nice lake which the locals use to chill out, we were a bit of an attraction for some reason and were asked for our photos to be taken with a number of locals. We must say that the folk of Ajmer are really very friendly.

Ana Sagar lake Ajmer.

Pushkar: Just a 30 minute bus ride from Ajmer is the sacred Hindu town of Pushkar with its famous temples and even more famous bathing ghats. Only one small problem with this, when we got there the lake of which the ghats sit had been drained of water and was being dug out to be made deeper. The outcome was that the expected views didn't quite match up to what we expected.

Bathing Ghat Pushkar.

At least the Langurs didn't seem too worried about the lack of water.

Wouldn't it look nice with water in it?

With Diwali just 3 days away the locals were being promised that the digging work would be complete and that the monsoons would fill the lake in time for the celebrations, only one small problem here, the monsoons are over till next May. Pushkar has literally hundreds of temples all controlled by the local Priest Gendarme ! A well known scam is that some unscrupulous priests demand extortionate sums of money in return for what is known as the "Pushkar passport" ( a bit of red wool tied around your wrist ) and the promise of prayers for your family ( both past and present ), apparently they can get quite unpleasant if you refuse. This wasn't a problem we had, ( maybe something to do with my Hanibal Lector hair cut ) oddly enough one or two people had pointed me out calling me "Hanibal" ... strange people.. Chianti anyone?

The one exception to this passport scam was again the Sikh temple, where we were made very welcome and no hint of any payment or donation was requested or expected. The streets of Pushkar are without doubt colourful and vibrant and well worth the collective 32 rupee return bus trip for the two of us !