Exploring Pushkar

The night was cold, so we had to snuggle up to keep warm. When we headed down to explore the town, we passed a place that could burn flash drives onto CDs for 50 rs each. We also picked out our best photos to get printed here for just 4 rs each. We're trying to upload some pictures to the website, but so far, the internet connection has been too slow :) Next to the photo shop was a little store selling marble items at really cheap prices. We left with three small pots and two bowls for only 250 rs. We were getting hungry, so we went up to Third Eye for breakfast/lunch. This place is super popular among Israelis, so we were three tourists out of about 25 who weren’t from Israel :) Since so many Israelis travel in India after finishing their military service, many restaurants also have Israeli specialties on the menu. We had pita with falafel, hummus, and various other things. A pita cost about 50 rs, which is incredibly cheap. There are several places that rent out scooters, so we borrowed one for 50 rs for three hours to ride around and check out the town and the landscape. We drove up into the mountains, where there were loads of monkeys. We were a bit scared they might jump on us since they didn’t look very afraid :) After studying Indian traffic for several days, it was easier to navigate. You just have to drive with your horn blaring and weave in and out of traffic, and it actually went pretty smoothly :) By 5 PM, we were back in town since we had made an appointment with a yoga school. It was 100 rs per person for a 60-minute session. The yoga class was held in a courtyard around a temple, so we had a few spectators :) The class was a bit different from the yoga we’ve tried before. As always, there were some poses that were quite unfamiliar to us, and we ended up bursting into laughter. In fact, we laughed so much that our usually calm and focused teacher joined in too :) After the yoga session, we headed back to the hotel to shower before dinner. We had spotted a restaurant, Om Shiva, that offered a buffet for just 50 rs, so we decided to go there. Om Shiva is a very popular spot, so another restaurant has copied the name and menu. Before we could finish up in the bathroom, the power went out across the whole town. Our room was pitch black, and since we didn’t have a flashlight, we had to feel our way out of the room and outside, where the only light was from the moon. Luckily, it was clear skies, which we’ve had every day; otherwise, it would have been completely dark outside too :) About 30 minutes later, the power came back on, and we were able to finish getting ready to go out for dinner. We chose to eat at the copycat restaurant Om Shiva since it was the closest and seemed popular. The buffet included soup, rice, pasta, chapati, mashed potatoes, various sauces, and sweet desserts. Vegetarian food is very popular in India, so the buffet didn’t have any meat dishes. Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel, where some people were hanging out on the roof enjoying marijuana and beer. Once again, we politely declined to smoke and settled for beer, which the chef could procure for us, even though drinking is technically forbidden in Pushkar :)