Pushkar lake and Indian Wedding!

Tom has said that he woke up at 8am, and I was still asleep...the bed was so comfy and warm that he decided to try and get some more sleep as Wed been going non stop for weeks and needed to reset! He woke back up at 9 and I still wasn’t awake, this is how Tom knew I was ill...as I was always awake before him! I eventually surfaced just after 11 and found Tom chilling on the rooftop. He recommended that we go out and get some watermelon, apparently a good snack if you have diarrhoea...? So we did just that, on our way into town an old hippie Indian guy who was chilling out at the blue temple where the hippie men hung out offered Tom a drag of his joint...we didn’t have a clue what he was smoking, but certainly didn’t want to try it! We got into town and paid 100 rupees for a full watermelon, we found a spot around the lake where we weren’t being pestered by the scammer trying to “gift” us with a flower and a blessing and then demand money from us...nor were we being shouted at for carrying our shoes and we ate the entire watermelon!

We then walked around the lake anti-clockwise, past numerous people bathing in the holy lake and were constantly being hassled for carrying our shoes. We chilled out at our favourite spot, just outside one of the Ghats on the steps and took in the surroundings whilst talking about random things including the purposes of fizzy water...why would you drink fizzy water!? We were obviously going crazy or running out of things to talk about. We made our way back to the hostel for some more chill out time before we made our way to the sunset viewpoint. We had agreed that we would meet the German guy (from Konstanz) from our hostel, Joel at the top of the viewpoint as he was going to get food first. We made our way up the tracks, walking past a woman who was suspiciously cleaning something up on one of the rocks...we come to the conclusion she had taken a shit at the side of the tracks and was now desperately trying to clean it up.

We continued and before long we got to the top of the viewpoint, which was a temple and of course you weren’t allowed shoes inside...however it looked like an awful temple it was really the view you come here for...we decided to keep our shoes on and just perch on a nearby rock to enjoy the sunset. We were joined by Joel, we chatted and enjoyed a nice sunset. Before it got dark we made our way into the town where George and I grabbed a famous Pushkar falafel from lafa falafel, the spot in Pushkar where 3 falafel stores sit adjacent to one another and customers enjoy their food on-street-seating. It was pretty good, nothing on the ones we had in the Philippines though! We thought we’d make our way back to the hostel for a chilled night.....

Upon arriving back at the hostel the guy behind the check-in desk said to Joel he had good and bad news. The bad news was that his washing wasn’t going to be done in time for his checkout because the man who does the laundry is getting married today. However the good news was that by means of an apology he was invited to his wedding. Seems like a pretty good apology to us! He proceeded to say the three of us were invited and even showed us the very official invitation card he had received. Tom was 100% up for it as he’s always wanted to attend an Indian wedding and even more so here in India. It took some convincing for me to be up for it with my current stomach situation but eventually I agreed to join.

We changed into some jeans, still with my scruffy jumper on and got into the party TukTuk that was waiting for us outside the hostel. The wedding was in Ajmer, the town that we arrived into on the train and the “15 minute drive” turned into a 45 minute drive, hanging onto the back of the TukTuk as the driver (who was high) drove far too quickly, meandering through traffic and not slowing down for speed bumps. However, we got to talk to the guys who were working at the hostel, Amit and Micky and they were both really nice guys! Eventually we arrived at the venue, after checking it was the right wedding as so many weddings were taking place today. The entrance was very grand and I could feel 1,000 eyes looking at us as we entered the venue. However, everyone was warm and welcoming to us. Handshake and handshake and selfie after selfie we made our way round the wedding, enjoying the fantastic food that was on offer. I had a paneer curry, vegetable kofta curry, biriyani with freshly made chipatis and naan breads. As I was eating the delicious food, taking in my surroundings it hit me that it was a much more sophisticated than I was expecting. People were stood around chatting and enjoying their food, it felt more like a get together, not a wedding. After finishing the food I dumped my plate into one of the many huge buckets that had been put out to collect cutlery and we made our way over to meet the bride and the groom. I had spoken to Micky on the way and he told me that this was an arranged marriage by their parents, who also paid for this occasion...on average about 1 million Indian rupees, or £10,000 for a wedding of this scale. We waited in a queue to meet the bride and groom, got a picture with them, said our congratulations, got a sweet as hell coffee (Tom got 3 for him and had mine too!) and were back in the TukTuk on our way back to the hostel. The journey back was equally rough but we got back at around 11:30, where we made my way straight to bed having ticked off one more thing from the bucket list.Read more