Pushkar to Bikaner and Planning

All in all we've had a relaxing time in Pushkar despite our run-in with the local clerical representatives. Augie was loathe to eat anything unfamiliar following his recent bouts with stomach issues. This led to finding a really nice café overlooking the lake and a pizza joint with good reviews. Pushkar is definitely on the Amereuro Hippie Seeker Circuit. The day before yesterday we sat at the café listening to a fifty year old self-made guru/psychedelic consultant/film maker, drone on about pretty much anything, everything and mainly himself to a rapt audience of the weak minded at the table next to us for several hours.

We've been doing some gift shopping in order to send some items back to Santa Cruz with Augie rather than toting them around for the next month. Nancy's been doing the haggling. Been getting pretty good at it. Firmly stating "Unhand me Sir!" when the negotiations got heated and she was manhandled while preparing to take her business elsewhere. At this point I pulled the amount we were willing to pay out of my pocket and told the gentleman that he had a choice. I could hand it to him or to my wife waiting outside in the street. This seemed to work although he then proceeded to reprimand us for 'joking around' and threw the bag of goods on the table when he'd finished wrapping them up. Bollywood. Such a dramatic hustle here.

Our friends Scott and Suzanne, from the South India Intrepid trip, are currently here in town. We met them yesterday for breakfast. Turns out they will overlap with Augie in Hong Kong for a few hours. Augie's going to bring them into the private lounge on his Priority Pass as guests during their wait. Pretty cool.

In the afternoon we hiked up a nearby peak to a temple overlooking the city and surrounding countryside. Nancy befriended a ten year old girl from Jaipur on the way up. They compared school uniform colors, monkeys, and 'real' grandmothers (paternal) vs. the unreal (maternal). They also both found their brothers to be annoying at times at that age. This place is big on camel safaris and I took the shot of the camp from the summit with my telephoto.

Planning. Augie left for his 48 hour marathon of travel this morning. He seemed very happy and ready to go. Visions of burritos and barbecue dancing in his head. We're sad to see him go. He helped us book some flights and cement in a loose schedule for the rest of our time here. For the next ten days we continue to loop around Rajasthan, then catch a flight to Varanasi. After four days in the Holy city we catch a flight to Amritsar, the holy city for the Sikhs. We'll then make our way across the foothills of the Himalayas and fly out of Chandigarh for Delhi before flying home in early February.

Once again it could be interesting.Read more