totallygone

travel, at a tangent


Bewitched! (but not bewildered)

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, and it's taken a few days just to write this. If you're wondering why, the answer's simple. Sheer laziness.

I've finally managed to escape the seductive embrace of the hammock on the roof of my guesthouse, the Shanti Palace, where time moves with all the swiftness of cold honey from a spoon. Welcome to Pushkar, the Town that Time Forgot. I've been here ten days since leaving Jaipur, and it seems as though I've been here both forever and for just a day. Know what I mean?

Drowning in Honey
Pushkar and I can be found somewhere in the Thar Desert beside a lake that, according to legend, sprang miraculously from the sands where Brahma, the Creator, dropped a lotus flower. Pushkar is described by the Lonely Planet as a "bewitching little town," and rightly so. I'm bewitched!. My day here is entirely slothful. After having breakfasted on quite the most delicious banana and feather-light pancake (made without eggs), drizzled with lemon juice and a smudge of honey, chased down with fresh apple and cinnamon tea (also with honey), I'll spend an hour or so recovering in the hammock, or maybe on one of the rooftops (there are two, both with a view that includes the tiny (5 km sq.) town and the surrounding mountains, Savitri, Gayatri (named for Brahma's two wives) and Nagh Pahar, the Snake Mountain, shaped like the hooded head of a king cobra. It gets hotter here by the day; although Pushkar is an oasis - with all the usual sights; palm trees, camels, men in huge turbans, horizons blurred by the hot air, strains of sitar music drifting through the bazaar - the desert heat is starting to move in, with the temperature climbing by one degree celsius per day. Yahoo reports local weather as "abundant sunshine with a high of 78F". Noon is high. Humidity is fairly low already; the air is dry and one loses water just through breathing. Nights are cool, but this will change in the coming weeks as the desert surrenders to sun's terrifying heat. Shyam, one of the three brother who run the Shanti Palace, describes the summer months as tandoori chapatti hot, with temperatures soaring into the 50s (C), and not an air-conditioner for MILES. Nothing happens here at all in those months - they just lie around in a torpor induced by heat and charis, waiting for the rain. Fortunately, there's plenty to drink. Pushkar is a holy place, where a diet sans meat, fish, eggs, or alcohol is observed. Consequently the animals, living entirely without fear, are extremely friendly. Cows and water buffalo amble through the bazaar, munching on the occasional bundle of incense neglected by a careless stallholder. At sunset, when Hindus and sadhus bathe and make puja by the enchanted lake, fish leap from its surface, providing a welcome snack for the thousands of migratory birds that pause here on their trip across the subcontinent. If I'm not careful, I'll not leave here before they do. However, Bikaner beckons, with its rat temple and camel safaris. More later...


Social Bookmarking
Add to: Digg Add to: Del.icio.us Add to: Reddit Add to: StumbleUpon Add to: Furl Add to: Yahoo Add to: Google Add to: Technorati


0 Responses to “Bewitched! (but not bewildered)”

Post a Comment §


archives

geek stuff

    mots du jour

Locations of visitors to this page


gecko & fly templates



© 2006 totallygone | Blogger Templates by Gecko & Fly No part of the content or the blog may be reproduced without prior written permission.