The beauty of Pushkar

When considering going to India, there are so many choices of what to do: East coast, West coast, northern mountains, beach, city, tea plantations, desert. It’s hard to know where to start if you only have a small amount of time there, and finding an accessible destination whilst not being completely surrounded by tourists (Baga beach is a hotspot for finding some rather large, sunburnt Europeans) may seem rather daunting.

My friend and I made a rather spontaneous decision to go to Pushkar after the dust of Jaipur became too much to handle. Having stayed with various family friends for the first two weeks of our trip, we were finally on our own, staying in a somewhat dodgy hostel with chipped mosaic on the floor, and loving it. There’s nothing like finding a cockroach in the bathroom to make one feel independent! But city life wasn’t quite living up to its reputation, so after a two hour train journey and a twenty minute bus ride through a mountain pass along a treacherously winding road, we came to Pushkar. One of the oldest cities in India, it is in the centre of the desert state of Rajasthan, and the ghats around Pushkar lake attract pilgrims from all over the country.

It’s not exactly off the beaten track: aside from the pilgrims, the camel fair in November and December pulls in plenty of tourists, and the locals aren’t above trying you out of your money. But, unless you’re a seasoned traveller looking for something totally remote, the charms of Pushkar aren’t hard to find. The city is small, more like a town, and easy to walk around in a day. In the city centre tuk-tuks and cars can be found, but most people are on foot, with the occasional bicycle careering around the corners. Streets lined with close-set buildings advertising internet cafes, hostels and restaurants within their dusty white walls open up onto wider roads, on which locals sell their goods, making Pushkar feel, at times, like a huge market. Jewellery, clothes and food are abundant, turning a quick exploration of the city centre into a day long experience.

Head down to the lake for a more serene experience; for a small price you can say a blessing, but at sunset it’s a beautiful place to simply take in the view of the surrounding hills. Continuing on the spiritual tack, Pushkar is home to so many temples that it would be hard to find the time to see them all, but a must-see is the Savitri Temple, on top of Ratnagiri hill. At night the path up to the summit is lined with lights enabling a cooler visit, or walk up before dawn to watch the sunrise.

One of the big upsides to Pushkar becoming more popular as a tourist destination is the hostel scene, with accommodation for all budgets. Whilst there are the more luxury hotels, we stayed at The Milkman, whose decently-priced rooms are often spurned by guests when they discover the opportunity to sleep on the camp beds under the canopy of the roof garden for £1.40 per night. Most hostels offer a range of activities at competitive prices, from bicycle hire to a seven day camel trek in the desert.

I could go on. It’s safe to say that, with its’ eclectic mixture of locals, pilgrims, backpackers and long-time devotees, its’ beautiful temples and landscapes, and the feeling that nothing could go wrong, I fell very much in love with Pushkar. It was the one place in four months of travelling that I felt most at home, whilst being able to immerse myself in the culture of such a special place, and I hope to return. In fact, if I could only go to one place in India, I would choose it over trying somewhere new, in the hope that I have discovered only tiny fraction of what it has to offer.

All photos by Serena Rudge. Click on picture for larger image.

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