delhi to pushkar
We head out early in the morning for our tour of Rajasthan. Our first stop will be Pushkar , just down the road from Pullkar…HAHAH…oh ok I’m the only one that finds that funny, FINE.
The drive before lunch is fairly scenic – it’s so nice to get out of cities and see green fields and blue skies again.
We stop for lunch at a small place with a lovely back garden, where we eat and wonder why a group of young men are shooting BB guns and hope they’re not killing the pigeons (we thought it was chicken…)
After lunch the scenery becomes more amazing. Green, green fields everywhere you look. There is low level fog, or smoke, creating a hazy look in the distance, by the trees. Amidst the green are splashes of the brightest, most amazingly beautiful colours…women in the fields in their saris of a chiffon-like material…fuchsia, saffron, purple. Such a lovely contrast with the bright green of the fields. There are also fields and fields of yellow flowering plants. Our driver, Lucky, says they are for canola oil.
Men walk by dressed in their white robes and huge turbans…not Sikh turbans, but wider, lower and of the same gorgeous colours as the saris. Some men lead herds of cows down the street. The cows have painted horns: striped, solid, decorated; flowers around their necks. They look calmly over at us in the car – so serene, these cows.
More men lead groups of camels (camels!) decorated with bells and coloured fabrics. They have shapes and symbols shaved into their sides (including the swastika, which is seen a lot here, being a Hindi good luck symbol). The camels and cows walk very, very slowly.
Men not leading animals are seen on carts, pulled by camels. Sometimes they are alone, sometimes a group of people sit in the back, facing me as we pull by them. Eight or nine women in different coloured robes, a pack of kids, a group of men – who all, of course, stare as we pass.
There is always something to see and be amazed by. I feel like I’m living in the pages of a National Geographic magazine. I can’t get over the amazingly vibrant and gorgeous colours spread out around me.
We drive further and the scenery changes…now it’s desert-ish. Brown hills, big palm trees. Big, rocky hills with forts built at their very peak. We decide this area looks like a cross between Kamloops and Afganistan, and Jeff and I laugh because we both think the same thing at the same time: that Osama is going to jump out from behind a rock at any minute.
When we finally arrive in Pushkar, it is nearly dark. A long day’s drive, but such a beautiful, beautiful one.
[...] Serene cows [...]