Pushkar

We were in Seventh Heaven in Pushkar- literally, as that is the name of the converted haveli that we stayed in. Rose petals were strewn around the marble fountain in the courtyard and on ledges and windowsills. Food was delivered to the rooftop restaurant via a basketwork-pulley arrangement which seemed to work well.

Another of the many hotels is called Pink Floyd- yes, this place is on the hippie trail all right. Apparently Bruce Chatwin "holed up" in a hotel near here to write one of his books- I used the quotation marks because, despite the numerous tourists, a foreigner would not go sufficiently unnoticed to gain that much seclusion. But this would be a place where you could come and write peacefully- except during the camel fair and religious fair, when apparently 200,000 people come here and camp.
Pushkar is reached over a winding, rocky hill road called the Snake Mountain, which has plenty of sharp bends on which to overtake trucks, buses, motorbikes and camel carts. Our taxi driver, Ravi is a pretty cautious driver compared to the average Indian road merchant but even he seems plenty daring to me. Heart occasionally in mouth and slight concern about whether Indian version of WOF (MOT) involves checking brakes.

The town is supposed to surround a lake, but we couldn't find it when we set out on foot. What we did find was temples- there is a gold-plated temple to Brahma-, cows, cow flops and the usual merchants trying to inveigle us into their shops. Far too many of these guys address me as "auntie" - although this is a term of fond respect in India, it is disconcerting to acquire many, many Indian nephews of all shapes, sizes and states of dentition.

The next morning, Ravi took us to the lake on our way out of town, after too brief an overnight visit. Part of the reason the lake may have eluded us is that it is quite small, although in the early morning sunlight it was golden and peaceful, with only a handful of people diligently lathering themselves at the bathing ghats which surround it.

Yes, this is a place I would come back to, a place to chill out and drink mango lassi on the roof of the seventh heaven...