On the third day of our Rajasthan trip, we found ourselves in the small desert town of Pushkar, where we spent nearly 3 days. And I must say that nothing had prepared us for what to expect in this visit. For starters, this town is very very small (you can walk from one corner to the other numerous times in a day), its full of temples (every building is either a temple or every house has a temple), has more foreigners than Indians, is brimming with every possible color, is very cheap for everything and all food here is fully vegetarian (non-vegetarian food and alcohol is prohibited here). Though this place is more famous for the Pushkar fair, we decided to visit it before the fair to just get an actual flavor and feel of this town. And I must say, we loved this place.
In Pushkar there is just one main road which is full of shops, eataries and temples. One side of this road are ghats and the Pushkar Lake while on the other side you have the small by-lanes with shops, houses and more temples. The town is so small that you can cover it several times in the day and all on foot. Also, you will notice that there are more tourists than locals and only two kinds of tourists – Indian pilgrims or foreign backpackers. Because of all the international tourists everyone here speaks english and all internal cuisines are available. In fact the food here was so amazing that I’ll write a separate post on it.
While there is nothing per se to see here, there is a world here to experience. So here’s my experience of Pushkar in pictures –
Must See and Do in Pushkar –
- Walk around aimlessly checking out the local shops and temples. There are loads of beautiful hidden knick-knacks and temples, so feel free to explore.
- Visit the Brahma temple but do note that they do not allow camera and purses inside the temple.
- Visit any of the numerous ghats during the day to watch people and activity around and sit by the ghats in the evening to feel the solitude and calm of the Lake.
- You can also hike up a hill and visit the Savitri temple and a few small temples around it.
- And lastly, no matter how many times you walk up a lane here you will always find some new things /sights each time.
Thank you for sharing pictures
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You are welcome and I hope you liked them 🙂
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We didn’t make it to Pushkar during our India travels. It’s so interesting to me that you enjoyed all the foreign backpackers there. As a foreign backpacker myself, I prefer more local places! Towns overrun with tourists usually means higher prices and lots of hassles for us. Perspective is such an interesting thing, eh? 🙂
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I so agree with you… Also you get a better feel and flavor of a country when you visit such small towns…
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I have just come back from India and Rajasthan 🙂 Nice post!
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Thanks Jenny.. Did you get a chance to visit Pushkar?
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yes I did 🙂 Check out my last post…more will come!
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Hey, please share your blog address… I cant see the link on the comments…
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ynnej1976.wordpress.com
🙂
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Thanks… will check it out… 🙂
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How apropos to see this after having just watched “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”. I must go back to India and go to some places did not before, e.g. Rajasthan, the hill country, Punjab.
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Hey Juliana… These places definitely deserve a visit… 🙂
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What vibrant colour every where
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Yes, it was an extremely colorful and an amazing place… I was not allowed to photograph inside the temples but they were fascinating too…
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I loved he colours of Rajasthan when I was there in 1986
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It is said that people in Rajasthan have a lot of color in everything because the landscape all around them in a barren desert and deviod of any color… Hence their clothes, house etc all have a lot of color 🙂
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It certainly does brighten up the landscape
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Love those bags and door knops!! I actually love indian gimmicks and all the colourful cuties. What a lovely small town. Is it save to wander yourself since it’s a touristic place? Usually lots of tourist places got lots of pickpockets…
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I loved them too and bought some for my house…. It is extremely safe to wander around in Rajasthan and we were just 2 girls travelling by ourselves here…. to avoid pickpockets we keep our money in really inner pockets of the bags, use sling bags and always take care of our stuff… But we do this no matter where we travel to…
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The place and fair is so colourful and vibrant. Nice shots.
http://www.rajniranjandas.blogspot.in
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Thanks… This place is a photographers delight 🙂
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Nice photos and tips! I will definitely head there when I get to India!
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This place is a complete must visit when you are in India next… 🙂
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Fantastic! The throbbing life in all these fairs and Melas are so intoxicating. I’ve this ultimate dream of visiting each city/town at the time of it’s carnival/festival etc. Crazy but I guess I’ll have to wait till the kids have grown up a bit!
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Hey Ishita. I know what you are saying. I repeatedly think about quitting my job and living like a nomad through these cities, towns and fairs. 🙂
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