Holy town of Pushkar

Arrived in Pushkar at night and found a funky restaurant called Sunset Point right at lake's edge where they were playing awesome chilled music. There were people juggling and spinning poi on the ghats nearby. I sat down with a group of 6 Quebecois (one who had been living in Pushkar for 20 years) and tried out a little of my rusty French language skills. Most of the tourists in this small town were young Israeli backpackers and the computers in the internet cafes had hebrew keyboards. Bhang lassis (made from a derivative of marijuana) were openly offered to anyone walking down the main street. A strange contradiction in a very holy place.

Pushkar has hundreds of temples. The most famous is the Brahma Temple which is painted a deep orange colour. There are 52 ghats surrounding the lake where pilgrims bathe in the sacred waters. One of these ghats is where Gandhi's ashes were sprinkled.

While walking along these ghats, aggressive priests approach you to offer to do a puja (prayer) for which you'll recieve a red ribbon around your wrist known as the "Pushkar Passport". Once you have the ribbon you won't get bothered again.