Pushing for the Goal

Day 405
I was exhausted when I arrived in Jodhpur. I had about 3 hours to kill in the station and I took a piece of floor just like everyone else. Only I think that many of them might have been living there. Every few minutes the same kid would come around and try to sell me toenail clippers. How many times do I have to say no? Other people brought their kids over to try and get me to give them money. I was really happy when it was time for me to get on the train. I had a sleeper and passed out as soon as I got on.

I woke up when I was in Ajmer. The touts were crazy and I hardly ever decided to go with one, however one guy's hotel had a mention in a guidebook that I had heard of and he would pay and take me all the way to Pushkar so I went ahead with him. After a short tuk tuk ride and then a bus ride where a few kids were made to stand up to give me their seats (I felt bad), I had arrived. The walk to the hotel was short but I had a lot of stuff so I decided to just get a cyclo. The hotel guy said it would be 20 rupees so I hopped in. About half way there the cyclo wallah told me that it would be 200 rupees because I was so heavy, I told him no way. When I got to the hotel the tout who had got me there told me not to give him any more than 20 so that's what I did.

After showering and resting a bit I headed out for some food, I hadn't eaten yet that day. I had some problems because this is just little desert outpost town. Eventually I found a nice cafe though and ended up chatting to some English girls. They told me that the people who owned their hotel had a pet cow and that it went on a date the other night, even kissing the other cow goodnight at the gate. Just as this was happening a motorbike hit a western woman from behind. She ended up on the ground crying. I tried to grab my pen to write down the license plate number, but he just drove off, I don't even think he bothered to apologize.

After lunch I wandered to the Braman temple, but there were so many touts just walking up to it that I just turned around and gave up. I didn't want to fight through them all. Pushkar is known for that temple, a few ghats, cheap clothing and weed. On the way back to my hotel I found some cheap clothing, but decided against the weed. While I was wandering four sari clad woman surrounded me and asked what my "good" name was. They were standing so close I thought that it was the sari mafia or something. One of them then grabbed my hand and tried to draw henna on me. I knew that this had to be a scam so I pulled my hand away and told her that I already had enough. Luckily they were small women and I could easily push through them.

Before heading back to my hotel I grabbed a chai and wrote in my journal for some time. I then headed to an internet cafe to work on updating everything. I am so determined to not get too far behind here! After a few hours of that I headed back to my hotel.

When it grew dark I headed out for dinner and ended up with some street falafel, it was pretty good. I was tired and decided to call it an early night. This is meant ot be a dry town anyway!