"Ajmer, Ajmer. Get off. Get off!"

We are now in the holy town of Pushkar. We arrived early this morning after a truly whacky bus ride from Mt. Abu, which began at 7pm last night and which ended at 5am this morning with someone shouting out: "Ajmer, Ajmer. Get off, get off."

As I mentioned in my last post we booked a 'sleeper' compartment. This turned to be a little sleeping area, the size of a small double bed above the regular bus seats. At first the bus was about two-thirds full but we picked up people fairly regularly and in no time not only was the bus packed to capacity but there was no longer any more space on the floor. This was filled by people sleeping and sitting anywhere and everywhere, alongside a mountain of luggage and sacks of goods. It was a quite a sight! We had our backpacks in our 'loft' space so we were huddled together as the bus bounced around. I was near the edge of our compartment and when ever the bus swerved or made a turn I felt myself slipping towards the edge. This combined with the continual bouncing about (the Indian concept of a highway is not quite in tune with the Western one) which made it feel like we were doing the Paris to Dakar rally made sleep a little hard to come by.

And the fun didn't end with this bus ride. We had been somewhat duped by the guy who sold us the tickets in Mt Abu, since the bus stopped 10km out of Ajmer on the side of the highway. From here we had to get an auto-rickshaw to the government bus station and wait for the connecting bus to Pushkar. It was pretty cold at 6am but we sipped little cups of Chai alongside the locals, the homeless wrapped up in their blankets, and stray dogs until the bus left.

En route, the bus driver (red turban, huge twirly moustache) stopped the bus (full to capacity) to feed a troop of black-faced monkeys stale chapati breads. The monkeys jumped up to the bus window and literally grabbed the breads out of the bus drivers hands. One of those moments that you truly only experience in India.

We arrived in Pushkar exhausted and after breakfast we napped most of the morning. The town is built around a lake surrounded by temples and is considered one of the holiest sites for Hindus in all of India. It is also where Ghandi's ashes were scattered. We had a wonderful walk around the lake this afternoon, where we watched a huge troop of monkeys playing. We took in the serene lake, temples and hills in the distance as the sun set. For some reason Pushkar is some sort of a Mecca for Israelis and most of the restaurants have signs in Hebrew. Tomorrow we'll explore the temples, backstreets and cafes.