Rajasthan Trip 2006
At Ajmer we got down and in the train we
had decided that we would go to Pushkar straight away. So after getting down at
Ajmer, we boarded a Mi9nidor auto and got down at Agra gate. He charged us Rs 3
each from there. One man guided us to a place where buses to Pushkar are
available. It was a walking distance and the bus was waiting. It was an empty
bus but got full in 5 mins. The bus started immediately after it was full. The
way to Pushkar was through a hill and the way through was like a serpent,
therefore the mountain is called as ‘Nag pahad’ which means snake mountain. It
was a half an hour journey and on the way we saw a lot of langoors. We reached
at Pushkar, and bus stand is far away from the town. After getting down from
bus, i called a few hotels and finally decided to stay in Paramount
Palace. It was a good place and had a
good view to the lake. Our room had a lovely balcony from where we had a
beautiful view of whole of Pushkar. Immediately after checking in we went for a
stroll in the market of Pushkar. We roamed around and went to a few temples.
Since it was a Laxmi poojan Day (21st of October 2006), all the
temples were beautifully lit by Diyas. Most of the people were performing pooja’s
in their shops and they were using sugarcanes for performing pooja. Three
sugarcanes were tied together to make a pyramid like shape and pooja was
performed. We went to Rangnathji temple which is the temple of Vishnu and it
showed two women on his sides. On enquiring with the poojary, he told that one
was Laxmi and the other was Prithvi, the earth. Palkhi was taken out, with the
god in the palki, on that day. And every one was in very joyous mood. Food was
a big problem in Pushkar as many hotels were closed due to Diwali and finally
we had to eat at the hotel opposite the Brahma Temple. The food was expensive
and substandard. Afettr having food, we
went to our room and slept.
22nd October 2006
Next day we got up at 5 am and went to
Brahma ghat. There I took bath and sprinkled water on Sakhi, Tanvi and Vidya as
they didn’t want to take bath. We recited the Morning Prayer at Brahma temple
and then went behind the temple. There were lot of peacocks and we were
pleasantly surprised but before we could take photos they ran away. Then we
stayed there for almost half an hour and could not take a photo of
peacock. But I took the photos of the
sunrise and the photos of Savitri which was on the top of the hill. This Brahma
temple is unique as it is said to be the only Brahma temple in the world. This story
goes like this. Lord Brahma came to Pushkar and found this place to be very
holy. So he decides to perform a Yagna here. But since his wife Savitri was not
here, he married to Gayatri and performed Yagna. But when his wife Savitri
came,. She came to know of what had happened. She cursed Brahma, that no where
else will Brahma be worshipped and therefore this is the only Brahma
temple. Then we had breakfast at roadside vendor and then we went back to our
room. When we came back at around 10AM we went back to grounds at Pushkar fairs.
It was 10 mins walk from the room. The reaching the ground we saw lot of
camels. Everybody insisted that we have a camel ride, so we paid Rs 100 each
and hired 2 camels. On one camel Vidya and Sakhi were sitting and on one Tanvi
and myself were there. We took a round of the fairground which took an hour. It
was a wonderful experience which had to be experienced to know the form of it.
On coming back we went straight to our room and picked our bag. It was almost
11 am when we were going to bus stand, we saw Hotel Garden view. We inquired
about the lunch and they said that it was ready. So we went there and had a
nice lunch. Then we got into the bus for Ajmer. On getting down at Ajmer, we
walked all the way to Durgah. Our bags were really heavy, so on the way, in one
of the shops, we kept our bags. He was a utensil vendor and was a real
gentleman. He readily accepted to keep our luggage. We kept luggage inside his
shop and went to the Durgah. We reached the Durgah at 2.30pm, but it was closed.
It is closed from 2.30 to 3.30pm. We bowed from outside and the proceeded to
see the Adhai Din Ka Jhopda. It was a wonderful site to see. It was a Sanskrit
college which was plundered by Mohd. Ghori in 1198 and was converted into a
mosque. On coming back we took our
belonging from the shop, thanked him profusely and proceeded to the station. We
took a cycle rickshaw to the station, and he dropped us at the station. The
train was scheduled to leave Ajmer at 4.20pm. so we were at the station well in
time. The train was late by 15 mins but when the train arrived it was
completely empty. We went to the seat that we had reserved and Sakhi and Tanvi
started playing. We reached Jaipur at around 7.30pm. on reaching Jaipur I
called up Karni Niwas. He picked us up from the station, but we were not happy
with the rooms. So we said we will see other Hotels also, and so we went to
Jwala Guest House. He was a thorough gentleman and gave us some very useful
tips. We got a room at Rs 500 per night. It was an AC room and a good one. Some
of the tips that Mr Shekhawat gave, was not to buy anything from Jaipur.
Everyone will try to take you to a shop and will make you buy some exquisite
item, but he said that anyone who takes tourist to this shop are paid 20% of
the sale proceeds. Hence he told to be very careful about this one thing. Then
we told him to arrange for hot water for bath. Then we had our bath and went to
Hotel Mohan. It was a good hotel which served good delicious meals. We had our stomach
full here, then went to our rooms, started the A/C and went to sleep.
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