Only in Pushkar...!

You'll have to enlarge it to see why.

We slept in one of the most shockingly horrid little hotels that I've ever been in. The wide marble staircase belied the state upstairs for it led up to gloomy passageways with paint and plaster fallen off and rooms with one little light, rock hard bed, taps and flush that didn't work, grubby looking sheet and no towel. I couldn't ask Yussef to drive any further for he had done nearly 400k to get us there and for the price of £2 it had to be born. However tonight I have insisted on a better place and it is costing £12 and the bed is softer if not soft!

The journey to Pushkar was much shorter today – we only saw two dead dogs but the previous two day's counts were 7 and 8 which is extraordinary as we saw very few stray/wild dogs on the roads compared to the thousands you see in the towns. I suppose the latter must be more canny.

We saw a tractor load of chaff that had turned over on a bank beside the road – the tractor was in a bad state but the men who'd been on board were sitting quietly on the other side of the road awaiting recovery. About 200 bee hives were in a field surrounded by acres of yellow flowered mustard plants but the boys tending them only had on face nets and wore no gloves. Eagle eyes Yussef pointed out peacocks hidden in hedges, chinkara camouflaged in undergrowth, bar headed geese at a pond, flamingoes in a field where they shouldn't have been and generally made the journey fascinating again. We cruised through one small town looking at all the businesses being carried on beside the road and several times I got called in to meet all of the family in the various places we found for I think not many westerners are seen there so I was a bit of a novelty.

We arrived in Pushkar where it was cloudy but still warm and walked down through all the colourful tourist shops to the ghats around the sacred waters where we recited the local mantra 'slowly, slowly we'll make you holy' but it doesn't seem to have taken hold. Here is the only Temple to Brahma in India and an extremely sacred pilgrimage place but it is also occupied by many long term westerners/hippies who are here for yoga and/or chilling out with the drugs that are freely available. On my way up to the Brahma Temple I was shouted at by the guard for having a camera hung round my neck – NO CAMERA he roared. Mortified that I hadn't read the notice I took it back down to Yussef who couldn't come in but as I looked around the temple the Indian faithful were snapping their way around with phones, tablets and cameras and posing their families in the most blatant way... 'if you know the rules they are easy to break' says Yussef.

more if you have the energy!