Monday, December 25, 2006

The Pushkar Trip!



I think it was awaited for long. The update for our trip to Pushkar. It was supposedly my first trip from GL along with my colleagues from the office. To make the matters more complicated, it was a trip with 11 foreigners and two Indians that is me and DJ. Everything started as per plan and we left in two cabs, one Qualis and another Scorpio. I along with Chie, Lynn, Vanessa, Lucie, John and Tatjana in Qualis, whereas DJ with Collin, Wagner, Annabel, Anne-Solene and Mai in Scorpio. It was around 22:45 hrs when we started from our office site on Friday, the 3rd of the month November.
All through the way, we had a journey full of talking, especially for me. As in the beginning, it was discussion with the Asia team and then it was chatting with the driver, just in order to prevent him from dozing off. Yeah, we had tea at various junctions on the way and also we did stop for smoking or taking a leak break. But eventually by 5:30 hrs on Saturday, the 4th, we had crossed Ajmer and we stopped on one of the plateau pass to have a glimpse of the sunrise.
We waited for half and hour and God! What a beautiful sight it was. With the orb of the day, we felt a new sense of energy flowing in us. Some of us like John and me went for some small time trekking, followed by Chie, Lucie and then Collin. We were about to start when we saw a big gang of monkeys coming down from some cave from the hill top. We moved without a delay.
On reaching Pushkar, we though took some time settling with luggage and accommodation, but we found a real nice place for food. It was just an economical restaurant with breakfast like pancakes and porridge on the menu. I think we had a full breakfast, which made me start dozing. After that everyone, except me, DJ and Annabel left for a camel ride. After saying them bye, all three of us went for some sand dune hunt. It was marvelous, the beauty of the place around, it seemed like we are onto the sets of some Western Hollywood movie and out of nowhere, Clint Eastwood will drop in saying hello with bang! bang!
It was a wild hunt as we found some strange looking fruits and vegetables among the shrubs. I feel sad for Anna as she was in floaters and had tough time walking in sand, though being a brave girl, she never complained. After wandering around that place for an hour or so, we were back to our small and dingy room, we had rented to keep luggage and spent some time plucking thorns from our trousers. As soon as I lay on bed, I slept. I think I had slept for a while and then suddenly we woke up and moved to see the market, the lake and the temple. The market, the lake, every place was crowded. Damn crowded! And while returning we were lucky, we bumped with the Camel Trip gang. They were escorted by some local guy from there, pretending to a guide and when I asked him to leave from there as I can take care of the team; he tried to get rough with me. Although, he realized soon, that we were one team, he went away. Later, we visited the lake again and some of us offered prayers in the lake too.
God! We were hungry and Tatjana was missing! We went on for her search and finally DJ found her. We all started returning and when we were back in the restaurant in half an hour, we were squeezed. We had almost all the Italian menu on the table, with some confusion of pasta, macroni and penni on the plate. But then, it was all fun. While the rest of the crew was cruising on the ship of the desert, they also found Mr. Marc Pickering, who had arrived after a long and gruesome bus journey. So, now the team of fourteen people decided to go to Gayatri Temple on the hill top. We walked hell lot, climbed like mountaineers and went to the Gayatri Temple. I could see the entire beautiful town from the hill top and it was one of the most beautiful sites I could imagine.
After climbing down, it was dusk and some of us again went for camel fair, while some left for watching circus or taking a ride on giant wheel. I went along with Anna, Mai and Anne-Solene for a giant wheel ride. That sent me nostalgic. I was on giant wheel after God knows, how many years and that gave me most cherishing memories of times. After that we started moving for our hotel and in the process, lost our way and then found it back. But the return walk ended on a bad note with DJ getting rough with some local lad, who was constantly passing comments on Anna, Mai and Anne-Solene. Anyways, we were back in the restaurant and after a long dinner on the table, we all started to pack up back. Everyone arrived and had their dinner. Later, we all waited for Marc till half past ten when he just called back to say he wont be coming and there, we were off for home!
All night drive again. All tired and exhausted after a wonderful and memorable trip.