life in pushkar

...is really chilled and relaxed. moved to a different hotel yesterday, the milkman. love the owner, particually the daugther, who is a painter (she will have an opening at a gallery next week, i think, i'll go). lots of travellers just stay in pushkar for weeks (most of the people in my hotel do). so we hang out on the roof top, read, play cards. drink chai, eat delicious food.
pushkar is a little village, located at a holy lake, we people travel to in order to bath in the water and do puja (prayer, religious rituals...involving some offerings of insence, flowers, food...). it seems to be a favourite among travellers, loads of hippies here. drugs are big here, everyone seems to smoke up.
officially this is a holy place where you are not even supposed to smoke in the streets, but cigarettes (and hash) are sold everywhere. also no eggs, no meat and no alcohol in this town and these rules are follwed strictly, as far as i can tell. additionally the public display of affection is frowned upon.
my life here: in the mornings i am going to a yaoga class. a 60 year old guru teaches us, he is wonderful. then i usually go to breakfast to a place called HONEY&SPICE..best tofu toasts and fruit salad in town. meet the same people there every day. love my little routines.
the rest of the day is filled with reading, shopping, emailing, playing cards and other fun things.
the first days here i spent with a british guy-phil. he was so much fun and for 3 days we spent almost every minute together. we talked a lot about music and traveling, food, life, religion...he convinced me to go on a camal safari and he came along to the yoga session (and loved it)...when he left town yesterday we both felt odd. i guess friendships develop fast if you spent three, very intense days together. i really miss his company.
the camal safari: let me tell you, a camal is so uncomfortable to sit on- you hurt for 3 days afterwards. we were so glad that we decided for the one day tour instead of 2 days (at first phil wanted to sleep in the dessert)....the tour was still nice, except maybe the way back. we had lunch cooked on a little fire in the middle of nowhere...the best food so far!!!
yesterday i got baptized an indian name: sapnaa (meaning dream in hindi). phil and i went down to sit at the ghats (steps that lead to the lake) and a man started talking to us. turns out that he is a prefessor in ajmer (city close by) and speaks good english. he gave both of us indian names and then he took us to see a wedding. apparently yesterday was a special day so 5 couples decided to get married...the wedding parties march through the streets, flower pedals are thrown, a big bands plays and people dance madly in the streets...much fun.
later on we went to feed the monkeys: they are spoiled little animals, but cute.
om shanti from pushkar to you!