Today was a shopping day!!! We started off at 8am with a tour – that sucked. It was definitely the worst one yet, but that was kind of to be expected. There isn’t much to see in Pushkar – pretty much only the Brahma temple and the lake! We walked down to the Brahma temple with the guide, taking massive amounts of pictures en route. The morning is definitely the best time for pictures.
At the temple, we had to leave our shoes, and all of our belongings, so dad stayed outside with all of our stuff, since there was really nowhere to leave it. We got our hands washed with rose water and headed up the (left-hand side) stairs. Inside was the bell to let the Gods know that you are there and a statue of Brahma in a shrine. Brahma is the creator. He has four heads; one on the back and three on the front. He rides a swan. As the story goes, he was down at the lake to perform a yagna (self-mortification), and when his wife didn’t attend, he married another woman on a whim. This second wife is nearby the Brahma shrine. A temple dedicated to her is atop the smaller of the two hills around Pushkar. Savitri is Brahma’s first wife, and when she found out that he married another woman, was very angry and said that he would never be worshiped anywhere in the world. That is why this Brahma temple is (technically) the only one in the entire world – which makes it that much more important for Hindus.
Our tour pretty much ended there, so we said good-bye to our guide and started our shopping!! Bargaining was tough, especially the more tired I got, and I definitely just gave up a couple of times and paid them what they were asking. It gets difficult to even try when you know it is an argument over 1$ or less (that is even coming from me, where I pick up pennies and dimes!). Allison and I did some serious silver shopping (I think she could probably open up a shop now), and I bought another scarf, a bag, some presents...all good stuff! My duffle bag is starting to fill up!!
After a few hours of exhausting shopping (‘cause it definitely is here), we went back to the hotel to chill for a while. I wanted ice cream and apple pie for lunch from the cafe place next door, so we went over there to take lunch to go. However, they didn’t make the apple pie anymore, which crushed me! And, they have a difficult time with the timing of the food – so by the time dad and Allison got their food, I had completely eaten and paid for my ice cream! Oh well, it was good!!
Around 5pm, we headed out again to go back to one of the silver shops where all of us had purchased something! The guy there owned a sewing factory upstairs from the store and wanted to show us!! We climbed up the stairs (stained red in the corners from spitting their betel chew), and were in a sewing room where about 150 people worked at a time. The massive quantities of fabrics and threads was mind-boggling. The brothers/family who own the shop (and two others, plus a silver shop) make clothes for Western countries. They did both their own designs as well as the designs of designers from Western countries. The pattern that they were just finishing up with was actually being sent to Vancouver! The label was Chai Designs (www.chaidesigns.com). It was really interesting to see where a large majority of our clothes come from. They then took us to their clothing shop in town, as we had only visited their silver shop. The stuff there was definitely more western than it was Indian, and there were designers/purchasers/people from Spain in there dressing up mannequins and taking pictures of the clothes! I didn’t end up buying anything, mostly because it was just like the stuff at home!! It was definitely the highlight of the day, however. I like being able to see behind the scenes...it makes me appreciate what I have, what I use, and what I buy just that much more.
Another highlight was just before lunch when Allison and I were heading back towards the hotel. There were some monkeys on top of a building in the street that I went to go take pictures of, and there turned out to be about 50-60 monkeys! The locals were scaring them off with sticks, and the monkeys were jumping from one rooftop, across the electrical wires to the other side of the street! They were screeching and running all over the place. Some even jumped from the top of the domed roof to the street below and scampered up and over the other side...it was amazing! I was really happy that I was there to witness the craziness!!
Dinner was humorous, too. We all ordered, and only Scott’s dinner came...and then Dad’s dal came...but the rest of us, who ordered pizzas had over an hour of waiting before our dinners came! I was quite hungry by that time!!! Our waiter was great, but it was still a long time to wait for food – and the timing thing is just weird. I guess, however, that it is much better to eat the food while it is hot, rather than wait for all of them at the same time and have them cold! That would be worse.
Night
-AJ
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