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We left Babai's contemplating about living the next 10 days in silence - but decided it would be too difficult. Besides, there was no way we were skipping out on our last 3 dinners in India :0. We headed on to the Brahma temple, along the way picking up a small painting of a tiger on silk for $3. We had read in the guide book about the "priests" who perform prayers for you, your friends, and your family and then expect you to pay. We had avoided one or two so far. When we arrived at the temple, a person began to help us with our flower offering to Brahma. He walked us around the temple, reciting many times how Bill Clinton came to the temple in 2000 (and how George W. was a bad man). Anyways, about then, I started to figure out this guy wasn't just being friendly, he was one that we were warned about. I was going to sadly dissapoint him. I placed a donation in the donation box (clearly written everywhere, not to donate to anyone, but the box). After saying a few prayers, and placing our flower offerings in the box, we received more flowers and sugar to take to the Brahma gate. We paid 20 cents for the flowers and for watching our shoes to one of the "priest"'s cohurts. Our guide then proceeded to take us to the Brahma gate on the lake. We didn't know what we had signed up for.
We headed back to our hotel, picking up two western/Indian looking shirts for Jaimie for $1.25 each. Crazy. We had dinner at the hotel, where the food was not bad, but the views gorgeous, as we watched the sunset across the lake. We looked forward to a great nights sleep! View Udaipur and Pushkar Photo Gallery
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We arrived in Ajmer about 5 am. The "sleeper" bus experience will be an unforgettable one. Happy to be off, it was time to make it all the way to our destination of the small town of Pushkar. Situated in the hills of one of the oldest mountain ranges on earth, Pushkar is a "holy" city, housing India's only Brahma temple (Brahma is one of the 3 main gods of the Hindi religion, being the creation god). The small city is centered around a lake, with many holy Ghats, where pilgrammers and locals wash in the holy waters. The lake was said to be created when Brahma dropped a lotus flower. 
We negotiated a rickshah at 5 am to Pushkar. It was difficult to negotiate, as we did want a taxi, and not a rickshaw, but at 5 am and no sleep, we just wanted to go. $3 later, we were on our way. The journey was up and over the hill side. At one point, the engine stalled, probably due to overheating. We were a bit worried that we were stuck in the middle of no where in complete darkness. Fortunately, a half minute later, for some reason, the two "drivers" switched places, and the second one was able to get us on our way. We did make the mistake of paying a 45 cent "passenger" tax - as we had read something in the guide book about some weird tax for cars on this road. We realized later after thinking about it, that the rickshaw driver just took advantage of us, and the fact that it was 5am. Oh well :).
Pushkar is very small, just a few narrow streets all lined with bazaars and many temples scattered throughout, along with, of course, the lake. It's a strictly vegetarian city - no eggs, meat, or fish. And if that wasn't holy enough, they banned rickshaws too. So our rickshaw driver tried to take us to a random hotel (acting like he didn't know where our hotel was, and was going to ask this guy). Of course, they start trying to sell us this hotel - and we said we already have a reservation - let's go. They ended up dropping us off at the edge of town - which at 5:30 am - wasn't the most informative location. Luckily, our guide book had a small map. We started walking, and followed signs to where we had made a reservation the day before, the Hotel Paramount Palace ($8). On the way, the streets were filled with trash, dirt, and cows - not the best welcome. When we got to the Paramount Palace, and looked at the rooms - it was horrible. Beyond horrible - the floors were covered in dirt, and I can't imagine what was on/in the dirty bed. The bathroom is not even mentionable. We hesitantly left (we were tired), and began walking to the guidebook's "recommended choice", just a 3 minute walk. Unfortunately, they were booked until 10 am (we couldn't wait that long). Out of exhaustion, we decided to "splurge" for a $45 palace stay again, which overlooked the lake, at Puskar Palace hotel. Unfortunately, the windows and curtains were very thin, and being on the lake, there was all kinds of music coming in at 7 am. The welcomed AC noise drowned out the chanting, and the exhaustion dealt with the bright room. We also had a few visitors, a whole monkey family walked by our balcony. Good thing I had seen them before we went to bed, and shut the balcony doors! :) 
Around noon, we got up to have lunch and view the city. It appeared as if the trash was cleaned up from the streets pretty well (we had heard there was a festival the night before), and the city had come alive with people selling textiles, paintings, and other crafts. We felt a bit better about our decision to come :). We walked around in the extremely hot sun for awhile, deciding on where to eat. We gave up on the first two locations, as the first was empty, and the second had only western meals. We settles for Baba's rooftop restaurant which overlooked the main street along the lake. The food was the worst we had had in India - the Naan unlevied, the spinach and tomato based sauces were completly pureed, no spice to note of at all. and the paneer (cheese) was burnt. Oh well, we were hoping we weren't going to get sick from this one, as it wouldn't be worth it :). We did have a conversation with a Russian/Israeli sitting next to us. He had come to India to enhance his buddhist training - he was spending the next 10 days in silence, getting up at 4:30 am, eating only breakfast and lunch, and spending the entire day just focusing on his breathing. Wow.
We walked to the lake, again took off our shoes, and picked up a donation plate of flowers, red and yellow powder, rice, and a coconut. Our "priest" began to chant and have us recite a few prayers with him. He then discussed how we were blessing our family and friends with fortune, and asked how much we would like to donate for their good will, each. I pointed out how we had already made a donation, and that all the signs pointed out to only donate in the box (as I knew that would get him going :)) He quickly blew that off, and focused back on how much, saying $12 each or $25 each is ok. I laughed, and figured I'd give him something for his time. I said 20 cents, and he kept saying $12. hah. Anyways, we finished our prayers, flew our plate of flowers, spices, rice, etc. into the lake to complete our blessing. We walked up to what looked like an "official" donation area, but was obviously just this guys friend. I gave him 20 cents, and gave the guide 20 cents. The guide was furious, saying we must give more, but we just said thank you. He ran off, I'm sure back to the temple to get the next suckers :). Incidentally, if any of our friends or family had a great day, it was probably due to our blessing here. :)