Day 14 - Jaipur to Pushkar - Saturday 29th October 2011

After a bit of breakfast on the Pearl's rooftop, we headed to the local bus station to catch our bus to Pushkar. The bus driver very unfriendly and after him abruptly telling us we were in the wrong seats, we moved to our seats to at the back of the bus. The journey was only 3 hours (with a stop in between for a quick chai and paratha at a service station) but it felt like an eternity. Let's put it this way - if you thought the potholes on the UK were big, you haven't seen anything!

We finally arrived in a dusty side road in Pushkar, disoriented and slightly lost we wondered until we found a rickshaw driver who told us it would be 150 rs to Dia, our B & B. Adam, taking the haggling a little bit too seriously, got him down to a mere 20 rs. The old man trying to cycle his rickshaw with a full load of Adam, me and both our rucksacks must have been a sight! After 10 minutes, he gave up and told us to walk the rest of the way - hehe, shows what you get for 20 rs!! After only a 10 minute walk, we reached the oasis of Dia. This place was quite expensive by our standards at about £32 a night but it was so tranquil and heaven like, it was well worth it. Our room was spacious, with a lovely window chair and our own balcony with seats and cushions. The owner, also owns seventh heaven in the village, which is supposed to be the best place to stay in Pushar, actually lives in Dia, it's his own house so there are only 4 rooms - all of which were empty, bar our one. So with the place to ourselves, we quickly settled down to chill on the rooftop.

After not moving for several hours, we decided to go for a walk around the town and see the infamous lake at sunset - in all its glory. It was beautiful and very serene. There is a ghat called Ghandi's ghat as this is where Ghandi's ashes were scattered.

Back at our place, we ordered up a veggie Thail (no meat in Pushtar - its too holy). Before we left the UK, Ad and I made a bit of a pack that we'd just get involved in the food and try anything that turned up - well tonight we took that a tad too far… A Thail is basically a big silver tray with 8 pots on it, each pot is a dish like dhal in one, rice in another and veg in the other etc. So our thali was 250rs and with that they include dessert which was rice pudding, we thought that the rice pudding would come after the meal but it didn't, it was in one of the dishes on the tray. Soph, not realising this smothered it all over her curry and rice!! Hilarious - you never know, rice pudding, curry, veg and dhal might catch on!! (Thought I'd add that bit, anyway back to Soph typing!!) opps! Still tasted good though……..

Day 15 - Pushkar - Sunday 30th October 2011

We woke up without an alarm or need to be anywhere - pure bliss. After some breakfast and chai, we went to Dr Mathus - a reflexologist. Ad went first and when asked what his aliments were explained that his huge nose was very sensitive and he had problems with his sinus - Dr Mathus looked at him with intrigue. After nearly 40 minutes of poking toes, massaging the feet, prodding the neck and head and finally massaging of the nose, Adam was cured! Next, my turn. I'd had a cold and so the doctor went to work on fixing me up and after my 20 minutes, we both walked away feeling very chilled and slightly better. Now whether the Doctor actually healed us or if it was all in our head remains to be seen…..

After a bit more shopping for Adam - a couple of t shirts and some fisherman trousers, yes fisherman trousers, we headed back to our place to spuce ourselves up for dinner.

Dinner on the rooftop at Seventh heaven was scrumptious and with our stomach's full, we jumped on Anoop's (the owner) scooter and rode back to Dia.

After skyping our family, we headed to bed for a good nights kip.

Day 15 - Pushkar to Jaisalmer - Monday 31st October 2011

Dia is literally like a little farm - the family have a gorgeous Labrador, 2 tortoises, 2 cats and a baby kitten. You can imagine my delight at this! Today, we laid on the rooftop drinking and eating and playing with the kitten (well I was playing with the kitten, Ads just looked at the kitten and then accused the kitten of getting more attention than him!). The kitten, exhausted from biting my finger, fell asleep on me for a couple for a couple of hours - so cute. I now want a kitten when we get home, Ad's not so keen!

Our bus leaves at 9pm tonight and it's an 11 hour bus journey to Jaisalmer - and we've just discovered that we do not have sleeper seats, despite being promised yesterday that we did. Should be a fun journey............