Pushkar Day Trip: A Sacred Journey to the Heart of Rajasthan
Pushkar, located around two and a half hours by road from Savista, with its holy lake and the hundreds of whitewashed temples built around it, is one of the holiest cities of the Hindus. If you are keen to get a fleeting experience of “religious India” and are not planning to visit Varanasi (the most ancient and holiest of living cities), a Pushkar day trip is a good substitute that is well worth a day visit.
Ancient, quaint, colorful, and full of history, Pushkar is renowned for two things. It boasts the only temple in the world dedicated to Lord Brahma (god as Creator). The Brahma temple in Pushkar has a special attraction for those wanting to experience the spiritual significance of the town. The temple town also hosts an annual Pushkar camel fair for one week in November each year, coinciding with the full moon, when animals – mainly camels and horses – are traded. During this week, Pushkar is flooded with upward of 200,000 visitors – Indian and foreign – and more than 50,000 camels that arrive adorned with nose rings, bangles, bracelets and decorative saddles.
Although there is a lot of energy and spectacle during the Pushkar camel fair in Rajasthan, Pushkar feels particularly charming and manageable during the quieter times of the year when you can enjoy the bustling market for beautiful handcrafted goods (friendly and less aggressive merchants and cheaper prices than Jaipur’s walled city bazaars), and explore the innumerable lanes and bylanes which speak of a layered history and a living museum of architectural structures – temples, palaces and residences – that go back several hundreds of years. The key is to do your own explorations, and exercise caution and due consideration when accosted by the various people who provide rituals and blessings, with the goal of guiding your journey and assisting your ancestors in finding peace.
If you are looking for best places to visit in Pushkar, the holy lake and the surrounding temples are among the top attractions. Pushkar also has an unmistakable cosmopolitan flavour that goes back to the 1960s when the Beatles spent an extended period there, and American flower children made it their home, encouraged by the marijuana fields surrounding the town, They have been followed over the decades by other international nirvana seekers, including Israeli youth weary of the militarism in their home country. You will encounter these residents in the bazaars, some of them running restaurants offering Israeli and European cuisine.