Udaipur

We didn't have a lot of expectations about  Udaipur.. we don't know why but we had in our minds that it would be "more of the same" but we were totally wrong... India was surprising us one more time!

When we started our way to the hotel by rickshaw, we immediately understood that this city was different from everything we have seen so far in India... the streets are cleaner, the buildings more modern.. it is definitely more developed than other places...

We were really happy when we realized about our hotel's perfect location (Udai Haveli Guesthouse)... right by the footbridge and really close to the clock tower..  from there, we could walk everywhere. We immediately started to explore the city and found the amazing Pichola Lake, the lake was beautiful and the buildings were also impressive. We were lucky because we got to Udaipur on time to enjoy the end of the Ganesh Festival. At night there were traditional dances in the street and a lot of music. When we woke up the next day we walked through the streets and realized that the festivities were at it's maximum power... small carts carrying big statues of Ganesh with people dancing while following the carts and throwing red ink to each other... tourist were all surprised and some of them, including us, joined them for some nice dancing. As the day went buy, we also noticed people offering food to each other, they also offered us.. we tried two sweet things that we have no idea what they were and slices of banana. All the carts were heading to the lake, there they would sing/pray and bathe the statue with the Lake water. It was a nice experience, we could see that everybody was really happy.

We had initially thought about going on the top of the mountain by cable carts for the sunset but, tired of the tourist prices we ended up going to another place and it was fantastic... we went to the island in the Pichola Lake and the sun was hiding right behind the mountais.. it was a great view. When we were leaving the sunset point, we decided to check the other side of the island and it was even better.. we could see the lights of the city with an amazing full moon on top and listen to relaxing guitar music..

Udaipur is definitely a romantic city, the streets are narrow and some of them really steep.. all surrunded by the lake. Through the stores we saw a lot of people selling silver and art, there are a lot of painters in this city. We met one that works in the art school with children and also has a small store.. he made a small drawing on Pedro's nail.. very tiny and with detail.

Our last day in Udaipur was going to be different than the others, we wouldn't have the hotel to rest during the day in case we needed.. we had to check out at 10am and our train to Khajuraho was only going to be at 10:30pm... luckyly, the hotel owner allowed us to leave our backpacks at the hotel and we were able to enjoy the bazaars during the entire morning. We also had to prepare our train trip, this time it will be a 21h train ride to Khajuraho... we definitely need to buy some food...

Pushkar

Pushkar is one of the holiest cities in India. Hindus believe that everything started in Pushkar, Bhrama dropped a lotus flower in Puskar and it became a lake... life started here... For us, Pushkar was like a restart...

We were supposed to be in Pushkar for only two nights but everything changed when we arrived...the environment was different here, we were in India but we felt at home for the first time. Pushkar is a small city, but it has it's own magic. There is one main street where everything happens, from beautiful stores to tasty restaurants. In Pushkar there are a lot of visitors like us, more or less with the same age and the same goals it was easy to start connecting to people and share our adventures.
We made our minds really fast, we knew we had already bought the train ticket to Udaipur but we had to stay in Pushkar for a few more days... we bought another ticket and easily lost the one we had bought before, now we would have a total of 4 nights.
Pushkar is surrounded by amazing mountains and has the holy lake in the center, our days were very relaxing with nice walks around the city, climb a mountain for a beautiful sunset, a full day cycling through the mountains until we reached the temple of Aloo Baba (patato god) with a couple we met in the falafel restaurant (Tom and Josie), where we talked to the Aloo Baba for a while and he explained us with few English words why he only eats patato... for him, if he starts choosing from different foods that makes him need money and choices lead to ambition.. the more you have, the more you want...  he offered us something to smoke with him but we all ended up saying no because we weren't sure what it was. He lives in perfect communion with nature, has a garden and feeds the peacocks around 5:30pm. It's and extreme way of living but it has a point... In Pushkar, we also had interesting conversations with people from all over the world. To highlight Ravi, the 13 years old kid that works at the guesthouse ( Hotel Diamond) and studies at the same time.. his dream is to become a doctor... Mavi, the owner of the guesthouse that explained us some important things about the Hindu religion and told us about his adventures in Europe.. a former American Military that is travelling over the last three years that provided us great tips for travelling and how to deal with the cultural differences... And Ray, an Indian guy from luckenow that after a long conversation we realized that he had worked for CSC as well.. what are the chances?!?! We also met two other couples that recommended us to try to go to New Zealand after the trip.. both said that the visa procedure would be easier than in Australia.. maybe a nice option to explore... Pedro also connected to some monkeys during our cycling tour through the mountains by giving them some food.. obviously Kika just watched from far.. Kika is not ready for that yet! 

Another interesting characteristic of Pushkar is the music.. there is music everywhere, from Hindu chants all night long to small stores playing transe music or kids also playing/dancing transe music in the middle of the street. Well, once we saw them dancing Martin Garrix, but it was only once. 

In Pushkar we made a small break from the heavy Indian food, the food here is always vegetarian but restaurants serve them more in and European way.. there are also typical Indian restaurants but our stomachs were very happy with the break...

We also made some Hindu prayers for karma and good luck for our families and friends where we threw flowers, rice and ink to the lake and after the prayer, we were given red bracelets and of course we had to give a 'donation'... so we hope you are all already feeling the good luck!  We later understood that it is kind of like a scam for tourists (one more) but the fact that we had the red bracelet made that other 'religious man' wouldn't ask us again for more prayers and, in fact, our prayers were true prayers so we didn't mind that much...

With the days passing we felt more and more confortable staying in Pushkar people from the stores/restaurant already knew us and it was nice to see familiar faces all the time.

While we were writing this post, Mavi came to say goodbye and we could see that he was sad, we are also really sad to say goodbye to wonderful people and such an amazing place... this feeling might hit us several times during the year but maybe we will come back one day...

Fun fact from Pushkar: when walking back to the hotel, a nice Monkey decided to pee from a tree... for a few centimeters, it didn't hit our heads... a few meters later, another Monkey decided to poop... we were really 'in danger'...

Recommended restaurants:

- Nirvana cafe - opened only 5 days ago, the owner is a really nice guy and very enthusiastic about his new restaurant/hotel;

- Honey & spice - nice vegetarian restaurant, very healthy and full of flavor.

- Oh my God, falafel - tiny & cheap restaurant with great food. Nice place to meet other travelers.