Pushkar Lake

ok, sorry i cut it so short yesterday, we thought we had lost Julia as she had gone to a different internet cafe and we had no idea where she was...we found her not much later though and the internet had stopped working so i couldnt return.
I have missed out so much but i think that's just the way it's going to be...a jumbled splurge of happenings!! We are in Pushkar today, we arrived yesterday after a 7hour car drive that actually wasnt too bad as we had left much earlier. In the evening the hotel manager was holiding a party for his 4 year old son and everyone was invited, the hotel is quite quiet at the moment so there werent that many of us. It was very formal, instead of blowing out the candle he had the cake fed to him by all of his family...one australia boy (who lives here) said "why does he get all the cake" hehe...my thoughts exactly! But this area is no eggs, no meat and no alcohol so the cake was a bit strange. They were great hosts and rushed us forward to eat the indian food we really didnt want but managed to eat a polite amount before heading off to bed in the hope we would feel better in the morning. For breakfast (included in our tour) we had banana and honey pancakes (again no egg), this was ok too but not quite right! ha

We had a walk down to the famout Pushkar lake and ghats, this is supposedly a holy place where people come to throw petals in the lake and prey..a kind of mini Varanasi i think. We were led to a certain ghat and given flowers, separated and sat by the lake..he told me some history and asked me to repeat after him. i cant remember much...he placed petals, spices, sugar maybe etc in my hand and a coconut on top! while saying what they were and to wish me and my family well. I was then given time to pray or just think of what i would like for the people mentioned. Afterwards it began! The hasslin for money, i knew there was a donation asked for and that tourists pay a minimum of 51rs..but he kept hassling me for 500! this still isnt a lot but it was so inflated that i refused, i did choose to pay a little more after he kept asking me....i said i will pay what i choose and eventually he gave up and accepted what i gave him. he was quite pushy but it didnt spoil the experience, apparently it did for julia and lizzy...thier priests got a bit sngry with them! but lizzy paid a little more too and mine only worked out about 2pound anyway so i wasnt going to let it bother me!

We came back to hotel to eat, craving something with no spices and ended up with pathetic attempt at macaroni cheese..hmm pretty awful! haha. we have a few more days here and i hope to do a camel ride but not sure if we will...better get back to lizzy and see what she's upto...and to my book "life of Pi" i really like it and am engrossed :) speak soon...is always nice to receive messages and see what you're upto by the way...as long as u dont expect a reply in a hurry! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx byeee