Onto Pushkar

Our bus to Pushkar contained probably one of the hottest girls I had ever seen in like a few months. Some boy dropped her off in his car and carried her bags onto the bus said goodbye hoping for a kiss goodbye but was left without much more than a goodbye.

Every boy on the bus was trying their hardest to catch her attention. One lucky fellow was next to her and was striking up a loud convo, no doubt in order to show how cool he was he was speaking loudly so it was soon apparent that she was Israeli.

Half way through the trip we stopped for a bite to eat and got out.

Hannahs a bit of a chai drinker and because the hot girl was waiting in the line in front of us I decided I would try this chai even though I had grave suspicions as to its health.

“I’ll have chai” the Israeli snapped a little grumpily.

Where in the man poured her a cup of chai. “5 rupees please.”

She looked on in horror, “5 rupees!”

Now 5 rupees is about as cheap as anything in India is. It equates to about AUS 15c.

The man smiled politely, “5 rupees please.”

“No way, who do you think you are charging 5 rupees for a cup of chai!” she snapped angrily.

“Sorry ma’am, 5 rupees please.”

“You can forget about that I am not paying 5 rupees.”

“I am sorry ma’am but that is the price.” And he pointed to the clearly marked sign.

In India a bit of batering never goes astray but there are things that you do not barter for. Chai for 5 rupees from a petrol station is not one of them. It like going into a super market and seeing a lolly and informing the checkout chick that you did not want to pay 20c for those lollies and ‘who do they think they are!’

Things were starting to get interesting. Hannah and I looked at each other and moaned at Israeli’s impertinence.

“You can have your chai back then.” She said and stormed off in a flurry.

The man looked at her back in wonderment.

Hannah then said to me, “Mika I haven’t even seen a 5 rupee coin yet let alone a 1 or 2 rupee coin. It’s not like she can cut a fiver in half or something?”

We ordered our chai and I generously gave the man a 5 rupee tip. The second tip of the whole trip. I hoped the angry, beautiful girl saw it and felt ashamed. Now I know why people say Israeli’s are tight.

We arrived at Pushka and it was really something. A nice little town tucked away in the middle of nowhere which surrounds a holy lake. It was also filled with little stalls and Hannah added to my load by buying another 14kg of beads.

That afternoon we walked around to the lake to sit and take it all in. There were massive fish swimming around and jumping out of the water all the time and it was really amazing.

It wasn’t long before someone noticed the foreigners sitting by the water and approached us.

“Hello I am a holy man.”

I looked at the clearly white hippy man. “err Hi.” We greeted.

“I am a holy man, do you want good karma, a blessing, ice, crack, heroin, weed, a holy ceremony, good karma?”

“I think you said good karma twice mate.” Then I stopped and thought about it for a minute. I looked at Hannah. She looked at me.

“Excuse me.” She said wherein he repeated what he said.

“Did he just say what I thought he said.” Hannah whispered to me.

I nodded. “yes I think a holy man just offered us a whole lot of drugs.”

We looked up from our team huddle. “Umm thanks for the offer but no thanks.”

“No ice, heroin?” he insisted.

“Um yeah we are right thankyou.” I said and waved him off. If you don’t dismiss people properly in places like this they tend to linger and I didn’t want to be arrested and put in a Indian jail for being caught talking to a drug dealer albeit holy man.

“Mika I know you are a bit ratty and those jeans a looking a little worse for wear and your pretty skinny, but it was a bit rough to lump me into your category as a crack addict.”

“Thanks a lot!” I said indignantly. “Well you know it’s a complement.”

“Oh right?”

“Addicts are always really skinny so basically he was saying your skinny.” One of us had to be the better man. I didn’t mention how they usually look feeble and drawn and haggard and pretty much feral. Actually maybe I did. Being the better man is not all it’s cracked up to be.

As we were sitting there. “Hannah see that mountain over there.”

“Yes.”

“I hear it challenging me.”

“I think you are right, its saying to get up first thing in the morning and climb it.” She replied. “No one challenges us and gets away with it.” she said definitely and shook her fist at the mountain mocking us.

So we made a plan to get up early in the morning.