After the chaos of Jaipur, Pushkar was a welcome relief. The town is a small Hindu pilgrimage site around a sacred lake. It's a quiet, relaxing town most of the time and it gets it's fair share of tourists like us, trying to escape the din of the main circuit.
There are a lot of temples and ghats (a series of steps leading down to the holy water) in the town but none of them allow photos, so I'm afraid you'll have to settle for some sunset scenes from a few of the town's many rooftop cafes.
After Pushkar, we stopped in a town called Ajmer to visit a Jain Temple. Jain is an Indian religion which dates back to between the 9th and 6th BC. The temple was built in 1865 and has a giant hall which holds a colossal golden diorama depicting the Jain concept of the ancient world. There were flying elephants, flying swans, castles, palaces, and caravans of elephants, camels and people all carved in gold. It was you can imagine, it's quite stunning and, unfortunately, the photos don't do it justice since they have to be taken through the protective glass.
After Pushkar, we decided to hire the car and driver for a while longer to take us around Rajasthan. Turned out to be a big mistake, but more on that later. Next stop, Jodhpur.
Also, make sure to buy some incense. The smells are so intense, with big pots of chai brewing on every corner, curry wafting from every restaurant, and incense burning in every store front, (which all seem to effectively mask the other various smells that would otherwise overwhelm the cities). But I bought some sticks of incense in a beautiful ornate metal older and still when I open it I may as well be back in India. Smells evoke memories and you'll be glad you have them.
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