A road less taken

Weary of shopping ( yes really!) we ventured up the quieter lanes and found the real side of Pushkar town.  It must have once been a very grand place indeed, but now is looking a bit seedy

However if you take the time to stand and stare you find real gems and a lot more doors.

Why is there a curtain on the outside?

Delicate filigree portico above doors.

Vegetable sellers on street corners

just loving the bright splashes of colour.

Pink Floyd?  Just the name of a cafe!

Each window is a still life all by itself.

Marigold garlands and chillis hang over doorways.

Faded paintwork giving the most inspirational colour ways and textures.

Carved fretwork window covers, peeling plaster and faded paint.

Bricks are still handmade and carted to the site on a barrow.

Even where shops fill the lower floors, the splendour of the old buildings can be seen if you lift your gaze

right up to the roof tops.

We had a delicious late lunch on a shaded terrace in a restaurant which seems to cater for long term travellers!

However, our traditional thali plates were just the thing to restore our chakra...

Even so I needed some therapeutic retail therapy to recove totally from the morning.

This is how the orders are shipped from the Government khadi stores, I love the stitched edges and seals used to fasten the cloth wrappers.

Later in the evening we returned to the ghats 

and sat on a restaurant terrace to watch the sun go down, 

eat a delicious dinner, chat to fellow travellers (who had a similar opinion to us regarding Pushkar!) and acquire two cans of tonic (😉) it was also the cheapest meal we have had so far - just £4.60 for the pair of us, including drinks!  It helped restored our faith.  In fact I need to tell Magic about that place, she might want to hold her birthday party there...

Even the palm reader under the tree opposite didn't dampen our spirits ( but then we didn't ask him to tell us our fortune and he didn't ask to, perhaps he's heard just how cross I can get...)

And on the way back to the hotel the ever patient Shyam even managed to locate and stop I time for the temple we had actually wanted to see all along.

Being foreigners we couldn't enter, but we did manage to take a photograph to prove we'd found it.  Actually I'm not sure if we could take photographs because the two attendants did that Indian saying yes/ head rocking thing which I think can be interpreted as no but I don't feel I can say so to you!