Adventures of Venom - 11!!

Day 11 – 22nd November 2007
---------------------------------------------
After the night’s adventure, the day began late. We woke up lazily around 10.00 AM (OK.. I had to be clicked and woken up). I finally woke up to some grumbling in the background. I guess VS was mumbling to himself as to how he will never get me on any trip ever again and all that I do is to sleep and sleep and sleep… it didn’t take long to shut him up.. The “shut up kiss” did the trick.. ;)

We reached Pushkar at about 11.00 AM. It’s only 30 KM from Ajmer, and by now that was more like next door for us. The Pushkar Mela is very colourful and there are only 2 kinds of people evident there – the rural locals, and the firangs. We are clearly out of place. We do some time pass, eat extremely unhealthy food and stare at the much decorated camels with an open mouth!


We click some brilliant pictures, not suspecting that the memory card would be corrupted and all pictures lost. We tried to salvage some, but the damage was already done. I insisted on doing everything that I shouldn’t have done – paid 50 bucks to sit on a merry-go-round, which 2 men were manually operating (now how much fun could that have been!!), paid 200 bucks to sit on a camel for 10 minutes, almost cried when VS didn’t let me eat that horrible looking poori-alu. I chatted away to glory with the Camel owner (a small boy of about 16-17), his camel was called Moti (see I remember), and a camel costs 30K – 5L depending on the age!!!!

I wanted to see the horse racing, but I guess it was over for the day. We could only see the horses parading – WOW. I instantly fell in love with one of them and threw a tantrum on the spot. VS had to go and enquire about the price – he came back grinning and said “Chalo, let’s buy it, its only 11 Lakhs”. “Very Funny”
This is the one that I fell in love with, but couldn’t afford.

Some day baby, for sure, I promise!!


I also wanted to get the Mehendi done, but VS put his foot down. :( I had to content myself just looking at the lovely designs that those young girls make with their mehandi cones, in no matter of time. And the firangs just love them. I was tempted to tell them that they shouldn't be paying more than 50 bucks for the designs on both their hands, but the fear of getting beaten up kept me shut. They actually ended up paying 300 bucks per hand!!! (what the heck, its just 7.5$ for them!!)

We also went to the animal trading section of the fair – now that’s exactly what Pushkar is famous for!! I have never seen so many horses together in my life. In fact I have not seen so many animals together!!!! We lost the snaps of the camel section :( The horses are a beauty and the Mare is more expensive than the horse (the feminist in me loves it!!)

We finally wound up at 1.30 and left for our hotel. We had to pack up and leave for Udaipur. The objective was to cover as much distance as possible bofore sunset!
We left the hotel at around 2.30 PM. Decided to have lunch on the way. At around 3.30 PM, I had created a ruckus - Yes, I also feel hungry!! We stopped by at a dhaba where VS insisted that I try out Besan ki sabzi. He says it is a Rajasthani speciality. I try it out and I need lots and lots of water to douze the fire in my mouth!!
The rest of the journey is regular. The standard stuff of VS not listening to me when I tell him to refuel and then we running around for a petrol punp in the middle of nowhere.

We reach Udaipur at around 8.00PM. We are booked into the Rajasthan Tourism Hotel.

After last night adventure of hotel finding, it was heavenly to walk into a pre-booked hotel!!!
We have plenty of time on hand, and VS takes me out for a romantic dinner to Ambrai - its an old haveli converted to a heritage hotel.. its by the lake and the view is beautiful. We could see the Udaipur Lake Palace from here and VS promised to take me there for a vacation someday, when he has made it big in life!!!

I will eagerly wait for that day - not coz I want to vacation in Lake Palace, but coz I want VS to make it big
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 11 ends beautifully with memorable dinner