Last night I arrived to Pushkar. The drive was about 7 hours and the drive had lots of traffic. The last two hours of the drive was extremely heavy traffic and we were continuously weaving around large trucks, taking a few more years off my life from the stress of near head on collisions.

I am not sure I like Pushkar. As I was walking the main bazaar this morning about six Indian girls surrounded me wanting to know where I am from and my name. Before I had a chance to answer one grabbed my hand and started applying henna. “This is for good luck”, she said. I really didn’t want it but once the crap was on my hand I was at their mercy since all I wanted to do was get it off. It was a total scam and they were very good at it. I knew as soon as the crap was on my hand that I was going to have to pay. I let them finish, and as they continued to cover my hand in good luck yuck they told me how poor they are and that they sleep in the dessert, etc. They wanted an absurd amount and I only had a large bill in my pocket and ended up surrendering it. I gave them half of what they were asking for but it was still way to much money. Then I had a crowd of kids following me asking me for more rupees and other girls grabbing at my other naked hand so I quickly darted off into a restaurant to escape and wash my hand. I now have a henna design covering my right hand. Joy. I feel very lucky.

Later in the afternoon as I was walking around a guy came up to me and gave me a flower to put in the river for some more good luck. His attempt to give me a flower was a distraction and from my other-side another man brushed up against me and put his hands into my pockets. I was on top of it and immediately  grabbed the guy’s arm who went into my empty pockets and twisted his arm behind his back and started to yell at him. Mob mentality rules here and luckily (thanks to my henna designed right hand) a mob quickly resulted and was very much on my side. The man was attacked by the surrounding merchants and was whisked off as they realize this will ruin their business if it makes it into the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree forum and tourists stop coming. Not sure what happened to him but he did get a few serious kicks to his rear end from various men as the crowd whisked him away.

Today has not been my best day.