My second and last day in Pushkar was much better than the first. I hired a car and driver to go on a jeep safari. It wasn’t actually a jeep but rather an Indian made TATA that pretends to be a four wheel vehicle but is not. The first half of the journey was in the surrounding mountains where I visited a temple built into the mountain. It sounded great but once I arrived I was far from impressed. Compared to many of the temples I have seen this one looked like a square cement structure next to a mountain side. I was expecting something carved into the actual mountain.

On the return from the temple we stopped in the middle of a canyon where men, women, and children were mining the hill side. I wasn’t sure why we stopped. My driver hardly spoke any English so when I attempted to get an explanation all I got was “yes”. Which didn’t answer my question, “Why did we stop?” A moment later a huge explosion occurred and part of the mountain projected itself across to the other-side. My question was answered. Once the dynamite blasts halted we went on our way.

We left the rocky mountain area for a sand dune area. We were off of the bumpy rocky road and driving in soft sand which seemed really cool and I was starting to dig it just as the car came to a sudden stop. We were stuck in the soft sand. In the middle of nowhere. The first thing that came to my mind was that I didn’t bring enough water. The next thing that came to my mind as the driver was letting air out of the rear tires was why didn’t he just put the vehicle into four wheel drive? But of course, I am in India and that would make too much sense to go off road in a four wheel drive vehicle. We were in a two wheel vehicle that simply looks like it can go off road. I did get a few pictures of the car  trapped but I soon had to put the camera away and get my hands dirty. In-fact I got every part dirty since I had to help dig the TATA out. After about an hour of digging and wheel spinning a couple of tractor drivers came driving over the hill. I thought we had been rescued but there wasn’t any rope, so all this added was some more digging hands. We finally got out of the jam after more digging, putting loads of brush under the tires, and lots of pushing.

The remainder of the journey was very rural. First we stopped at the drivers home to share some Chi Tea with the family.  I took lots of photographs of the rural living and then proceeded to drive around the surrounding area. Part of which was for me to see and the other part was for the driver to show off to his family and friends that he had an American tourist in his borrowed TATA. It really felt like a freak show and I was the freak. We stopped at about four places where we proceeded to have more Chi Tea.  I would sit drinking tea while groups of people would stare at me. It seemed that they wouldn’t blink. After about five minutes of people staring at me I would laugh from the tension, then they would laugh and then they would resume staring.

As the sun lowered in the sky I was able to get some great photos of the landscape of Pushkar which is very beautiful farmland. The people I met where very nice. Perhaps a little too fascinated with my looks but very nice.

Today was a good day.