The beautiful dessert view
A beautiful welcome art work prepared using sand by local artists
October 2019, I was in Nepal for 15 days for Everest base camp. I came back home to Gurgaon and still my desire to travel was still not satisfied. I stayed home for a day, just unpacked winter clothes and packed lighter clothes for warm weather of Pushkar.
The journey from Gurgaon to Pushkar
Took a late-night sleeper bus at 12 am from Gurgaon to Pushkar which was to take 7 hours to cover 376 km from Gurgaon. The bus arrived at the stop around 1 am due to some traffic issue. I was already late by 1 hour to start the journey.
Because I don’t generally fall asleep while traveling, I booked for a chair seat. I plugged in to my favourite music and zoned out.
There was mix crowd in the bus, I could see many were traveling to their hometown. Ahh!! I missed to mention I was heading to Pushkar for Dussehra.
An artist dressed as Lord Rama
Dussehra is a festival which in a way signifies friendship between Rama and Lord Hanumana
Dussehra or Vijayadashami has great significance in Hindu culture. It comes after Navratri every year. So, people were heading back to their home to reunite with their families. The bus was passing through busy city streets to deserted highway.
Around 4 am, the bus stopped at a small restaurant for tea and snacks. This place was a small village before Jaipur. The driver and many other co-passengers got off the bus to have some refreshment. I got down to stretch my self a bit, and it feels very nice to stand up and walk after been glued to a place for long. And the journey was not even half done by that time.
After a short 15 minutes break we started again and there was no other break the driver announced. We crossed the beautiful Jaipur city when it was asleep and looked even more beautiful.
I dozed off for a while, and in few hours, we reached Kishangarh, a small town 42 km before Pushkar. I noticed something here, since many people deboarded at Jaipur and beyond, few were still to go to Pushkar. The driver took some passengers from Kishangarh who appeared locals to me. Now few of them were adjusted in the vacant seats and 5-6 people sat on the floor of the bus. I felt suffocated as the bus was quite full then and someone started to smoke in an AC bus which was worst. Somehow, the remaining journey concluded around 10 am.
I reached the camp site, where I stayed. Took an auto as you don’t get cabs easily in Pushkar. But autos are very frequent. Resort was very pretty, and I got welcomed in a traditional Rajasthani way. It was a rest day for me that day, explored Pushkar city and local food. I came back to camp timely as Day 2 in Pushkar was going to be full of excitement. I was to go for a morning hike to Savitri Devi temple to get a bird eye view of the holy city during golden hour. And I knew that the sunrise from that height would be just amazing. So, I called off the day timely and set my alarm at 4 am.
*Me and Romieo (🐫) gazing at sunset🎴 *
A beautiful silhouette from the dessert
Day 2 at Pushkar
The morning was slightly cold yet pleasant, and windy. My tent somewhat gave me the vibes before I actually came out to check on the weather. I took my daypack in which had my camera, a water bottle and some snack to eat. By 4:30am I left the tent. I preferred to walk towards Goddess Savitri temple as I had some time in hand.
About Goddess Savitri temple
As Pushkar is a known pilgrimage site in Rajasthan, there are many temples in and around the city. However, India has only one Brahma temple which is in Pushkar. Goddess Savitri is consort of Lord Brahma and the temple has idols of both.
(Additionally, the temple has idol of Goddess Gayatri as well. Few people say that she was also spouse of Lord Brahma where other believe that Gayatri is another name for Goddess Savitri.)
Goddess Savitri temple is an iconic place in Pushkar and it can be seen from most of the places in Pushkar. The temple is situated at an elevation of about 750 ft and a flight of 650 steps to Goddess Savitri temple.
Stairs to Goddess Savitri temple 🛐🚩
The temple can also be approached by cable car which operates between 8 am-5pm.
You may see wires for cable car in this picture
On reaching the temple, I took the stairs to reach the temple top. The stairs are pretty huge and broad so you can imagine it was like once you step on the stair, you need to take another one-two steps to reach the next stair. I was climbing on the shoulder of the Ratnagiri hill having some trees, shrubs along my way and one could easily figure out how the mountain is sliced to lay down the stairs.
Pathway to the temple
Slowly and gradually, I kept climbing. The weather was pleasant and windy, and slowly light increased a bit as the sun was about to moved above the horizon.
The orange tint before sunrise🌤️
The moment I was close to half way of the stairs I saw absolutely black and grey clouds coming from the west. As I kept on climbing, the winds got stronger and the plant cover was getting scantier, there is absolutely no place to take shelter. By the time I reached at the top, the clouds started to cover Pushkar. I reached the top before sunrise, because of clouds sun shined just once and later engulfed by the dark clouds.
*When the clouds took over *
Pushkar looked stunning under the trails of clouds, bird eye view of Pushkar was like a beautiful canvas painted with blues, browns, greys and greens. I could spot the stunning Pushkar lake from hill top, it looked like a round mirror lit up with fairy lights as the town was still asleep, I could see the street lights were still glowing.
Mirror like view of Brahma sarovar
Pushkar before sunrise
The town was looking like a jigsaw puzzle having blue, white, yellow blocks, the houses, appeared so small from 750 feet. I could see distant mountain tops surrounded with clouds, few disappeared while I was glancing at them and the visibility started to decrease. It was an unreal experience to witness Pushkar in such silence.
Pushkar and Lord Brahma lake
By now, the air was so charged up that my hair started to get static. It was an indication of a powerful storm. I curtailed to use my gadgets, it started to thunder and winds were still speeding.
Look at my hair, all charged up- are you able to figure out?
I was unsure if I can stay in the temple in such a weather, so I decided to descend. I would have covered nearly half of the distance and it started to drizzle, I tried to hide my camera against the direction of rain. I was trying my best to be at the ground as soon as possible, the path became bit slippery due to rain and I had to take each step with care.
In a while, winds slowed down and it started to rain heavily with thunder and lightning. I was still in a position to view the city well. I was looking around and in a blink of a second, I saw thunder striking the ground somewhere onto my left and I saw that zig zag fork touching the ground. And it was really so loud. I keep on descending even faster than before.
Visibility started to go down slowly
And I haven’t even came down 10-15 steps the lighting stroked again onto my right side. Believe me, I was really scared that time, I felt as if I will be roasted today by the thunder strike. It felt like some air strike happening from the sky and I am the target :P. It was not at all a good thing to witness, at least I didn’t find it so. I did not stop at all on the way. My clothes were all wet in rain, but luckily my camera was safe.
I reached on the ground there was no auto, nothing at all. A kind tea stall owner called me from behind and offered me to wait under his stall till I get some transport.
I still remember and I am really thankful to Rajesh, owner of the tea stall. It is the only tea stall near the temple. I entered the stall; he gave me chair to sit and asked for tea. He made very nice ‘’masala cham tea’’ in his brass container and gave it to me in earthen glass.
That hot cup of tea after getting wet in rain was truly the need of the hour that morning. I ate a bit with tea, and it continued to rain. It was not stopping at all; it was already an hour and half. Lightning stroked the ground for the third time that morning and I could feel the impact, as everything shook inside the tea stall. It felt as if it was somewhere behind the stall, towards the forest area. I was lucky to get shelter under that small tea stall and survived the harsh weather.
I took an auto as rain stopped and the landscape post rain was quite and beautiful. The tent staff was kind enough to help me dry my shoes, it was only one pair that I was carrying. The night was peaceful and I slept well after an eventful day.
It would be wrong to say that, Pushkar has been successful in creating a thunderbolt place in my memory.
Thank you for reading 😊🌅
Please do visit my IG account for more travel stories. Will see you soon with a new travel adventure. ♨️🏖️
https://www.instagram.com/travelingcocoon_kanika/!
Leaving you with my colorful friend Romieo 🐫