Hiding away

A friendly (sort of) long-tailed langur.

Hello again--
The rules at our hotel here in Pushkar state that "No drugs, alcohol, or non-vegetarian foods" may be brought onto the premises. Yes, this is the first city I have ever been to that not only outlaws alcohol within city limits, but also enforces a strictly vegetarian diet. None of the restaurants here serve meat or even egg dishes! Luckily, the food has been great for the most part, so meat has hardly even been missed. I can only think of twice I've had meat at all since we flew into Nepal over a month ago: buffalo dumplings in Kathmandu and a little bacon in a pasta sauce in Pokhara. Ironically, drugs are extremely easy to get for those so inclined: you can't even walk down the street without someone whispering "opium, hash, marijuana....." at your side. But meat or alcohol, no way!

We've adhered to the rules of the city for the time we've been in Pushkar, but it really would be nice to have had a bottle of wine or two at our hotel. Oh well. It's still been a great place to hide away from India for the last few days anyway. Really, I mean that. We've both entered "burn out" mode on our trip -- this is the point in these long term trips were a traveller usually goes somewhere easy like Australia and stays put for 6 months. Instead, we entered India, one of the most hassle-prone countries I've ever been to (and that's saying a lot, since this is my 31st country). In order to stave off burn-out, we've been taking it much slower here, and simply resting and enjoying the places we actually get to. We know there's Jodhpur (the "blue city") and Jaipur (the "pink city") and Jaisalmer (the camel safari city) and other places to see, but really we just want to do a little travel burn-out mitigation and rest before we fly on to our next destination: Istanbul. So without much regret we have chosen to see fewer places here in India for the sake of the enjoyment of the rest of our adventure. And honestly, the parts of India we've seen have been enough: we aren't enamoured of India like some travelers here. I can see the lure of the vibrant colors, fascinating people, varied topography, etc., but frankly, other countries have been far more enjoyable to travel in for me (and I know Sarah feels the same).

Basically, we've enjoyed our time here, but partly because we slowed down and saw less, taking it in small batches and resting along the way. This way we're ready for the next stage of this journey!