Mary Bellamy

Gujurat had the friendliest people of the trip. Too bad Terri and I came down with mild colds in Bhuj, and I seemed to acquire a touch of the Delhi belly in Ahmedabad. I opted to skip the antibiotics and tough it out on the train.

After our travel companion suffered some transportation woes, Terri and I decided to change our itinerary a bit, and are now in Rishikesh a bit early. It's gotten very white here. There's a Cafe Coffee Day on the far side of Laxman Jhula, and I see more Westerners than Indians. We used to stand out for being white. Now we stand out for not having dreads and wearing hiking boots. I guess we just can't win.

Pushkar is on the backpacker circuit, but I didn't notice this many special lassi shops last time. There's one on every corner. No, I have not partaken. I'm too busy eating Israeli food and dancing. We had a 2-hour khalbeliya dance class today, and will be doing another 2 hours tomorrow. Raki has asked us to come to her village for dinner tomorrow night, and then we must sadly leave Pushkar. Brighton heads home while Terri and I head out to Bhuj.

• Date and cumin pickle is delicious.
• Also delicious: hot ginger/lemon/honey drink
• No westerners seem to take the government Bundi-Ajmer bus, judging by the level of stares we got.
• A health care worker chatted us up a bit, then gave us her bangles as she got off the bus.
• My super-awesome Devanagari skills helped me identify the Kota-Ajmer bus and the Pushkar bus. Score.
• This hotel in Pushkar has special lassi. And special juice. Special juice sounds gross.
• The last rickshaw in Bundi was playing "Barbie Girl."