Pushkar

We're in Pushkar and it's Diwali, the festival of light, which turns out to be more accurately describable as the festival of noise, as young children spend 48 hours letting off bangers and fireworks in the street (mildly entertaining at first, but now just plain irritating). Pushkar is a great town though, with long alleyways filled with lots of interesting shops, surrounding a large lake in the centre. There is a temple topped mountain on either side of the town, both of which reward a long, sweaty walk with excellent views over the picturesque surrounding mountains, the town and it's lake. No alcohol, meat or eggs are allowed to be consumed in Pushkar so the restaurants have to get inventive (which some of them do very, very well). We were expecting Pushkar to be full of the bong smoking baggy trouser crowd but were surprised to find what a popular tourist destination it is.

Although we have definitely been through a low period recently (India can be hard work and slowly grinds you down), we are now really looking forward to seeing Rajasthan and Punjab and intend to make the most of our last few weeks in India.