Pushkar - camel ride and Brahma Ghat

The last couple days we have been settling into India, learning how to ride tuk tuks (sitting backwards is so not worth it), purchasing an Indian Sim card and therefore phone number, repeatedly attemping Indian Government transportation websites (US credit cards don't work no matter what you do but like the visa, it takes a lot of time to figure that out), learning to take off our shoes ... often, and of course shopping. Pushkar is the center of textiles, silk, and camels - see Cate modeling her new shirt/skirt.

We have received a lot of wonderful info from our fellow travelers - German, Ecuadorian, Argentinian - who helped mold our next 11 days; they came from places we were considering going.  We have decided to skip Udaipur and Rishikesh (rains/flood) and head to Jaipur, Agra, and Varanassi.  We hired a driver for the first two cities and delhi (with the tuk tuks to and from the train stations, it isn't cost or time effective to take trains), and bought train tickets to/from Varanassi. We also decided to fly from Delhi to Kathmandu. Between the border crossing, the 17 hour drive on nepal's bad roads, and the cheap flight, it was a no brainer 

Below is our laundry adorned with thread (what perfection), a sunrise camel ride (meet Jo Jo), and sunset prayers at Brahma Ghat (we also went to the Brahma Temple at night because that's when the locals are out - during the cool weather.)

Our car picks us up to head to Jaipur in the morning (the center of the jewelry/gems trade). Pushkar has been so wonderful to us, it's very hard to leave.