I knew he was good for something

Pushkar, Pushkar, and more Pushkar. The place we never intended to visit became the place we are apparently never to leave. After exhausting ourselves in the bustling Jaipur we came here on whim of curiosity hoping to find a slower pace, a few less people, and some cheap sleep & fun. Sam had many opportunities to flex his bartering muscles on our travels through the desert with the many money hungry rigsaw drivers, and after a few hours of braving some cramped local buses and much staggering confusion we arrived at the Pushkar bus station. We were very tired, but still energized by your new sense of accomplishment after making it so far for such a small amount of cash, and set off to find a cheap clean place to rest our bags and our heads. We had no plan really, so the plan was to wander around pushkar until we thought of one.... BUT although I was feeling adventurous in spirit, my body was not willing to play along. A few staggering steps around town with my big back left me gasping for breath like a pathetic ten year old suffering from an asthma attack after too much tag and birthday cake. It was at this point that I realized that perhaps my 'cold' that I acquired in Delhi was no cold at all, but the dreaded yet popular respiratory infection that I my lonely planet warned me about. Soooooo Long story short my first Pushkar tourist attraction was the hospital, and my second and last was my Hostel bed. Sounds scary right??? .... Well it's not, my symptoms were mild, my medications strong, and the only pain I felt was from my boredom. Sam diligently sat by my side for the first two days, chivalrously enduring my boredom with me until he could take it no longer. We left me on the third early in the morning insisting that I rest, and against my protests convinced me that he would return shortly. I fall into a pleasant sleep and dreamt about my Sammy riding up to my window on a motorcycle, all sexy with the wind in his hair.
"Vrroooommmm Vrrooommmm" I hear.
I stick my head out my window and I realize I am in no dream. There he is in his movie star sunglasses on a shiny blue bike, wanting to ride me off into the sunset. After A few minutes of dressing and washing I am straddling the back of the bike, desperate to be saved from the body- mold I created on our mattress.

The start was..... shaky???
"Sam....have you ever done this before?"

"Well, I did ride a scooter in Lao, this is kinda the same."

GREAT! He :)
But luckily he's a fast learner and we were off in no time. We hit the open road, ditched Pushkar, and decided to find some adventure in some uncharted territory. Our first encounter was of the nastiest kind. Dead cow on the side of the road, it's head was fully smashed in with nothing but decay and maggots in its place. The rank of the smell was indescribable, and the cute pup that decided to feast on this rotting beast had me gagging for at least 15 km. Our second encounter was with some local truck drivers who decided to play around with us a little on the road, putting Sammy's driving abilities to the test. We first attempted to politely ignore their horn honking and invitations to pull over, but after being pursued for some distance we realized we weren't getting away without at least saying hello.
Now mostly for my parents sake I will include this all sounds a lot more dangerous than it is. If someone were following me like this is Canada I would probably call the cops, or hide in a gas station, but things are a little different over here. Sam and I really can't go anywhere without people flocking to us. The mix of our white skin, expensive sunglasses, adorable smiles ;) makes us pretty much irresistible to the locals.
So we pulled over for a cig break with the strange men. Their theeth were rotting to black, and they kept trying to force us to have a drink of their "mysterious" water bottle. They spoke NO english, and although one of the men was holding my hand a little to tightly for a little too long, it was a pleasant road side break.

Our third encounter was in some strange small town, clearly not accustom to tourists. Although Sammy biking skills were improving throughout the day, he still hadn't had much practice navigating through busy Indian streets, full of the usual; children, cows, bikes, goats, trucks, carts, camels... and etc etc. To protect our lives and the lives of all the things running around around us, Sam went slow and careful, making it hard to drive without stalling out since he still wasn't use to the clutch and switching gears. We staled a few times, but the most precious was when it happened, right in this town square. We were only stopped for maybe 2 minutes max, but it felt like an eternity as at least 200 people crowded around us laughing all trying to yell instructions in Hindi. Sam figured it all out of course, rev'd the engine, and we hit the road again.
The rest of the day was fairly normal. Just the usual navigating through the goat herds, eating some strange sweet yellow things from the man in the desert, and getting flocked my half naked kids all wanting to rub Sam's golden locks. Sammy drove use safely back dropped us off at the Pushkar Chabad, and after a long crazy day of wild free spirited fun, we brought ourselves back down to earth with a nice Shabbat service and the biggest Shabbat party I have ever seen. Who knew there were so many jews in India??????
SAM IS THE BEST> the end

m.