I got to sleep in today to 8am. I had to boil 5x kettles of hot water in order to have a decent wash. I had walked to the main street in Pushkar by 9am to flag a bus to take me to Ajmer. I only had to wait for around 15mins. It was easy to catch the bus and it was dirt cheap at ₹20 each way.
The main sites visited today:
1) Taragarh Fort - not a fort per se, effectively walls now.
2) Ajmer Lake.
3) Khwaja Gharib Nawaz Dargah Sharif and bazaar streets.
As I navigated my way through Ajmer, it was quite a struggle to find a vehicle to take me to Taragarh Fort. I decided to simply ask a tuk tuk driver how much it would cost and we agreed on a price for him to take me to all the places I needed to visit
As we headed towards the fort the tuk tuk struggled to get up the hill. I had a look at the statue as the tuk tuk took a break. The driver kept saying no fort...which got me concerned that I was about to be scammed. He indicated that there was a mosque at the top. I reiterated that I wanted to get to the top, regardless what was up there.
Half way up the zigzagging road, a motorcyclist came up saying that he would take me up to the mosque, as we were going dead slowly on the tuk tuk. It was a scam muslim parishioner trying to be a guide. He said that I should pay the tuk tuk driver and he would take me the rest of the way. Then I stated the "knock out words" -I pay my tuk tuk driver for the whole day, which meant that there was no way the tuk tuk driver was going to let that money go. I wasn't sure if the tuk tuk driver was part of the scam or not. The motorcyclist would be seen again at the top later trying to offer his guide services i.e. scam you for more money.
Once you get to the top, the main attraction was the mosque (Dargah). Nobody knew about the fort! I did miss out on some of the walls (main fort) but that was because most of the areas were not easily accessible.
The entire mosque zone is full of religious scammers. They try to pressure you, which destroys the atmosphere. You just have to ignore them. So many beggars here. It puts a heavy stain on the muslim religion.
On the way down the hill you can see the fort walls. This is the money shot.
The tuk tuk driver then dropped me at an Airtel store where I could purchase additional 5G data pack that would see me to the end of the trip. Foreign debit/credit cards cannot be used within the Airtel App to make payments.
My final stop was the Ajmer Lake. Here I paid the tuk tuk driver, who actually tried to haggle for more. This was not possible with me. A fixed price contract will not be deviated regardless of how much begging is had.
Ajmer Lake was quite well paved along the water's edge. But like all water sources in India, it is dirty and full of rubbish. At least there was a space to get away from the hussle and bustle of normal Indian streets.
I did find a gem of an elevated city view. A poorish area with astounding views.
From there I walked the steets to Delhi Gate and through the busy bazaar towards
Khwaja Gharib Nawaz Dargah Sharif. It was very busy indeed. I didn't go inside of the mosque as it was just too busy.
I did visit a place that had a crazy huge model of some celestial 'world'. It was rather impressive. Sadly, it was all behind glass that could have done with a good cleaning.
Getting back to Pushkar was more challenging than I had expected. I forgot to tag the bus stop location in the morning. Even the locals had no idea. Luckily a tuk tuk driver organised for another driver to take me to the correct bus stop (costing the same ₹10 I had paid in the morning). We also collected a couple of passengers who were also heading to Pushkar! I just tagged along to get onto the correct bus to Pushkar, and back to the hotel. Talk about lucky convenience.
At night I took it easy and had a simple meal. Many hotels were smashing out the music for NYE. However, I went past one loud hotel that had zero patrons...so sad 😅. Better not to dance by yourself there. It is just some flexing.
I was still able to get a decent rest and upload all my pictures for the day. It was a hectic day.
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