I am going to start this blog out with noting that the monkeys in India are not nice.  In fact, as cute as they may look from afar, they are downright nasty.  This fact plays an important part what would have been a challenging and meditative hike to the top of one of the hills surrounding Pushkar.

On our camel safari into the desert around Pushkar Helen and I spotted a huge hill outside of town with a big temple on the top.  Our guides indicated that local Indians and spiritual seeking goras (white people) hike up the hill in the late afternoons to catch a sunset over Pushkar from Brahma’s Temple.  Cousin and I are always up for a hike and a bit of exercise so we strapped on our boots, filled up our water bottles, and headed out.  I can’t say that I am the most enthusiastic hiker.  I like the idea of hiking, and I generally have favorable things to say about a hike after it’s over, but during the hike my face turns an alarming shade of splotchy-red and I start wheezing as soon as the incline gets too steep.

All of that said though, I do generally manage to make it to the top of whatever hill I may be hiking and at the top I can be found in pretty high spirits (after all, there’s only downhill left at that point).  In this case though, if you couple the overly supportive Indian women with the vicious monkeys, it was a long, long way to Brahmas Temple.

There path to the temple is pretty straight forward – there is one steep path that snakes its way up the hillside.  We got a bit of a later start than many of the locals so a lot of people were actually coming down the hill as I was huffing and wheezing my way up the hill.  Helen opted to hike a bit faster than I what I was capable of so I was able to indulge myself and take a “contemplative break” break every five minutes or so to look over the desert and give the pulsing blood time to stop throbbing in my temples.

It seems as if the Indian hiking motto, though, is something closer to “just keep going” because every single Indian woman that hiking down the hill and passing by me as I was resting paused long enough to attempt to bodily push me into a standing position and then propel my body higher up the hill.  Now, mind you, I am not over-exaggerating when I say that my face turned all shades of splotchy, blotted, pinky-white-red and I felt like hurling at several points during the hike.  One older Indian woman seemed to catch onto the fact that perhaps I did, in fact, need a rest.  I was panting so hard that she showed genuine concern that I was breathing ok – although she couldn’t speak a lick of English she crouched down beside me and demonstrated some Lamaze-style breathing that was apparently intended to help me catch my breath.

But just when I thought I was finally understood she too grabbed by arm, and with a serious and expression and true conviction she blurted something in Hindi and then shooed me up the hill with waving arms and a big smile.  At this point all I could do was laugh  really – I mean, they were all bound and determined to get me to the top of the hill by sunset so I just surrendered to the moment and exchanged cheery (if breathless) “Namaste” greetings with everyone making their way downhill.

The closer to the top of the hill I climbed, the more and more black and white monkeys I saw dotting the sides of the path.  Always looking for a picture op I whipped out the camera and started snapping some shots.  At about that moment I heard a distinctly Helen-like shriek from higher up the hill.  With a bit more oomph in my step I rapidly ascended the bit higher where Helen was clutching a rock in her hand and guarding herself from the aggressive monkey that had just charged her moments before.

Once she bent down to pick up the rock the monkey scampered off but we could tell that there were only going to be an increasing number of them the closer we got to the top.  People leave food offerings at the temple so there are literally hundreds of monkeys in the area looking for any opportunity to charge you and steal any food out of your hand or bag.  We opted for safety in numbers and continued the last bit to the top.  Naturally though, the whole thing just couldn’t be  that easy.  A mother, father and baby monkey were hanging out on the steps right by the entrance to the temple – we had already dropped our rocks so we slowly approached, hoping that they would scamper off.

Well, wishful thinking on our part.  The father monkey charged us and we swung our purses at him to keep him from attacking us.  Just as we though all hope might be lost one of the people running the temple set off a loud fire-cracker that echoed across the hill and sent all of the monkeys scattering.  We finally reached the top and plopped down in some wicker chairs to admire the view – pretty spectacular views of Pushkar and the sacred lake.  The sunset…not so much. Monsoon season hadn’t arrived yet so it was pretty hazy and the sun really just sunk into the haze.  But, definitely worth all of the work to get to the top – the temple bells rung on the hour and it was a really relaxing and peaceful place (except for the few minutes when they played Hindi pop music – thankfully that switched to meditation music after a few minutes.

After the hike Cousin Helen and I headed back into town to our favorite restaurant (Rainbow Restaurant) and ordered two of what have to be the most delicious lassis in all of India.  The Makhania lassi is made of curd (an Indian dietary staple and a god-send for travelers hoping to keep their GI track all in order) mixed with saffron extract, almond extract, cardemon, and perhaps some rose with cashews, pistachios, pomegranate seeds, pine nuts and coconut sprinkled on top.  A well deserved treat after the strenuous hike – then we had the added bonus of catching a 15 minute random parade in the streets on our way back to Tulsi Palace – not sure what they were celebrating but it was loud, noisy, colorful and chaotic – perfectly Indian really!

Brahma’s Temple video: