Pushkar: 'Special lassi', Camel Fair
I'm a firm believer that in order to fully experience a country and its culture, you should make an effort to eat what the locals eat. Within reason, of course - I'm looking at you, Iceland...
Lassi is a yoghurt-based drink and can be either savoury (with cumin and other spices) or sweet (with various fruits, sugar, etc - for example, mint and mango are popular flavours). It is very tasty indeed and also serves the purpose of cooling down one's mouth after a particularly spicy meal. So when we got to the holy town of Pushkar, sat down for dinner and saw that the restaurant was proudly offering their 'Special Lassi', what else was there to do but order it?
It arrived, piled high with shredded coconut. The waiter, grinning from ear to ear, set it down on the table and disappeared off to get the rest of our food. Delicious (intensely coconutty!) and very drinkable, we each polished off our lassi in short order.
I think it was about halfway through the meal that the room started to spin. We all noticed this at around the same time. Then, as various other effects began to kick in, I think we began to realise that there was something other than just coconut in our lassis.
Yes, it turns out that in Pushkar - a holy town, like I said - there is quite the market for products that aid in meditation and enlightenment. This is completely legal, to the point where it's on restaurant menus... it's just not actually named.
The rest of the night could best be described as 'interesting' and also, unfortunately, 'largely forgotten'. Still, it's these unexpected experiences that make traveling so fun and rewarding... even if those experiences do come in the form of hallucinogenic yoghurt drinks.
Frankly I'm not sure quite how we managed to make it to the camel fair the following day, but I'm glad we did. I think I'll let the photos do the talking there, though!
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