”Goodbye” to the hosts and ”Hello Pushkar”

Jagat Palace Hotel in Pushkar

The last day with our hosts started as usual, getting up at 5:45 AM in the morning. Then eating some traditional Indian breakfast, and then heading to the campus, through the crowded and noisy morning traffic of Jaipur. When we arrived we walked through the 3000 pupils of St. Xaviers, with our bags, and walked straight towards the bus, that we have been travelling with throughout the whole journey. The excitement of seeing the bus, led all of us in to a feeling of relief and the feeling of “We did it, we survived through the days, with our Indian host.”

After dropping our bags, we walked straight to the assembly were, we were applauded by the many students of our partner school. The morning assembly of the day was dedicated to NCC (National Cadet Corps) and us. After the NCC’s had given out their awards, we were called upon, and the stage was ours. As we got up there, we one by one got our own cap, with their logo printed onto it.

When the school assembly was over, the crowd walked to their class, but a few remained, our hosts. We then spoke to our host for the last time of our Indian journey and took some pictures. We walked to the bus taking us to Pushkar, and looked out to see the faces of our hosts, in tears. As the bus started driving we all started clapping and we felt like we were on the top of the world. Some of us had a great experience and some of us, had a less great experience, but we all felt relieved that we could now relax, and be our self, in the rest of the days, in the holy city of Pushkar.

When we hit the highway, the quiet period began, and we could finally sleep. Not that we did not sleep at our hosts house, but now we could relax. Our journey so far has been heavily affected by noise, honking cars and an overwhelming amount of people, but we were finally heading to the quiet and holy city of Pushkar. Sitting at our hotel’s reception, we quickly saw and realised how beautiful the Jagat Palace hotel was, compared to Delhi and the other places we have visited. At this hotel, we could sit at our balcony, in silence, and the relief of not hearing a honking horn every third or even every second was so good.

When we met with the class again we started walking towards the inner city of Pushkar. While walking towards the centre of Pushkar we saw a Hindu temple and a lot of wild cows. The cows are very respected in India, and especially in Pushkar, and no matter who’s path it blocks, people slow down and let the cows cross. When we came to the city-centre a lot of roadblocks made out of wooden sticks came up across the road. After getting to the end of the road we were walking at, we got free time, to walk around by our self. We went out eating at a rooftop restaurant, and then went on looking at the many different street shops. While heading back to the hotel, we had in mind that the hotel possessed a swimming pool. That thought made our legs use their very last energy because we were in desperate need of relaxation. We went to the pool, we relaxed and recharged our energy depots. We went to the centre again to get dinner and found a restaurant on a rooftop, where we sat down and ate some dinner.

Albert and Julius