Pushkar Hassle

Decided to give Udaipur a miss cos of all the travel involved and head straight to Pushkar (push-flower, kar-hand, flower dropped to the ground from Brahman and water spilled out forming the lake...) The lake incidently was where we were very aggressively scammed AGAIN today. Went to our hotel, and agreed to a camel ride (ddin't pay money) which deposited us close to the lake where, as the tour was organised by our hotel, we assumed it to be kosher. Went through a very elaborate good luck ritual with a supposed brahmin who then really aggressively pushed for a "donation", as I really only had very little money on me I offered a small amount (though still large enough not to offend) but this was not enough and another person arrived who offered to drive me to hotel to get more... At this stage, Derek, who had been getting the same thing separately though he actually had no money, and me decided to make our exit!!! We ditched the camels and walked home to the surprise of the staff and our driver. But the lake guy followed us and demanded money, everyone got involved and as it was an obvious scam and seeing noone was prepared to take a stand possibly due to the religious complication I gave him a tiny amount and he was promptly kicked out with threats flying on all sides. Offer of call to police was declined as at this stage we were royally pissed off and in no mood for more hassle. Sometimes this country is just too much....
On the plus side we met some people in the hotel (albeit over 50 and very nice) who we could talk to which really helped cos think we needed an outside outlet. Only a week down but already looking forward to a few days on a beach in Goa...
This travelling is amazing, but exhausting dealing with all the hassle and scams, would give my kingdom for an honest person, I understand it but nothing is what it pretends to be here, an alterior motive to everything. Supposed to be less so down south so we'll have to see. Not fading yet but would like if things were a little easier :-) We're staying here for another day.... so will we meet the dodgy priest again, will the camel driver find us, will we escape the clutches of the ScamMan, tune in tomorrow for another episode. Cos now its friggin freezing and I'm going to bed. Ciao.