Pushkar

We've gone into the desert! It's blazing hot, well above 90 degrees, into the 50s or lower at night.






Less than 250 miles from the Pakistan border, we're at the Pushkar Festival. Pushkar Lake is perhaps India's holiest lake. What started as a pilgrimage centuries ago evolved into a fair as devotees started including entertainment, markets, and trading livestock. For more than 500 years it has been known as the Pushkar Camel Fair.

For 10 days in the Fall, devotees, livestock buyers and sellers, and tourists, especially photographers, swarm this small town for one of the most colorful events one could imagine.

There are thousands of each type of livestock, and I'm not a good judge of most, but we've seen the most spectacular horses here. The noticeable difference from horses at home is that these have beautifully curved and pointed ears. But they are strong, graceful, and extremely athletic horses with beautiful lines.

However, the undisputed stars of this show are the camels - and there were thousands of them.. Not obviously attractive or athletic, with two knees on each hind leg, they're very strong and work tirelessly, and apparently bond with their owners. They're clearly a major part of the work force in this part of the world.

Tourists actually buy camels (who knew??), usually to attempt to resell them a few days later for a profit, but they virtually always come up short.  As the sun went down, the merchants prepared for sleep - and so did the camels











We're staying in a tented camp, reputed to be owned by a maharajah, and one of the most luxurious places in town. There is a western-style toilet, a hose and nozzle for a shower (pleasantly warm from the afternoon sun; very cold in the morning!). We even have “swamp” air conditioning, water running through weeds with a fan blowing, surprisingly effective. Sand and thorns everywhere, walking is an adventure. Even from 2 miles away, and despite the fact that much of this world rises before sunrise and sleeps when the sun goes down, we still heard the revelry from the camel fairgrounds at 2 a.m.

We took two separate camel cart rides through the livestock areas, one near sunset as the sun disappeared into the dust.









We arrived after the camel races and camel dancing, but attended the Indian Brides Competition (actually models from Ireland to Israel to France to Brazil) who got to dress up – 16 separate steps from head to toes, taking hours and hours to get dressed – in gorgeous Indian wedding sarees.










The next morning Fran woke up early to watch the sunrise.  Within 2 minutes of her appearance outside the tent, our cabin attendant came by and asked if he could bring her some coffee. What a country!!!









On Day 2 we went to Pushkar Lake for a blessing ceremony from a Hindu priest. To get there we had to cross a parade complete with revelers, circus acts and holy men.









 As the camel fair was winding down, pilgrims were arriving to Old Pushkar town in droves to celebrate a religious holiday. Pushkar began to look like Varanasi as people took their ritual baths in the river in the morning (little water this year because of the drought),

Particularly touching was watching an older couple dunking their heads in the lake as they were holding hands.  Our guide told us that it is common for couple who've been married for a while to make a pilgrimage and give thanks while bathing, for all the blessings bestowed on their families.


Afterwards, we returned to the fairgrounds and watched acrobatic demonstrations, various animal acts and a competition that resembled a combination of tag and rugby.

On day 2 at Pushkar it didn't take long for us to feel overwhelmed by the crush of humanity. We cancelled our afternoon sightseeing - To quote a popular Far Side cartoon, our brains were full and we asked to be excused. We retreated to camp where we spent the afternoon resting. In the evening we ate dinner [Here's a picture of the tented dining room] and enjoyed local folk dancers by a bonfire.

 An orthopaedic surgeon and his wife, from Los Angeles, are here, same travel company, this is the third city we've seen each other. They travel widely, to very different places (Antarctica, north of the Arctic Circle, Tibet, Nepal, etc.), but it's fun sharing travel stories.