Pushkar Camel Fair Oct. 26 - 30

Oct. 26 - 29
Arrived Pushkar at dusk, a couple of kids grabbed our bags and disappeared around a corner heading uphill around a couple of cows. Our floor on the 3rd. floor was adequate and had great hot water and pressure, something rare lately. At the evening prayer call, there was a cloud of bats arising from the old abandoned building across the alleyway. Pushkar Lake which used to be a man made lake used for bathing for the faithful. Earlier this year however it was drained due to the over pollution of the water, basically the sewers emptied into the lake and the government had drained it and was now bulldozing the bottom to make it deeper, god knows what toxins this released into the air after centuries of use. Pushkar has the only Brahmin temple in India.
On the way to check out the lake there was an amazing site of sweet shops making guabjullams and jellabies over open fires.
The next morning we headed for the Mela Grounds or stadium for the camel race and the horse dancing competition. The Camel race was a joke as they raced two laps around the small soccer sized stadium; however the winner cut the last 3 corners and was declared the winner amongst a protesting crowd. The horse dancing was another thing altogether! Nadine & I got to the area early enough to have seats inside the “corral” like area that the horses performed in, so close as to almost have my foot crushed on by a horse that was way out of control.
The camel festival is beyond my ability to describe and the pictures can’t paint a true picture of what’s there. So I’m going to just give my impressions of what I saw. First more camels, horses, cows and buffalo in one place than you can imagine. Huge jet black & snowy white Arabian stallions, raised on the desert and ready to stud, owned by nomads and Indian mafia alike.
Thousands of camels, bedded down next to tents with men lighting fires and cooking chapatties while smoking and passing the chillum around. Herds of buffalo flowing down the streets as Honda Heroes tore by in-between the rickshaws and masses of pilgrims. Snake charmers, acrobats, tight rope walkers, beautiful faced children in rags saying ‘hello” and holding their hands out, dusty sandy tracks; flowing, shimmering, bright saris with gold nose and earring laden women. All with a loud background noise of constant drums and chanting.
Kris won a trophy playing on the visitors’ team against the locals in Kamala, a tag your it like game only with team tackling/wrestling allowed (they came in second vs. the locals). A lot of fun to watch, even if you don’t really know the rules, but really tough to play in the sand, especially if you’re a malnutritioned, diarrhea ridden poor back-packer.
The last morning Kris and I climed up to see Brahma’s 1st. wife’s temple, the view was more impressing than the temple, sipping chai and watching the monkeys play while the sun rose put a stamp on the beginning of the day of travel to Kanpur and old memories.