The Epic Pushkar Camel Fair
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
1
166
221
Trip End
Ongoing
Pushkar,
Rajasthan,
India
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Brahma (the Hindu god of creation) dropped a lotus flower on the Earth and Pushkar floated to the surface. A truly magical place and we hope all of india is like this.
Now, to the fair! This will be a long one, WOW! INDIA. Extraordinary. This is the land of my dreams. I know it's ridiculous but i actually wept tears of relief and happiness when we arrived here because it feels like my home and an intense love affair between India and myself has begun, i think it's lifelong. Either that or i'm jetlagged. We've only just arrived and so much has fallen into place here. I've always said India is calling me and that my lessons are here but it's even more seductive than i imagined it could be. Maybe this will explain the strange teenage obsession i had with the Hindu deities when i had posters of them on my wall and would sit chanting to cassettes of Indian music i had bought at the new age fair. To this day i'm still attracted to the kitsch and gaudy images of Shiva, Ganesh, Vishnu, Brahma, their offspring and crew. Maybe they have something to teach me
Mr Camel Decorator
. The sleeper train was a surprisingly quiet journey apart from a couple of snorers who i silenced by using my emergency ear plugs pilfered from a flight long ago. We had taken the air conditioned tier 3 class which meant that there was six passengers sleeping in close proximity to each other plus extra children snuggled up in some of the beds. The cabin was three story vinyl slabs bunks suspended from the ceiling by thin metal strips and clean linen was supplied. Too easy. You do have to be on guard though and chain up your gear because there's stories of bag slashing and robberies. Bike lock came into play.
I know we carry all this survival gear for a reason. Like the 3.5kg Anaconda tent we have only used a handful of times and Nadine still has condiments like marijuana flavoured spicy noodle sauce from Colombia, perfume in glass bottles and a litre of Heinz tomato ketchup. Sore back perhaps? We've entered the country where we would be upgraded to the status of even more hardcore backpacker (professional league) so it's time to strip down the bags for more comfortable travel. Looks like the Western-traveller-in-India 'turn on, tune in, drop out' look is popular with people buying up the hippie scarves, shoulder bags, genie pants, orange robes and OM t-shirts, not that there's anything wrong with that, they are lightweight. Maybe this is how you keep your bag weight down, just wear the same clothes everyday then buy anything you need as you go. I'm sure we'll come home wearing the technicolour ecletic hippie ensemble
beauty
. Either that or white, flowing kaftans and bindis tattooed over our third eyes on our forehead. Clothing is colourful and cheap and so is accommodation. A room for two people is 150-200 rupees, the equivalent of about AU$2.75 each. Street food starts at about 21 Australian cents for a vegetable samosa with spicy sauce and a cup of good chai is around 18cents, bottled water is 30cents a pop. There is hot water available too so we are laughing.How long did we say we would be staying in India? Sitar or flute lessons? Indian Cooking anyone? Yoga? Meditation? Silence retreat? Trekking? So much to do here and so much to see. Plus i've stumbled on a great business idea in the import / export field that i have passion for and that seems to motivate me. Bingo! I was waiting for the next career path to unfold (like i had one before). I've decided never to work again. The work must be my passion, it must be purposeful, it must be creative and i must love it. A big ask maybe. Many people have told us that it's impossible to see all of India in 6 months but we've decided we could have a fairly good glance at the highlights then later return to anywhere we want to spend more time.We've decided to lighten the bags, do the travel bit of Rajastan, Mumbai, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet, India Himalaya region then back to Delhi then we will most likely be out of money and on our way home.
Back to the trains, there has also been known to be wandering Indian hands annoying Western women in their sleep and worse stories of gassing of the compartments but our first Indian railway journey was a success
smoking
. You had to wake up early or use the alarm clock because the train only stops quickly at each station. We spilled out half asleep onto the platform in Ajmer and were greeted by pushy rickshaw touts who did the 'my fare fight' which involved lots of pushing and raving at each other whilst we just sauntered on past them and onto the road to hail our own guy. I have a safety, won't-get-kidnapped-this-way-rule that we not get in waiting transport but flag it ourselves. The guy took us to the local bus station where we fought hard to get on a bus to take us from Ajmer to Pushkar. The locals had come from villages all around Pushkar and further for the great Camel Fair extravaganza and the pilgrims heading into town for a dip in the Holy Lake added to the mass of people makings all the buses sardine full. We squeezed ourselves onto a bus much to the amusement of the heavily decorated passengers in their camel fair best and most colourful clothing. Our bags are just so big and we were in danger of squashing one of the little old, smiley, gold hoop nose piercing wearing, Rajastani women. The driver tapped us with a bamboo stick until we got off. Hmmm..... how to get to the fair. When we saw the next bus leaving we ignored the conductor and ran up the ladder at the rear, heaved our backpacks onto the roof then boarded the bus with the daypack, no questions asked. Into Pushkar. We trekked in to Akash (sky) Hotel and met the wonderful, gentle and very centred boys who run the show there
festival turban
. We were shown to our canvas tent on the rooftop of their cafe and were happy with the location, right amongst the action of the fair which was in full swing. Big babboon style monkeys were swinging around the rooftops with us. We had booked the last available accommodation we could find over the fair when the town is sold out and rooms are 4-10 times the normal prices. We thought we would be sharing a tent dorm style but had some good privacy and our own little garden courtyard with hammock. It was like camping on a roof. Beautiful Indian boys would bring us chai whenever we asked and they even helped us back to health with lemon, ginger and honey teas when we both got just-arrived-in-a-new-country-colds. There was primo views to the street action below and sacred cows were wandering around below us. Pushkar is a meat, alcohol, eggs, fish and drug free town (Hindu) so the cows are safe and they know it so they just laze around in the streets eating leftovers and road rubbish and blocking traffic. The sacred cows are supposedly living symbols of Mother Earth, people sometimes kiss them even though they're covered in flies. Kissing is also not allowed in public. We have already decided not to eat meat for health reasons anyway so vegetarian we are once again. Also below us at the hotel are some pot, wok and urn sellers who sell their wares by weight and these guys are very popular at the fair for trade. They are also our personal alarm clocks. So, we're woken up very early by the clash and banging of the pot guys setting up their stalls on the street, motorbikes rev up and a whole variety of anonymous noises that we can't work out
smiling faces in a crowd
. One morning we were woken very early by the Sadhus as the orange mass of robes made it's way through town in a parade complete with drums and all at 6am. There's lots of dogs but we are yet to see a cat in India. Do they eat the cats? It's good for getting us into the swing of daily life time schedules in India. Early to bed and early to rise, they know who gets the worm. There seems to be a quiet time at night when people turn of music, all is silent and everyone sleeps between about 11pm and 5am then like clockwork they are all up and wide awake and the day begins for everyone at the same time. People don't generally lie in like us and look at us like we're mad if we do get up late. They're right of course. One morning i got a fright when i woke up in the tent with a giant monkey standing on my head from outside the tent. The Akash lads scared it away with sticks and firecrackers. Five minutes after we arrived there was a grand procession through the streets called the spiritual walk with decorated camels, men dressed as the monkey god and all the holy men dressed in their saffron robes waltzing to the streets with bells, chimes and drums as the soundtrack.
The Pushkar Fair, or Pushkar Mela, is the world's largest camel fair attracting 200 000 people and 50,000 camels and livestock including cows, sheep and goats. The first part of the fair is for the camels. Some of the people had walked their camels a very long way through the desert to make trade and many of them had set up their camps in the desert on the edge of town like gypsies
checking each other out
. Some were gypsies. The camels are jazzied up and groomed using pom poms, mirrors, bells, flowers, paint and strands of coloured plastic beads to make them more popular for sale or for rides for the tourists. Some of them had extra long eyelashes drawn on or the fur was shaved into intricate designs. The camels were dinosaurs sized compared to the ones in Egypt or Morocco that we got to know. There was even camel jewellery for sale and we actually met a guy who is a Camel Decorator by trade, it was written on the business card he gave us, like we need the service often. As the fair went on, the camel trading ceased and the more fun fair aspect of the fair started. There were all kinds of people busking like men with cobras in baskets and monkeys dressed in suits and tutus, musicians, mystics, children on tightropes balancing pots on their heads and there were lots of competitions. The women all go shopping in town in packs buying up textiles, bracelets, clothes, cooking utensils, toys and fabrics. The people from Rajastan are known for their colourful clothes. The men are decked out in turbans of different colours depending on their caste or religion and they are worn piled high onto their heads. There's a special multi-coloured turban worn at festivals. The ladies are beautiful in glittering saris in bright colours of purple, green, yellow, orange, red, or blue worn over the top of mirrored skirts with headscarves. They had all their jewellery on including large, gold, hooped nose piercings, bindis on the foreheads, henna, bracelets, hair oil and kohl around the eyes
home-made tattoo
. They are like glorious gemstones floating around town, very catching to the eye. When they all go shopping together, it's quite the sea of colour as saris and gold flashes around as they wander around shading themselves under sparkling headscarves.The whole affair was a flurry of colour, sound and movement and i did my best to capture some of that in the photographs. Lots of video footage too. In the end i decided that it just can't be captured and was happy with two good shots as a representation of the fair. There's alot of inappropriate times when westerners take photographs and i often wish they were a little more discreet. I preferred to take it all in with the eyes instead of the camera all the time. The two good shots were enough. One is of a beautiful lady who was a mother hen to many younger women from a small, rural village and in the shot she is wearing her headscarf and laughing because she's shy of the camera. Her younger companions were very happy to have their photo taken and all crowded around me to see the shots, then they wanted more and more shots done until i had to escape out of there, they were fascinated. The other good shot is of the camel grounds where a lady in headscarf is setting fire to camel dung and the smoke is thick around her. There's camels seen through the smoke behind her and somehow her face is still clear. I took it from the back of a camel trailer we were ridingn on. I like this one the best.
Pushkar town lies on the shore of Pushkar Lake which has rows and rows of ghats for bathing
no room to move
. It has five principal temples and many other smaller ones, it's a major Hindu pilgrimage site and has one of the world's few Brahma Temples. The Camel Fair happens during the month of Kartika, the 8th lunar month of the Hindu calendar and co-incides with Kartik Purnima (night of the full moon) when pilgrims come to bathe in the lake although many people don't know the date and bathe anytime. The camels have all gone home by the end and it's all about the pilgrims. Thousands of devotees come to wash away their sins and set candles afloat on the mystical lake. On the first day we ventured down to the lake at dusk, removed our shoes as is the custom and went in for a closer look at the pilgrims doing the sacred bath. There were people chanting and making offerings to glittering shrines of the deities, incense filled the air, people were splashing each other and themselves with the holy water from the lake or collecting it for use later, bells were ringing, people were floating dishes with flowers and candles out onto the lake, throwing little edible sweets and generally having a good time too. Whilst walking around all the steps of the ghats taking in the lake from different angles we came across a group of people drumming and singing merry Hindu songs in front of a beautiful Krishna statue. There's music all over Pushkar and it is happy music like flutes, tablas, folk instruments and sitars and wonderful medicine type songs. People wear anklets of bells that jingle as they walk
beloved chai tea boy
. There are priests here who offer flowers to foreigners so they can throw them in the lake and bless their loved ones at home, for a large fee. We were offered many times the flowers but turned them all down. Instead we did our own private prayers, washed our feet in the holy water and soaked our quartz crystals that we found in the ground in Egypt and were satisfied with our effort.Some of the holy cows were decorated for the fair with pink or blue paint on the horns and we saw a five legged cow that we were told was even more special. This was seen with some fake sadhu type men with begging tins so we are not sure if they had faked the extra leg or not, it was jutting out from the cow's neck!
The first day we were very happy to see our first Sadhu Holy man (yogi). Sadhu is a common term for practitioner of yoga who has given up pursuit of the first three Hindu goals of life, kama (enjoyment). artha (practical objectives) and even dharma (duty). The sadhu is solely dedicated to achieving moksha (liberation) through meditation and contemplation of God. Sadhus often wear ocre-colored clothing, symbolizing renunciation. They give up money, social position and authority and have a very special place in Hindu society. They live on donations from people and live in caves, forests and temples all over India when not travelling from one sacred site to another reciting poetry, singing songs and carrying icons. I like these guys. This first one was half-naked, covered in ash with sandalwood paint on his head, playing the tamborine as he sat cross legged in a cage made from garlands of orange and yellow flowers and was playing a tamborine
proud camel
. Later down a side street on the way to the lake we found the main sadhu hang out where they all sat around, dreadlocks swimming on the ground around them, chanting and smoking together in front of beautiful statues and surrounded by copious amounts of flowers and petals.Most days we would hire a driver of one of the decorated camels pulling shaded carts decorated with flowers where we would sit whilst the camel would take us on journeys around the fair site and out into the desert where all the cattle, horses, camels and people doing business were. Saves us walking around in the hot desert. There were gatherings of men in turbans chatting away over tea and pipes and taking refuge from the sun under the shade of their camels. Many people were as interested in us as we were in them. Many people want their photograph taken with you and try to touch your skin. Some have only seen westerners in the movies. One morning whilst strolling alone i managed to collect a whole crew of police men asking me all the standard questions of are you married? what is your profession? what do you think of the cricket? how long you stay here? would yuo like some tea?etc etc. Young men between the ages of 12 and 17 seem to take the most interest in us and with the support of a crew of a few mates the bolder ones will come up to you and struke up a conversation to show off in front of their mates. Once they find out you are friendly they will ask more and more personal questions and a larger group will start forming around you, growing and growing until it's nearly impossible to escape
jalebis- deep fried batter in sugar syrup
. Is this what Brangelina (Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt) feel like in the street? Stuff that! Children would chase the cart and catch rides on the back when the driver wasn't looking. One time a child got a smack for his efforts from a policeman with a bamboo stick. There were large piles of camel poo dried and stashed by the gypsies which we think they use as fuel for fires used for cooking. On one of the days we tacked on to a complimentary camel safari trip into the desert and were joined by an English pianist who lives in Goa and who filled us in on some good India tips for beginners. The safari took us into the desert where we listened to some energetic Rajastani musicians and were filmed by an Indian TV station as we danced. Because there has been bomb threats in the area, we were kept under the watchful eye of the police whilst on the safari. Sadly, the vendors all report less visitors this year because of the threats.
There's a group of very beautiful, fully adorned gypsy women, daughters from one family i think, who make money by having their photographs taken by tourists. These ladies work in a pack and have an older woman (the mother perhaps) who controls them. At one point the mother woman asked me for a lit cigarette which she then took between her palms, looked me in the eye and did some kind of smoke curse on me. I think it was for good and not to hurt me but you never know. Have i been struck with the curse of the gypsies?
We did alot of just wandering around taking in the atmosphere
a living mass
. The most popular shops in town were the sword sellers, the pot guys, the bracelet sellers and the fabric shops. I tried camel milk ice-cream and the verdict was not so good so i gave it to a child. We drank yoghurt lassi (not all that safe from the street due to tap water addition) and ate apple crumble and foil wrapped chocolate balls. The natural sugar cane juice was refreshing although i forgot it was made with unpurified water. Not sick yet though. We had chai with an old school puppeteer from Jaipur who played us music on ancient folk instruments and did a puppet show. Later, i bought a pair of traditional puppets from him. The sideshow alley side of the fair is very in interesting. They had three retro ferris wheels and a pirate ship (pirates are everywhere) that were popular and one of the days we went to a Crusty Demons of Dirt style, sphere of death type car / motorbike show. The cars and bikes would drive around a space that was like a huge bowl with straight sides made from timber. The daredevil drivers would floor it as they drove around and around the sides of the bowl edging closer and closer to the spectators who were peering over the lip of the bowl into the action below. The stunt men would hang out of the car doors and wave at the crowd whilst their cars were on their sides at right angles to the floor. A sketchy operation that lasted for about ten minutes then it was over and the young lads paraded around like evil kinevil and were proud as punch when we took their photo.
There was also some strange carnival set ups amongst the shoot a balloon with an air rifle stands and they were basically magic shows that we thought were hilariously funny
a serious contestant
. The set ups consisited of a front entrance that had paintings of the freaky acts you were likely to encounter within like the half man / half woman, scary dracula type freaks, bellydancers, world's strongest woman or giant reptiles. There was usually a couple of spruikers on microphones, some carnie offspring and very bad dance music screeching from speakers in the hope of attracting attention to the shows. Inside they had three young ladies up on stage dressed up in evening gowns or western type hip hop street clothes who would do a terrible dance that was either a mixture of Bollywood bellydancing and kids suburban hip hop classes or Shakira music video clips and bad soap opera television poses. Terrible. One of the shows had a transvestite performer who all the ladies picked on. Don't worry, i have it all on film. The carnies would pull the curtains back at the entrance so people could get a glimpse in to the show and maybe be tempted to come inside then they would quickly shut it again in the hope that people would like to see more and part with their 10 rupees (AU$35cents). At first we though this spectacular dancing was the show and thought it a little un-Indian to pimp out your daughter to a carnie show but we soon realised that they were all part of the cast in cool magic shows. The tricks were all old school like pretending to saw a person in half, Houdini escapes, pulling a rabbit out of a hat, a dove out of a scarf or swallowing razor blades and all the tricks were presented by the ladies who displayed the most obscure kind of detachment devoid of any showmanship
contestants & proud moustaches
. This attitude seemed to work for them and added to the comedy value. Even the tracks on the music soundtrack backing them up were a little hurdy gurdy.Another cool carnie set up had a similar fair frontage to the others but once you paid your 5 rupees and entered you were confronted with a long table on which sat numerous glass jars filled with strange oddities all suspended in liquids. There were things like a giant squid, a lobster, a fish, a stingray, a still born cow, a human still born baby with too many limbs, a chicken with it's feathers on and a small shark. The idea was to make them all scary and strange but somehow they were not.
There was one gypsy family of performers who had three children ranging in ages from 1 to 8 whose faces the parents had drawn moustaches onto and had them jump through tiny hoops, do contortionist acrobatics and balance on poles and tightropes with objects on their heads. They always drew a big crowd but we were saddened beacuse the children always looked exhausted by the end of it. I suppose the money raised in bakeesh at the fair would keep the family going for a long time after the tourists and pilgrims have moved on.
The favourite competition of the fair was the best moustache competition where there a few Indian guys showing their pride and joy facial hair to an adoring crowd of tourists, locals and paparazzi who were whipped up into a frenzy when one of the lads would let a long moustache loose after concealing it up in a turban or behind his ears or passing it off as sideburns
papparazi & moustache competition winner
. The Indians are known for their wacky moustaches. I couldn't get close for many photo opportunities but later spotted the winner waltzing down the street, moustache hairs looped around his neck like a necklace and thrown over his shoulder and managed to snap the shot everyone was after. We also saw a water pot carrying race and some musical chairs competition that the locals all seemed to find crazy funny.We went to the Rainbow Cafe on the lake a few times for sunset when it's a magical time and bells ring out around the lake. Another good restaurant we went to is the Tibetan Cafe set in a garden where they do good sizzlers. Another good one was Moon Dance, all played good lounge tunes. So far we have been eating vegetable samosas, naan bread made from potatoes filled with Israeli salads and eggplant. We are slowly merging in and have eaten at a couple of restaurants with good Indian dishes. It's all a little spicy for my tastes but there is no choice. We're also very keen on the Bhuja mix, the ingredients of which are presented on large silver platters then mixed up in front of you and syphoned into newspaper cones. It's real name is chiwda in India but people call it Bombay mix. It consists of a variable mixture of spicy dried ingredients, which may include fried lentils, peanuts, chickpea flour, noodles, corn, vegetable oil, chickpeas, flaked rice and fried onion. This is all flavoured with salt and a blend of spices that may include coriander and mustard seed
traditional puppets
. We are completely addicted to masala chai tea which is made by brewing tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian spices and herbs. Most masala chai recipes incorporate cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, star anise, peppercorns and cloves but the recipe can be made to taste as you like. There's one recipe of Nadines at ther start of this blog. The tea is sold on every corner and i really love the guys who sell it in Pushkar. They're recognizable by their uniform of big orange turban made from lots of fabric and white kaftan shirt with matching thai fishy style robe pants. They carry a stand and a large, round, silver platter on top of which sits the urn, a ladle and some small cups made from clay or plastic. The whole urn and tray rig is carried on their head using the turban as support. A mobile masala shop. Very suave. So, i bought a turban as a costume and fully intend to have a stint at being the chai man at home in Australia by drawing a moustache on my face and serving masala up to friends.On the final day of the fair, full moon day there were thousands of people in the streets, many had been dipping in the holy lake and were very happy, their sins had been washed away. The calculations had been done and this day of the moon is said to be the holiest day for the Hindus to do the dip. Moon is luna in Spanish and i think this is where the word lunatic comes from. People all get a little looney on the moon days. Today was no exception. We took up position on a rooftop and watched the crowd below us who would all look up and wave at us, we felt like the Queen and it was a little embarassing to have so many eyes on us at the same time
monkey action
. An hour after we had sat down, the sheer numbers in the market crowd became impossible to control and it nearly came to a stand still. It was just a sea of black hair and coloured saris. The crowd would surge backa nd forth and ballooned out into some of the stores on the manin street. Shop keepers were beating people back with sticks to protecet their stock. This crazy crowd eventually moved and thinned a little bit and the peace was kept and we were able to get out to the mela ground. I've never seen anything like it. Some foreigners reported being groped in the market but it was more likely the hands came from pickpockets looking for an opportunity. You've got to watch your gear eagle eye style. This We've given the Anaconda tent away to a band of gypsie who live in desert nomad style tents. Nadine met a child on the way to the post office who showed her around the gypsy family tents on the edge of the desert in the hope of getting her to buy some flour for making chappati bread. It was a ploy to make money like the children who always ask for money for the baby sister's powdered milk formula. They were poor though and had many children so Nadine offered them the tent we no longer want to carry and then showed them how to erect it in front of a huge crowd of excited onlookers. They promised her it would come in handy for the rainy season but it was more likely they would try to sell it on for rupees.
Beggars are very common and we give a very small amount to those who really strike our hearts
the ironing kid
. The people i find it most difficult for are the ones who have no legs or severely disfigured and twisted limbs, life must be difficult for these ones. Some of them have just a top half of a body and get around shuffling on wooden boards or pulling themselves along amongst the filth on the road with flip flops on their hands. I gave to a guy today whose tiny twisted legs were stuck in a splits position and he shuffled along with them jutted out underneath him in all sticking out in opposite directions. This guy bowed by nodding his head and clasped his hands together touching the red dot painted onto his third eye on his forehead in gratitude and flashed me his rotten teeth when he produced a giant smile. I probably only gave him the equivalent of AU20cents. There's so many children begging and you just can't give to them all. They look at you with the little eyes whilst clinging to your kneecaps and ask for money "no mama, no papa, money?", put their hands to their mouths to signify they need food or just cling to you with a smaller sibling baby on their hip following you around for half an hour. There's so many and they can get vicious. We've been pushed and scratched but sometimes we give.We've done some shipping to Australia already and the process was to take the goods to the post office and have them inspected, re-packed then a guy sits on a sewing machine and sews the package up in a calico fabric and addresses it, you do a little prayer as you send the goods off and away they go to sit on a boat for three months and maybe make it home.
Nadine has been chewing alot of the betel nut supari lollies which is sold in little foil packets strung together and suspended out the front of many shops in Pushkar. You can also get it fresh. Many men chew it and spit it out here and i think it's addictive. Sometimes it's mixed with cardamom, menthol or sandal oil.
My favourite phrase is "As you like" and "anything is possible", these two are used often especially by vendors.
Shanti, Shanti (peace)
