Pushkar Camel Fair
Trip Start
Jul 28, 2007
1
18
90
Trip End
Nov 10, 2008
Pushkar,
India
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Unfortunatley, I was told when I arrived that I missed the best day with all the camel parades and competitions! I was really disappointed, I really enjoyed that in Bikaner last year.
Anyways, I went to the festival site and found the camels..........there were so many of them everywhere! Not many were beautifully decorated though, only the ones taxiing people around the site which they called a "Camel Safari"! Here the camels are painted in black. It's like a tattoo or make up. It's not really nice. I prefer when they wear all the pompoms and are shaved nicely. It was impressive to see so many camels, but they were just sitting and laying there eating. There were some activities during the day like a race with water pots, rope pulling, human pyramid, camels races (a caucasian guy participated and his camel couldn't run, quite funny!), Indian army parachute demonstration. Every night there was a show with several musicians and dancers in beautiful costumes from Rajasthan.
The best thing was the colorful crowd. And I mean BIG CROWD! It was so busy! I love it! The people were so colorful in their best outfit! A lot of them come for the festival, but also on pilmigrage. The lake in Pushkar is holy hence the whole city is a holy place and completely vegetarian. I had lots of Israeli food, a nice change! Every day in the morning and evening people go to the ghats to bath and everywhere in the city you can hear the sound of the bells and speakers. It's not as bad as a mosque though and I can sleep through it. It's actually a very nice mystic sound. Every morning I had breakfast on a rooftop and watched the people.
Of course with such a crowd there were a few harassing moments. I had to keep my hands on my camera or a gypsy with lipstick everywhere and way too much khol would grab my hand and start making a henna design on my palm! They kept coming to me and asked to have their picture taken for money. There were carying tiny little babies in a bag on their shoulder! The usual camel safari, camel taxi was offered to me every 20 minutes. One day I was surrounded by 5 men, apparently I was more interesting than the competition going on at the time. For once, they were not too bad.
I was in a good mood and decided to try a snack I see almost every day in India. They always sell it at the bus stand. It's like an Indian version of a trail mix, perfect for someone like me who likes to munch on salty stuff except that this is not salty it's frecking hot! It's a mix of dried noodles, peanuts, chick peas and other small things like that which you mix with onion and tomato and a few spices. It really looks delicious..........I had a very small portion that I took with 2 fingers...........shit! I thought I had put fire into my mouth! I quickly gave it to a young boy and ran to get some chai. But I still wasn't satisfied, I really wanted to try it...................so I went to another guy and I asked for a special one. The poor guy didn't understand English, but I manage to make him understand that he had to make a new one for me without any masala. I did eat this one, but it was a bit boring, not enough taste! Maybe I will try it again................
The festival finished on Saturday, but on Sunday the place was still buzzing. The camels were gone by then, but people were still shopping for a few knick knacks and food before heading back home in a truck. Sugar cane seemed to be the thing to buy for some reason!
When I came to Pushkar last year I met a family of musicians and went with another tourist to their tent to eat dinner. They always work at the same place where people go to watch the sunset. So I went there and they spotted me from far away (I was wearing the same red hat as last year). They are very good at begging since really that's there job and have everything to win by recognizing people. I should have known............... I was quite happy to see them and I bought chai for everyone. I stayed with the mother who is 40 and has 11 children, I almost felt guilty not to have any myself! The father plays a traditionnal instrument while his daughter sings and that's how they earn a few roupies. The girl also sells small ankle bracelets when she is lucky.
After the sunset, the mother asked me if I could buy them 2 blankets. There you go! I said I would check how much they are first. So we went to a shop and the blankets were 60Rs, 120Rs. I thought that was quite reasonnable to help a poor family and told her I would come back on Saturday to buy the blankets and go see the children. The festival ended and Saturday night came so I went back to the sunset place to see them. The mother took me to a different market this time where I ended up buying 2 blankets for 450Rs. Shit! That's my budget for one day! Not a good timing now that I feel broke after having to buy a new camera. Anyways, she seemed happy and it's good karma. It's probably the only family I will be able to help on the trip so I kind of felt good about it.
We walked in the sand to get to their tent (really a plastic roof on 4 sticks) and got there late. The youngest one wasn't upset because his mom was late but because she hadn't brought any sweets and even though he doesn't speak English I am sure he said "chocolate". Man, kids are the same everywhere, rich or poor! I wasn't gonna give them the chocolate I had bought after spending so much on the blanket, but the poor thing was crying.............so I got my 50Rs worth of chocolate out and handed them out. Shortly safter, Raju and her father arrived and she had sweets for the kids! They told me to eat and drink my chai and that I could go after that! They didn't eat with me and if my memory is rignt they did the same thing last year so I wonder if they actually eat diner or did I eat their food..............................
