Camel Craziness!!!
Trip Start
Jun 07, 2008
1
65
188
Trip End
Jun 28, 2009
Pushkar,
Rajasthan,
India
Saturday, November 8, 2008
When we went to the city of Pushkar this afternoon, I first saw a pond that was so polluted, it had bottles, flip flops, trash, and tons of junk in it. It was so sad. Then we walked through the town to the holy lake. It is holy because Brahman, the highest Hindu god, made it himself when he dropped petals from his hand
Me at the Royal Tents
. People come here from all over India to wash in the water and then make offerings at the Brahma temple. While we were walking to the lake, an old man in a turban with a tiny thong and carrying a stick ran right past us to get to the lake - I jumped a mile to get out of his way! There were lots of kids with their faces painted and also people missing arms and things. If you are a good Hindu, you are supposed to come here to Pushkar and bathe in the lake to get a place in heaven. It is kind of like the Hindu Mecca. At the lake, there were cows just standing around and there were lots of women and girls bathing. I could not believe it. We could not take pictures because were naked and it was a holy place. Everyone walks down big stairs (called ghats - there are 52 here) to bathe.
Then we went to the temple, which was very crowded with people making offerings of sweets and flowers to the goddess. You had to take your shoes off to go inside and again, no cameras. There were two gods guarding the temple, one was Kuba the god of money and the other was Indra, god of monsoons. This is the only Brahma temple in the world and it is very holy. There were monkeys climbing around everywhere and soldiers with guns to guard the temple.
Camel negotiation
Then we went to the camel festival where we rode a camel cart around to see everything. There are about 20,000 camels at the festival and some of them walk 100-200kilometers to get here. There are also beautiful horses and cows. Plus there are lots of special competitions, like the biggest mustache and the fastest cow milking contest, and there are guys pulling teeth (we saw that!) and cutting hair, and selling tea from a plate on their heads, and women and girls in bright colored saris everywhere. It was very dusty and just crazy. We are back at the tents now where we are going to watch an Indian dance show and have dinner.
At our tents, we don't have showers, just two buckets to clean ourselves. One has water and the other is empty. It is kind of like camping out with lots of other people. There is a big tent where they serve meals, plus a place just to hang out.
Tomorrow we are going back to the festival - I have no idea what I will see!
