Pssst, Wanna buy a camel? Cheap?

We've been on the road for several days with little time to write you. We've been through Pushkar, onto an amazing palace hotel in Jojawar, and now in Udaipur. And no, I didn't buy a camel in Pushkar. Sorry, no camel rides when we get home.

Pushkar is an incredible place, with so many temples, bathing ghats, shops, people, holy men, and yes, camels. The lake at Pushkar is very holy - the place where Brahma dropped a lotus flower if my memory is correct, and it is also one of the very few places where there is a temple to him. Apparently his wife found him dallying with fair maids and cursed him so that people would worship him only there.

Our hotel in Pushkar was at the outskirts of the village - a ten minute walk to the lake past camels, cows, shops, travel agents, the bus station and heaven knows what else. Of course the streets were crowded, with so many pilgrims there for the festival. The fair takes place at the week leading up to the full moon.



At the camel grounds one is awarded with the sight of thousands upon thousands of camels, not there to furnish kitschy pictures for the tourists but for trading and selling. Camels are working animals as we saw on our way through Rajahstan where camel carts are more prevalent than horse carts. Many of the camels are caparisoned with jewelled cloths, wear necklaces of large beads and have patterns shaved into their hair. Some of them too have been blackened around the face or neck, no doubt to increase their desirability to the buyers.



And of course with a fair comes fair grounds. There was a ferris wheel, the usual rides, all gaily painted, and people everywhere - even cotton candy for sale. No corn dogs, though. We went into the arena too, to see the activities there. Camel carts hauling loads of tourists wander through, the horses on show are brought out to be seen (splendid horses, real beauties), and there are acrobats and tightrope walkers. There was even a race among the women which had them racing from the starting point, to a line of water jugs which they then carried on their shoulders back to the start. I'm disappointed to tell you that a local Pushkar girl was not the winner - I do believe an English woman took the honours. No Canadians were entered so we don't know what might have happened if...

Around the lake there are, as I said, many Pilgrims, who come to wash their sins in the holy waters of the lake. The lake is completely surrounded by the ghats, steps which lead down, and one wonders where the entry point of the water is. The ashes of the dead are also placed in the lake - Gandhi's ashes were brought here.

We had Puja ceremony on our second night in Pushkar. We sat on the edge of one of the ghats with our feet bare, a plate next to us with salt, rice, rose petals, red and yellow powder and a coconut. The Brahmin priest led us in a recitation to purge us of sins and to bless our friends and family and then used the paste to smear our foreheads, and placed rice there too which stayed until we washed it off later.