Camel festival in Pushkar

Me, on festival grounds
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Oh my!  Every day has been long and full of wonderful things and difficult things.  Let's see, we left Delhi and stayed for one night in Jaipur, called "pink city" because the old city has a special pink paint wash, more like an orange, really.  We took a little rickshaw tour and saw the outside of the fort there, but no time to enter.  We did have a lovely dinner with some new French friends we met near the train.  They were lovely, and it felt comforting to share stories with others in the midst of this chaos.  After dinner, we had some drinks at a nice hotel bar.  Finally, one of the waiters took some time to help me with a few Hindi words.  I always like to learn a little, and now after learning simple "thank you", some people seem happy and friendlier because I am making an effort.  Hotel in Jaipur was fine and lovely for the most part...except that I looked over during my morning shower and noticed a man peering in at me!  He quickly went away.  Now we are in Pushkar during the time of this huge camel festival.  The festival seems to have 2 purposes: religious, and commercial.  Devout Hindus come from all over on pilgrimage to bathe in the lake and wash away their sins (I know, Carma and I should really jump in that tub!), and tourists from all over come to see the camels, festivities, and enjoy the ambiance of this very tourist friendly town.  Hotel Peacock Holiday, which I booked from home, had a few surprises in store for us.  The lock on our door did not work, there was a huge hole in the window screen letting in all kinds of bugs, and a lizard was also living in the bathroom, not to mention the griminess everywhere.  Well, I asked if we could switch rooms and they were quite accommodating, our new one is much better.  The festival is interesting.  It is a little overwhelming for us to to amidst so many people when we are still adjusting and a little in shock of being here.  We are struggling the most with the attention from the men, and with feeling like we are cheated by everyone.  Men purposely get as close as they can to grab, touch, or brush against us at any opportunity, which is easy for them to do with the crowds of people here.  We have been elbowed frequently and dodged many hands reaching for our body parts, unfortunately, a few of their attempts have been successful!  Gross!  Men also like to say things to us, sometimes just "hello" or "thank you", other time, it is more disturbing, like, "Hello, fancies!"  I think the men, especially the young ones, are quite sexually repressed here and feel they can touch western women and get away with it. Any one else have speculations on why this occurs?  As for being cheated, we arranged for a 3 hour camel tour, which ended up being 3 preteen boys who had no idea where they were taking us of for how long, leading us around the camel grounds and nearby desert area for 2 hours only.  But it was really beautiful, and I enjoyed it a lot, definitely a once in a lifetime experience.  We also took a walk on the sacred path around the lake and saw many holy men  who have traveled from all over to be here.  I think it is like a little sacred party opportunity for them to meet up together, after spending so much time alone.  Today is the culmination of the festivities here, and the town in packed.  The most sacred bathing time in the lake is midnight, not sure if we will catch it or not, we have a pretty early bus and then train to catch.  After this, we will go to Agra for one day to see the Taj Mahal, and then up to Hardiwar for the Mahasamadhi celebration (10th anniversary of Swami Rama leaving is body, yes, that means he has passed on.  FYI, he founded Himalayan Institute, an east/west health care facility now located all over the world).  Overall, we are doing well.  No big sickness of problems yet.  The food has been awesome.  You can easily get pizza and even Mexican and Japanese options in some places.  I have a little cold, but it is manageable.  Emotionally, this feels like a roller coaster and I am so glad we are together to process it all.  The noise everywhere has been tremendous, we are not sleeping well, but hopefully good sleep will come soon.  Why the hell we did not bring ear plugs, I do not know, but hopefully we can find some soon.  I miss you all and thanks for keeping in touch!