Days 22-24 Pushkar Camel Festival

A few thoughts:

This is a difficult blog to write in light of the recent tragic terrorist attacks in India. It is such a heartbreaking story and sadly the massacre will have a tremendous impact on the country’s tourism. Romeo (my previous guide) told me that tourism in Delhi had already declined significantly due to the September terrorist bombing in the Chandi Chowk markets. However, none of these attacks will not stop me from heading back to India and I hope others will feel the same way. Thanks for all the emails I received from those of you, that were concerned that I might still be traveling in the country.

Amazing and unforgettable Camel Fair in Pushkar

I am feeling extremely fortunate on this trip, since I have miraculously managed to avoid many recent disasters and weather related problems in the countries I have visited: the snow storm in Zurich, the bombs in India, the earthquakes in Indonesia, the winter monsoon in Hanoi, cold winter weather in the Halong Bay, and rain in the tropical rainforest in Ubud. Luckily I missed it all, and so far, my trip has been nothing but perfect in every way.

Pushkar Festival:

My driver arrives at Shreya’s on Wednesday morning at 5 am, so we may begin our 2 hour bumpy ride back to the Bangalore airport. Today, I will travel across India briefly stopping in Mumbai before landing in Jaipur. On my flight to Jaipur, I meet Sunil, a very interesting clothing manufacturer from London. Coincidentally, he also produced women’s resortwear and recently got out of the business. Turns out Sunil and I are exactly the same age and have a very similar story. However, Sunil produced high end resortwear selling to Harrod’s, as well as designer boutiques located through Europe. He had a much larger operation than mine and had done well enough so that he was able to hire his replacement and donate all of his future profits to charity. We spend our 2 hour flight discussing the meaning of success as well as other philosophical issues. It seems we share similar ideas on the concept of success and we both agree that it can not be measured by either the size of your bank account or the accumulation of your material possessions. He suggested taking me to a palace in Jaipur for dinner, when I returned back from the camel fair. Sounded like fun to me, so we make plans to meet up later.

Jaipur is the state capital of Rajasthan, which is the largest state in India. Rajasthan is located in the northwestern part of the country and shares a border with Pakistan. Rishi (my new driver) and Surrendra (a rep from Indian Moments) greet me at the airport in Jaipur. We have a long 3 ½ hour drive to Camp Bliss in Pushkar. I don’t usually get car sick, but this drive on the “highway” almost put me over the edge. I only had few requests when I book my trip with I.M., one of which was an SUV with seat belts and the other one was a good driver. I am told that Rishi is their best driver. But “best” is all relative. Rishi, who I will also refer to as Mario (Andretti) tries to make it to Pushkar in record time. He weaves in and out of traffic, honking at every truck and car we pass. We are constantly approaching vehicles head on into oncoming traffic. The thought crosses my mind that if we crash and I die, I am just going back to Shreya’s, so I am actually feeling fairly calm. I try to close my eyes as much as possible during the drive, hoping it will somewhat alleviate my feeling of car sickness. Rishi is an awesome person, but the only rule of the road he follows is the Sacred Cow rule. He avoids hitting any cows, because he knows that he will be beaten by the local village people. The cows are constantly crossing the highway and they act like they own the road….they seem completely unfazed by all the traffic flying by. Despite Mario's best attempt to set a new driving record to Pushkar, it still takes many hours before we arrive at Camp Bliss.

I am warmly greeted with a beautiful floral lei when I arrive in Pushkar. Twelve luxury white tents have been erected, each one named after a popular holy place in India. The name of my tent is Dwarka, which was one of the most ancient cities in the country and home to the famous Dwarkadhish temple. The tents have been constructed in the desert fully equipped with your own bathroom, hot running water and electricity. We arrive around 5 pm and there is a group of performers that are singing to me as I walk to my tent. I love my new home in the desert as it is extremely cozy and comfortable for camping. After getting settled into my new digs, I join the other guests and sit by the camp fire watching the evening cultural performance. After the sun sets, it gets cold at night in the desert and I am very happy I had winter clothes from my trip to Zurich to keep me warm. For hours we sit around the fire and watch performers sing and dance, do magic tricks, eat fire and cover their body in flames (this was very hard for me to witness), etc.

I am loving that fact that I have not seen any Americans in weeks. The only tourists I meet are from Europe or Australia. At dinner, I meet a lovely newlywed couple also from London, who are traveling through Asia on their 3 month honeymoon. Since Europeans get so much time off for vacation, this young couple has traveled extensively around the world. They share all their exotic travel adventures and end up inspiring me to take another trip around the world.

I go to bed around 11 pm. I am warned that the celebration goes on the entire night, but it is cold and I can not imagine it lasting past 1 am. However, I am completely wrong. Everyone (but me) stay ups singing and dancing all night. I wake up at 4:30 am and the music is still going strong. You can not imagine how loud it is even though most people have set up their camp several miles away. Finally at 7 am the noise briefly dies down. At breakfast, I ask Gaurav how everyone is able to stay up singing and dancing through the night and then go to the fair. He tells me that their faith gives them extraordinary energy. This is not a one day event, but lasts for 2 weeks. They must have incredible faith, because I am not sure when or how anyone sleeps.

Pushkar is one of the largest camel fairs in the world. Several hundred thousand people attend and many travel 15-20 days by camel and camel carts from rural villages that are located as far as 100-200 kms away. The significance of Pushkar town for the Hindus is immense. For it has the only temple of Lord Brahma (their creator). The Sarovar lake here is formed of Brahma’s lotus and a dip here is said to wash away all sins. This is the reason that on auspicious days around the full moon of the Hindu Kartika month, pilgrims from far and wide assemble here to take a holy dip. They have turned the huge human congregation into a huge fair where they also engage in the trading of camels and other rural commodities like sugar cane. It is an unending spectacle of colorful rituals, traditions, celebrations, bazaars, camels, and folk art performances.

Initially, I have no idea of what to expect from the camel fair. I am thinking Burning Man in the desert with camels. Anyone who does not live on the West Coast is probably not familiar with this enormous annual event. But 80,000 people descend on the Black Rock desert in Nevada with costumes, tents, artwork and spend a week camped out in tents and RVs in blazing hot weather. I personally have never attended Burning Man, because I am not the type of girl that likes to camp in 107 degree heat. However, Indian Moments has suggested the Pushkar fair as a cultural event not to be missed, so I take their suggestion.

Trying to describe what the Pushkar fair is to someone who has never been to the event is like trying to explain what a particular color looks like to someone who is blind. To truly understand this event, you must attend. The sound, the energy and excitement can not be captured on film. The air is totally electric and the entire town is completely alive. This fair was a blast and definitely one of the most memorable times in my life!

Rishi, my driver accompanies me to the festival with the camel owner and his son. He suggests that we leave early in the morning to avoid the afternoon desert heat. I had purchased a hot pink sari to wear to this event, however I realized that it was logically impossible for me to ride a camel in sari. Because we will visit the holy ghats (bathing places), I am told that I must be completely covered to enter the holy lake area. As you can see from the photos, I am not exactly appropriately dressed for the event, but I just don’t have a lot of covered options that are well suited for the desert heat. I am also told to hide my handbag under my clothing as there are gypsy kids that quickly walk through the crowds and will take your wallet. So in many photos, I look like I have packed on some lbs!

If you ever attend this fair, definitely hire a camel driver and guide to escort you to the event. Riding on the back of a camel is the ideal way to see the fair, because you are above the crowd and just have amazing views of all the festivities. Most people pull up to the event in the back of dump trucks and tractor trailers. It is an unbelievable sight. All the women we see are dressed in beautiful jewel colored saris with gold necklaces and bangles and many of the men have very colorful turbans. I ride on the back of my camel past thousands of people wildly waving and yelling ‘hello’ to me. I feel like I am on a float at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. The people here have such dazzling smiles and radiate so much joy and love. They all seem so happy and never do I get a sense of poverty or sadness. At the end of the day, my cheeks were sore from hours of smiling.

From the top of the camel, I see snake charmers, puppet shows, dancing, fire eaters, magicans, and tightrope walkers. We walk past hundreds of stalls where people are selling jewelry, crafts, religious items, camel decorations, traditional shoes, clothing, and artwork. There are 2 very large ferris wheels, a bouncy house, and various other rides for children. The lines for these rides are unbelievably long. Unfortunately, I missed the wall of death, which was supposed to be spectacular death defying acts.

At one point, I get off the camel to visit the holy ghats. Rishi accompanies me and holds my hand, otherwise I would quickly get lost and disappear into the crowd. The villagers have traveled from faraway to take a dip in the holy water, which they claim has special healing and purifying properties. No photographs were allowed to be taken in this area, so I do not have any photo documentation of hundreds of people swimming/bathing in the holy lake. I decided to pass on bathing in the holy ghats, maybe next time?

After enjoying a full day of festivities, we head back to the camp for more entertainment. The music, dancing and singing go on for hours longer and finally I crawl under my warm blankets and go to bed. I don’t get much sleep at Camp Bliss..it is just a little too hard to sleep through all festivities. But luckily I feel very rested after spending 5 days at Shreya’s resort.

The next morning, it is time to pack up. Next stops: Jaipur and Agra.

P.S.- There are so many more memories I would love to share about the interesting people I met and the experiences I encountered. I could write for hours about some of these stories or soak up the sunshine and scenery here in Bali. I opt for the later. Perhaps at a later date, I will go back and fill you in on the rest of the amazing moments.