Rambling through Rajasthan – The Holy City of Pushkar

14^th – 18^th November

View from a rooftop in the middle of Pushkar

 A boiler where milk is reduced down in the production of sweet cakes. This appeared to be stage 1. 

 

The final products on sale - mmmm!

It was an uneventful journey to Ajmer, the nearest railway station to Pushkar, and we both managed to catch up on some much needed sleep. The sleeper carriages Indian trains are a good deal. You get sheets, a blanket and pillow and with the rocking of the train it is easy to fall asleep night or day. 

Once off the train we found our taxi driver and headed to Pushkar approximately 14 klms away. I don’t know why, but we do seem to attract crazy drivers. This one departed Ajmer like a bat out of hell flying up the wrong side of the road, a wide road that had a median strip dividing the opposite directions. When facing an oncoming car he would swing off the road entirely or back onto our side of the road if there was a gap in the median strip. Hairpin bends in the hills between the two towns were approached with reckless abandon and it's a winding 30 minute drive through the aptly named Snake Mountain. The narrow lanes of Pushkar were regarded as rally practice. Speeding towards a right angle bend, with a choice between hitting a cow or a wall, I closed my eyes! We are still alive so I guess we missed both. 

The small holy town of Pushkar was always high on my must see list for India. Not because it is holy  but because it is also the venue for the annual camel markets. After all camels have always been my favourite animal. For five days, the camels are dressed up, paraded, shaved, entered into beauty contests, raced, and traded. A huge carnival is held, with an array of musicians, magicians, dancers, acrobats, snake charmers and carousel rides to entertain the crowd.

One of the early entertainers to arrive.

You try doing it with a plate on your foot!

 

Well our original intention was to attend, but, the best laid plans of mice and men .......... we were unable to schedule our Rajasthan trip to be there during the carnival as accommodation was heavily booked and pricey. We did, however, visit just before and were able to witness the caravans of camels travelling towards the town and saw all the preparations being made out at the market area. It was very dusty while we were there so I can well imagine how dusty it would be during the carnival and Neil and I were getting to the point where we were well over dust up our nostrils and sneezing. 

Transport

- the old way and in the distance the new railway line.These camels just some of the many arrivals for the camel fair

Setting up camp for the tens of thousands who will arrive in the next few days is big business and seemed to be highly organised with just about everything that could be needed covered.

Camp beds, quilts for the cold nights - and the nights were cold - and chairs

 New camp type beds

 Fuel for cooking - nice round cow pats.

 Dining areas for those who don't wish to cook

for themselves

 Camel food

 for the camels, of course!



 Let the fun begin

 

Finery on sale to beautify the camels for their big moment!

 Already looking good! Note the ankle jewellery.

Do camels have ankles?

 

 Local cab

 

Pushkar, meaning lotus flower, is one of the oldest towns in India and one of the five sacred pilgrimage site for devout Hindus. It lies on the shore of Pushkar Lake. How long the town has existed is not known, but as it is so highly regarded as a holy city there are, of course, legends associated with its creation and they strongly feature Lord Brahma. There are many temples in and around the town, the most famous being the Brahma Temple. As there are very few temples to Lord Brahma anywhere in the world this one is extremely important. It was Diwali while we were in Pushkar and street around the temple was always crowded so we viewed the temple from a distance. 

 

Pushkar Lake has is surrounded by ghats (steps leading down to water be it around a lake or river) where pilgrims descend to the lake to bathe in the sacred waters. The ghats were also crowded at this time and there was no end of punters trying to persuade us down to the main ghats to be blessed – for a fee of course.  

Our hotel was on the outskirts of the town which I thought at the time of our booking was a bit of a shame but it turned out to be very nice. It was an easy walk into the small town and our room looked out over farms and the hills behind. After the noise of Jodhpur it was nice to have a bit of peace and quiet at night. 

 

 And when the legs are too tired to go any further

- there is a wide of walking sticks to choose from.

 

We arranged for an extra half day so that we could have our room until 11pm as we had the 12.40am overnight train to Udaipur on the 19^th and didn’t want to hang around the foyer for hours waiting for the time to pass.