We took a 4 day trip to Pushkar for the annual camel fair. It’s a livestock fair, and it coincides with a holy day that brings thousands of pilgrims to bathe in the Pushkar lake.  What I found so amazing about this event was the eclectic mix of people. You have camel drivers and livestock traders who are really just there for business, tons of vendors hoping to make money selling their wares, religious pilgrims coming to bathe in the lake, local tourists there to enjoy in the festivities, and foreign tourists there for the spectacle. At times it was really just too crowded and could be a bit dangerous. Flavio even got his passport stolen from a zipped pocket in his pants, but luckily for him, the theif discarded it and he was able to find it on the ground later. Also the girls with us were getting really fed up with the throngs of very touchy Indian men. People are just going by too fast to really do anything.

While walking around in the part of the grounds full of camels, we met a very nice camel driver who came to the fair to buy a new camel. He was looking for a friendly camel, since he runs camel safaris. His specialty was taking people out for long periods, several weeks or a month at a time. After having soooo many people just trying to sell you things and treat you like a walking wallet, it was incredibly refreshing to have a genuine conversation with someone. We told him about our camel safari experience and about my scorpion incident. He then told us that in 30 years running camel safaris he had never been stung, but that he knew a mantra that could cure the pain. I couldn’t understand everything, but basically, I think he learned it from a sadhu, and in order to activate this power, one needs to drop 188 stones into a river one by one, saying the mantra each time. It really sounded like gibberish to me, but hey, if it cures the pain (for some people) then great! I somehow doubt it would have worked on me given my skeptic scientist nature. I’ll stick with my trusty whisky and pain killers remedy that didnt seem to work too well either…

From Pushkar Fair

At night, all of the activity centered around the fairground as it turned into an old school carnival. There were booths of all kinds, brightly glowing spinamatrons powered by open diesel engines, magic shows presented by unenthusiastic girls in tight clothes, and tons of people. I even saw one guy giving tattoos just on the side of the dirt road. I met 2 very nice guys at the shooting gallery. I saw them shooting a bb gun at some targets and figured I could probably shoot better than them and that they would get a kick out of it. I went over and sure enough soon had a crowd of people watching me shoot targets from 5 feet away. Afterwards, they decided we were now all best friends and dragged me on some of the carnival rides. I couldn’t really say no even though I was scared shitless. The fear was not of the ride itself, but just of the fact that it was in India and lets just say I don’t think safety standards are really same over here. We didn’t talk too much, but screaming is an international language so we had a nice little chat.

From Pushkar Fair

Later, I finally decided to go into one of the “magic shows”. Now there were a bunch of these but I chose this one because it seemed different. The posters had a bunch of photos of a child with varying amounts of heads in varying places. There was an announcer screaming things in Hindi and having some girls in tight clothes dance to the music. Sometimes, they would just be dancing, but sometimes, they would also have gorilla/monster masks on. There was also a puppet show next to him that had puppets dancing to the music in a very Sam Hauslohneresque style. To top it all off, in between music and girls dancing and all that, they would play a loud audio loop of a crying baby. I mean, what more could I ask for?! And that was all OUTSIDE the tent. I finally went in to see what the hell was going on inside, and discovered why the posters had the kids with lots of heads. They basically had this setup with a curtain that could be raised and lowered and behind the curtain were some carefully set up mirrors. A kid would sit next to the mirror with his head behind a black curtain and another child’s head in his lap. The effect was a headless child with two heads coming out of his stomach. The curtain would raise and lower and the position and number of heads would change.  Yeah… pretty awesome. I tried to take some pictures but it was too dark.

So overall, we had a really nice trip. We took things real slow and weren’t just looking at temples and sights the whole time which was a welcome change. Pushkar in general seems like a pretty relaxed spot, although during the festival it was pretty hectic. My pushkar recommendations:

• do NOT go the pink floyd hotel (too expensive and the dude is a bit of a douche). They do have  sweet rooftop but the food there isnt that good and costs twice what it should
• The “wood oven pizza” everywhere really isnt that good. Stick with the felafel from the place that has some spanish on the sign.
• Enjoy the special lassis and cakes available all over the place.
• Go to the vagabond cafe. Its in the direction of the bus station and was just opened by a guy from LA. He serves REAL coffee (I had a few arabic coffees there that were great) and its a nice atmosphere with good music.
• If you go during the camel fair, bring a money belt and beware of your pockets. And if you’re a girl, cover up, walk around with a male friend, and dont be afraid to smack someone!