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Camel Fair
Dates Traveled: September 2001 - July 2002
(I spent a total of about 6 1/2 months actually in India during that time)
November, after travels in Bhutan and Nepal
India - Pushkar & Camel Fair
From Pokhara, it was time to dive back into India - at least for a few weeks, as I was heading to the camel fair at Pushkar…wasn’t everybody? I began with an 8 1/2 hour bus ride towards the border town of Sunauli, a short jeep ride to the actual border, walking across the border to satisfy immigration requirements of both countries, and then walking to board the bus for the onward journey. I boarded the bus at 4:30 PM for 4:45 departure. At 5:10 I asked when the bus would be leaving, since it was full and the engine was running. I was told that the 4:45 bus had been canceled - this was the 6 o’clock bus! Welcome back to India, where nothing makes sense, what would be the obvious solution is not the one chosen, where people move and perform tasks as if they have a lifetime to complete them, and where their brand of English is difficult to understand and spewn out at a million words a minute. I believe that while it’s taking them forever to do something they must be saving up words, and then they all rush out in a torrent of incomprehensibility.
After burning incense in the bus as offerings to the various deities, we were finally off. I arrived in Gorakhpur 2 hours later and attempted to buy a train ticket to Delhi. “Sorry sir, there are no sleeper berths available due to festival”. Ticketless, I wandered a bit, and did see trains that were filled to overflowing, with some electing to ride on top of the cars…crazy! I finally encountered somebody that, upon hearing my quandary, stated, “This is India. Everything is possible with backsheesh (a bribe)”. Half an hour later I had a ticket on the train leaving at midnight. After 16 hours I was in Delhi, where I opted to continue my journey, so waited in the train station for 7 hours for the 11 PM train to Ajmer. After 8 1/2 hours I was almost to my destination, as it was simply an 11 km taxi ride over the hill to Pushkar. The total time of my journey was about 48 hours, and I’m not sure I’d recommend it to others. Probably best to break the journey somewhere instead of biting off everything at once.
Pushkar is a holy city with a population of about 13,000. There is a lake, which serves as the focal point of town, with the main road paralleling one side of the lake. Many of the people that would migrate to Pushkar during the next week would come to bathe in the holy lake. However, why is it that the holy places in India are the places that make a person the most skeptical? In Pushkar we were constantly hounded to buy flowers to throw into the holy lake; to have people give us a blessing - for a cost; to give to sadhus (holy men) - even though we knew that most were fakes. Many of the sadhus had a cow with them…a cow with an extra leg ‘growing’ out of its back. Gets a bit depressing after awhile, with everybody trying to make a quick buck.
Pushkar was to serve as our home for the next 12 days, as we watched the buildup to what would prove to be an amazing experience - the camel fair. People come from all over Rajasthan to buy/sell horses, camels, and cows. Believe this year the most money paid for a horse (and there were some beautiful ones) was US$1725, while the price range on camels sold was US$10-US$533. In most years there are 200,000 additional people in Pushkar for the festivities, with up to 50,000 camels. Like most events in late 2001, the numbers would be down for the fair, but it was still incredible. The camels - about 15,000 of them, were kept in the desert on the edge of town. They stood roughly 8-9′ in height, and the answer to the question on everybody’s mind - they were single humpers. It was so fun to wander through the herds to take pictures, to see them working, and to see the handlers. There was an amazing range of colors and characters among the Rajasthanis. The men wore shoes with pointed toes, had long mustaches that curled up at the ends, and wore turbans of various bright colors. The women wore brightly colored saris, and the gypsy women wore beautiful outfits with an abundance of jewelry. Even the camels got into the act, as they wore brightly colored bands around their necks, and some had patterns shaved into their fur. Definitely a photographers dream.
Most days followed the same pattern - up late; 2-3 hour breakfast; wandered out to the grounds to see what was happening; relaxed in terrace cafes, overlooking the streets below and watching the world go by; met at a cafe near the lake to watch the sunset - along with all the other travelers; dinner and more wandering of the town…repeat as necessary, or for 12 days. Being a holy city, there is no alcohol, eggs, meat, etc. I forgot this one night and ordered a pepperoni pizza off a menu. Sure enough, pepperoni pizza - sans pepperoni. So I ask you this, why not simply call it a cheese and tomato sauce pizza on the menu? Along the same lines, we checked the official program and decided, at 8:15, to head to the grounds for a 9:30 fireworks display one evening…they had already started. The previous night we had seen the 6 PM cultural show going at 10 PM, and the 10 PM fireworks never occurred. Why print a program? As for the fireworks, they were a bit chaotic, as some of them shot into the crowd, but nobody seemed to mind. In fact, it was probably only the westerners that noticed, as most of the Indians were too busy staring at us - something you learn to live with in India, people standing next to you and simply staring…and not diverting their eyes when you make eye contact. I’ve learned to simply stare back.
One day I asked a local ‘friend’ (basically a familiar face that hounded me for 12 days to allow him to bless me at the lake) what the difference was between two different buffet restaurants, and got the classic Indian answer, “Same, same but different”. I’ve always loved that answer!
As the days progressed and the main festival drew nearer, there were more and more Christmas lights on the buildings surrounding the lake. It’s a strange dichotomy to have a holy city, but lit with garish, flashing lights. More tourists were also arriving as the days ticked off. Many came with numerous cameras and huge lenses - sometimes 2 or 3 draped around their necks, and it was obvious that they weren’t travelers - they were here simply for this event. More tourists…more opportunities, so we also noticed a large influx of deformed people, simple beggars, snake charmers, etc. trying to separate people from their money. People of Pushkar know the popularity of this event, and room prices skyrocket during the fair. Our room stayed fairly reasonable compared to most - we (I shared a room with a Dutch guy I’d met on the trek in Nepal) were paying 75 rupees (US$1.60) each prior to the fair, and 250 rupees (US$5.33) each during the fair. Other double rooms went up to over 1000 rupees during the fair. Ouch!
Upon trying to sort out my train ticket for departure I dealt with India at it’s worst. I took a bus back to Ajmer, as I decided that would be easier since it was the departure point for the train. I filled out the meaningless slip of paper with my request, and then stood in one line. After 1/2 hour, I was told to go to a similar line - also moving at glacial speed. After 2 hours in that line, I was told there were no tickets available, but that I’d be waitlisted and could check back the following day. Frustrated, I walked to the bus area to attempt to get back to Pushkar. More chaos…”Does this bus go to Pushkar?” Pointing, Indian head-bobbing (is that a no, a yes, an I don’t know?), meaningless hand gestures, no help. I found the bus, but it was packed. I found out I needed to buy a ticket. “Where’s the counter to buy tickets?” Pointing, head-bobbing, meaningless hand gestures, no help. I found the counter, and discovered that, for whatever reason, it takes about 5 times as long to issue a westerner the same ticket as an Indian. “Where’s the bus?” Pointing, head…well, you know the game. I found the new bus, also packed, so I rode on the roof. Upon returning to Ajmer the following day - the day I wanted to travel, and after standing in line for 2 hours, during which 2 people received train tickets, I was told that I hadn’t been officially put on a waitlist the previous day, and so there was no way I’d be able to travel by train that day. In summary, two days and 4 1/2 hours wasted for nothing…I took the bus! You learn to hate travel days in India!
Delhi to Banbassa
Having learned from my experience getting to Pushkar, I decided to make the return journey to Nepal a bit more leisurely. I took an 8 hour overnight bus trip to Delhi, and then spent a day there. I popped into a McDonalds, as I thought some cheeseburgers sounded like a nice change from 12 meatless days in Pushkar. Wrong…Hindu country, sacred cows, no burgers. When will I learn? The following day I took a 5 hour train to Bareilly, a rickshaw to the bus stand, and a 4 hour bus to the border town of Banbassa.
At that point I headed back into Nepal to do the Annapurna Basecamp trek.
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