Pushkar

Wednesday, 12th November, 2008 (Al)
A 5 hr journey by train from Udaipur has us arriving in Ajmer, 11km from our destination of Pushkar for the annual Camel Fair/Festival. Each year 200 000 Hindu pilgrims descend upon Pushkar, a town which normally has 14 000 people to buy and sell camels/horses and bathe in the sacred Pushkar lake. Its one of the most spiritual places in India and where some of Gandhi’s ashes were spread.
Our accommodation was a small guesthouse where due to the sheer number of bookings we could only manage to secure a tent for 2 nights at 800 rupees each night (10 pounds/ $25). One look at the share bathroom (an outdoor drop hole toilet that stunk right next to where you shower). The tent wasn’t a tent but rather space surrounded by sheets to separate you from the next person. The beds weren’t beds but rather lattice stretched over wood. The tent was filled with mosquitoes. Good thing we stopped taking those nauseating malaria tablets a while ago. To put it in perspective, such tent/rooms would normal cost about 100 rupees (1.25 pounds/ $3) if the camel fair wasn’t on. The owners were a nice young English woman and her Indian husband. She was travelling through India, fell in love and ended up staying in Pushkar. Brave girl.
We ventured off to the showgrounds but were a little disappointed to find that most of the camels and owners had finished their business and returned home. All the buying/selling is done in the first week, and then the festival part is the second week. We were there for the last 2 nights. We met an Australian couple (Otto and Taryn) who told me to check out one of the shows at the showground. It was like Mad Max’s terror dome minus any safety regulations. We gave it a try and were blown away. There were guys in this dodgy wooden dome riding motorcycles around taking money out of people’s hands, not only taking their hands off the handlebars but sitting sideways , leaning backwards and riding inches away from the top where people were watching. They were then joined by two cars all at the same time going around with the drivers climbing out of the cars. Visions of a mass collapse/accident came to me and although thoroughly impressed with their daredevil skills I was happy to return to ground level. Check out the film footage on our flickr.com photos in the Pushkar set (Pushkar 012).
We were walking and talking to the Aus couple when we came across one of the temples near a ghat. Before I knew it, I was repeating a prayer for good luck from the words of a so called priest who then asked me to donate money for the well being of my family. I clued on to what was going on, having read the guide book about how these guys bully westerners into donating large amounts as they say things like ‘ 100 rupees?…is that all your family is worth to you?’. ‘They are worth at least 1000 rupees!’. Sorry Mum, Dad, Andrew and Dan, you were only worth 100 rupees this time. I’ll make up for it with Xmas presents. A donation to the needy - no problem, but I don’t believe prayers for your family cost a lot of money.
We returned to our accom and after avoiding a shower we headed back out to see the festival by night. Bad mistake. Our night was to be ruined. We steered off the beaten track and passed many Sadhus and pilgrims sleeping on the streets, camping by open fires. We seemed to be the only westerners about and Wend the only female and with the relentless staring we headed back towards the crowds. However the crowds by now had become rather smothering and we noticed it seemed to be mostly young men, many of them stoned from the bhang or drunk. I could sense it wasn’t a good situation when they started crowding around us and laughing at every possible opportunity, wanting to get as close as possible and the staring was incessant. Within 20 min Wendy had been groped about 3 times. It was so crowded and confusing at times I was unaware of who was doing what. We pulled up into some space to take a break but there was no other option to get back to our accom but face the crowds again. Wend was a little shaken and I was fuming inside. A local told us to be careful as he said the young desert men from out of town are off their faces and with it being the last night before the cleansing tomorrow , thought they could get away with targeting western women, as once they have bathed in the lake the next day, their sins will be washed away. Cowardice little men. I have to point out that in no other town, nor during the day did we feel this would happen. It was just due to the circumstances and environment. The following night another young man tried the same thing on Wend, but this time I was standing behind her and saw it. As he walked past I accidently raised my elbow and accidently smashed him across the chest to take the wind out of him. His friends stopped to remonstrate with me but they were embarrassed when I told them what he did. He ran off and I followed him shouting that he was a bad man who touched women. Another man next to me saw it as well and had a go at the man and before you knew it, all the store owners were shouting at him. He quickly ran off into the crowds. I think the locals were well aware of this problem and are not happy with the type of people that are coming to Pushkar for the festival. It’s a shame because it put a real dampener on what otherwise is a nice spiritual little town.

Thursday, 13th November, 2008
After a terrible night’s sleep at our accom due to the constant music/chanting and next door neighbour shouting at his wife, and mozzie bites, we checked out in the morning. I informed the owner, who charged me another 200 rupees for cancellation and checking out an hour later. 1000 rupees for a craphole and no sleep basically. I told her I wasn’t happy with the extra charge and that I’ll be writing a poor review on the net. It was obviously a bad 2 weeks for her as she started to cry and threw the money back at me telling me she didn’t want it. Everyone was looking at me and somehow after having to pay 10 times what the place was worth, an over emotional young English woman turns me into the bad guy. I paid the full amount and left feeling the size of a pea. Note for next time, don’t argue with a young mother who has had no sleep for a few weeks. No matter what the problem, a few tears in front of an unaware audience and it will become your fault.
We checked into a hotel down the road. Clean, own bathroom and only 500 rupees. Mmm…a little better than the last place. We had breakfast at a place called Babas which actually had vegemite on toast. I didn’t miss out. After breaky we headed back into the festival and met a young Dutch woman (Maria) who recognised us from the train journey from Udaipur. She was travelling alone and had felt very intimidated by the constant staring and threat of being groped that she did not venture out at night. Wise choice. Had lunch with Maria and she told us of an Ashram down south we might look into.
In our hotel (Sai Baba) there was a full moon party. A veg buffet dinner with a local Pushkar band. Fantastic music and atmosphere and a nice way to end our second and last night in Pushkar. Day 2 was considerably better than day one.

Friday, 14th November
A great night’s sleep and once up, we headed up the hill to the Pop Mohit temple. A steep climb but worth the walk as the views over Pushkar were worth it. Peace is such a hard thing to get in India, so it was nice to enjoy the serenity for a little while before heading back down. Just as we were about to leave a young Indian family arriving at the top and we were asked to have photots taken with them. We have been here just over a couple of weeks, and I would say we now feature on about a dozen family mantle pieces in homes in India. Wend’s 15 min of fame have not finished as I thought, and I am now being asked to also appear in photos with random strangers. I’m also called ‘Full Moon’ a lot. I don’t get it.