Last weekend, the weekend before Thanksgiving, we took a three day trip to Pushkar to visit the annual Camel Fair. This is one of the world's largest camel and livestock fairs, and it has taken place in the same area for hundreds of years. The National Guardian has records of over 100,000 pilgrims to the Camel Fair even in the early 1900s. It is definitely the place to go if you are interested in buying or selling your herd of camels! On our first morning in Pushkar, we all got up early, before dawn, so that we could take a camel ride out to the desert and watch the sun rise. It was clear and the air was crisp, and it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. In case you didn't know, Camels are TALL. And they are fairly bouncy walkers. And they don't have a very obvious place to hold on to them. On the plus side, they also seem to be fairly lazy and never acted like they wanted to take off running!
When we got out to the dunes, we stopped to watch the sun rise and had a chance to relax for a bit and stretch our legs.
Just after the sunrise, the hot air balloons started to take off! It was such a lovely sight, but Conor and I agreed wholeheartedly that only a crazy person would want to go flying through the air in a balloon, powered by a fire, with a rope holding you to the balloon, sitting in a wicker basket, in India. Greg thought it sounded like a good idea!
There were interesting things to see everywhere you could look, from dancing horses, acrobatic kids and hoards of bargaining women in colorful scarves and saris. It was a crazy, chaotic, exciting and surprising adventure, and an incredible glimpse into India's past and present.
A picture Greg took as we left the hotel. Ryan seemed to really enjoy the camel ride and wasn't nervous at all.
When we got out to the dunes, we stopped to watch the sun rise and had a chance to relax for a bit and stretch our legs.
Sunrise in Pushkar, with the camel fair way off in the distance.
Ryan wasn't nervous of these huge beasts at all! The handlers did let us know which ones were more likely to bite or spit or kick, and which ones liked people. We kept Ryan with the nice ones!
Just after the sunrise, the hot air balloons started to take off! It was such a lovely sight, but Conor and I agreed wholeheartedly that only a crazy person would want to go flying through the air in a balloon, powered by a fire, with a rope holding you to the balloon, sitting in a wicker basket, in India. Greg thought it sounded like a good idea!
Conor was pretty happy to be back on solid ground after our camel ride and he decided it would be much nicer to ride back to the hotel in a camel cart instead of on top of the camel.
A picture of Greg and Ryan as they zoomed past us on their camel.
Pictures of me and Conor in our chariot.
Later the same day, we went to the actual camel fair and took another camel cart around to view the livestock.
After viewing the livestock areas, we walked through the markets. There was a crazy assortment of things for sale, from produce, to cooking utensils, to camel and horse saddles, walking sticks, jewelry, and textiles.
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