Friday 11: Today we drove from Jaipur to the little town of Pushkar, to visit the famous Camel Fair. Most of the travel was on a well-maintained six lane highway, made extra smooth by the fact that all the toll booths were free today, because of India's current drama around bank notes - no-one has the small notes to pay the tolls, and the toll booths have no small notes for giving change! So the government decided to just wipe the tolls until things get sorted out.
Even though it was a wide motorway, we still had entertaining moments like buses coming towards us driving on the wrong side of the motorway, and a flock of sheep someone was trying to drive across the road!
At Pushkar we checked into another palatial hotel, with a swimming pool which we quickly took advantage of.
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| This camel took an interest in Sue |
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| Women carrying sugar cane - crushed and sold at the fair as a drink. |
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| Many women wear colourful saris |
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| A very small beast I saw in the sand, |
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| All these men are trying to sell Linda (centre) something |
The street hawkers here were among the most persistent we have encountered, which is saying something. Politely telling them "no thanks" has absolutely no effect, or actually encourages them. They will follow you down the street repeating their sales pitch no matter how many times you say "no". I try to act as though they are not there, and say nothing to acknowledge them, which generally works. Today one obnoxious chap blocked my camera when I tried to take photos, and elbowed me in the ribs.
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| You can ride on a camel, or in the camel cart. |
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| Daggers and cricket bats - something for everyone! |
Today we learned that the significance of the camels at the Pushkar Fair is declining as camels become less important economically. The fair is also a big market for horses and cattle, and we saw many horses on display today. However there were not as many camels as expected, also because the currency upheaval of the last few days has affected the whole business of buying and selling at the fair.
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| These white horses has light blue eyes! They almost looked albino. |
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| Horses were paraded up and down the road. |
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| A camel, the fairground wheels, and the shrine on the mountain! Pushkar in a nutshell. |
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| In the evening the music gets louder and the fairground lights up spectacularly. |
