Before we departed from Tahoe on our India journey, Rick was the one who did most of the research for the trip. He took control of the Lonely Planet guidebook pretty much immediately upon purchase and devised our basic itinerary.
That itinerary for the first part of our journey has been driven primarily by the Pushkar Camel Festival. Billed by Lonely Planet as “an extraordinary swirl of colour, sound and movement, thronged with musicians, mystics, tourists, traders, animals and devotees.” The book claims that “50,000 camels, horses and cattle” are assembled around Pushkar for Kartika, the eighth lunar month of the Hindu calendar.
By my estimate, there were about a tenth that many animals and nearly as many tourists, but the festival was a fantastic event to witness with everything from snake charmers to hot air balloons. The streets were crowded with Hindu pilgrims who come to Pushkar to bathe in the sacred waters, Nikon-toting Germans, and Indian families who drove up for a few days of carnival rides and the equivalent to cotton-candy with the kids.
Photographically the event was a lot of fun with no end to the activity and color. For three days I shot morning and evening, taking thousands of images of everything from spices and saris to ghats and goats. Please enjoy!
