India - Day 9 - Pushkar

The festivities in Pushkar went on all night. Loud speakers were continuously blearing out prayers and revellers making noise. Early morning greeted more pilgrims getting an early start of making a stop at each of those 400 temples. Still a lie in till 8.00 am was our longest in a few days. We had a lazy breakfast on the rooftop overlooking the lake.

We wanted to first pop down the street to pick up a couple of things before heading to the fair. The streets were crowded and the authorities blocked off entrances to make a huge one way system for people. As we neared a narrowing in the street the press of the crowd became unbearable, especially with the girls also being concerned about being felt up. We had to pull out of the crush. Then it was a dash to the camel fair to the main showground to see the main show. Rajasthani dancers, camel races, horse races and tug of war. The place was packed when we arrived. After the dancers exited so did some of the crowd in front of us in the stands. The Indians around us were so eager to make room for us and help us climb over bodies to sit down in the stands. Soon they were all posing for photos and then wanting to view them on our cameras.

We were all pretty impressed with Janelle-ji sitting in the stands which weren't the most sanitized. People don't have much regard here for using rubbish bins and everything tends to get dropped then and there. After the main events we were all pretty much over the crowd, the shop keepers hassling and the dust and we went back to our rooftop to hide away from the hustle and bustle.