Pushkar is a sleepy little lakeside town known for it’s annual camel fair. We had no intention of visiting during the Camel Fair, yet arrived in town to the gleeful face of touts announcing "So you come for the camel fair?" Arriving close to distraught after our terrifying bus ride from Jaipur we couldn’t be bothered to hunt around and were offered the only accommodation that was left – a canvas tent on the roof of a hotel for about £15! We hunted around the following day to see if we could turn up something better, but found this was the cheapest. Instead we upgraded to £20 a night in a decaying Maharajah’s palace (Sarovar Tourist Bungalow) with as much curry as we could eat on offer 3 times a day included in the price. It may have not been worth the money in reality, but not only did we have little other choice, and wandering around the balustrade for a shower in a turret overlooking the lake, hills, and daily comings and goings was some compensation.
We traipsed around the town for a day and a half before we saw a single camel. Even camel-less, the town was amazing, packed with tribespeople in rich red saris decked out in their finest gold jewellery. Festival and religious music echoed around the streets all day (and night) long, with candles floated out into the lake at night. Only after a small argument with my boyfriend, striding off in a huff up a rudimentary grandstand, did I see camels. From the top of the stadium, looking out into the desert were camels as far as the eye could see.
The camel fair aside, Pushkar was a wonderfully atmospheric town. It is an important pilgrimage centre; the lake is a hive of activity around dawn and dusk with people bathing in the holy lake. The colours, sounds, smells, and setting make this a mesmerising scene. Beware though that taking pictures of the lake, and more particularly the bathers, is frowned upon and you will get shouted at if you are spotted. You do appear to be able to get permission, based not only on postcards of the lake and bathers on sale, but on seeing an Indian photographer being given a ‘royal’ tour of the best photo opportunities by a local official. I justify my few furtive snaps of the lake on this, and the fact the photographer took a picture of me (after asking my permission of course) drying my long hair in the late afternoon sun on a viewpoint on the old palace walls.