The Pushkar Camel Fair - Part 3 of whirlwind tour...

After Agra we were off to Jaipur to see the Amber Fort, Hawa Mahal (a strange "building" with only a facade that enabled royal ladies to watch the life of the city through its small shuttered windows), City Palace and Jantar Mantar (an observatory with huge bizarre sculpture-like instruments that measure time, zodiac sign, eclipses, etc.). We did some bargain shopping quickly before heading off to our last stop: the Pushkar camel fair. Unfortunately we missed the "camel race" and "camel dance" competitions which took place earlier in the week but still got to see the thousands of decorated camels, beautiful horses that were up for sale, devout pilgrims that had come from far away to bathe in the sacred lake (probably even dirtier than the Ganges since it doesn't actually have an outlet!) and just the general craziness of the place during the festival. I also got to see the turban tying competition but it was unfortunately just for western tourists so not really what I was expecting but the mustache competition was pretty funny... see my photos. ;) The guy with the long AND bushy mustache won (just being long wasn't enough). Since there's not enough accommodation for all the visitors during the festival, we stayed in one of the "tourist camps" with luxury tents - each equipped with its own bathroom and some with AC!

All in all it was a fantastic, if fast, tour of the top sights in India. It was nice to get a break from my cheap guesthouse rooms but after a while I was ready to go back to my backpacking style of travel. Staying in the swanky hotels was nice to get away from the noise and dirt but in order to really experience India, I like to do it my way. ;) So, I hopped on a train to Jodhpur (non-AC class) and am continuing on my way while mom has gone back to cold NYC.