I chose to stay in Pushkar all week, because I thought it was very nice to see the gradual shift from focusing on the camel-fair at the start of the week to the part of the pilgrimage on the last day, Thursday 6 November.
On the day of arrival, on Saturday, there still were a lot of camels, but that number decreased rapidly in the following days, while as the influx of pilgrims (among which were many Sadhus) increased.
The ‘real’ day of the pilgrimage was Thursday at full moon and it was something special to see how the fair went together with the thousands of people who found a place to sleep in temples, the streets, the ghats, shops, empty buildings, etc. the night before. And on Thursday a crowd of pilgrims entered and left the city along a fixed route, via the Brahma temple and the ghats.
It was very special to witness this combination of camels, fair and pilgrimage.
I had not expected the rapid decline of the number of camels. A good alternative programme could be to start one or two days in Puskhar during the highlight of the camel-fair, next to travel on to Jaipur, Udaipur or Jodhpur, and then return to see one day of the pilgrimage.
This may be a tip for other people in coming years. Your stay has to be arranged in advance, because decent hotels will be sold out. I had booked all week in advance.
In between I went to Ajmer on my own with Anil. Anil is a nice guy. A, what I call, sporty driver. Sometimes rather exciting in the mad traffic over there, but if I had asked him to drive more slowly he would have.
Anil has offered me to go North (to Nainital, because he comes from that area), but I chose to stay in Pushkar. I enjoyed it like that anyway.
