Desert Festival 2005

We're getting pretty used to seeing free-roaming horses, sacred cows, pigs, dogs, and sheep wandering all over the place. Often, cars and tuk-tuks have to slam on the brakes or swerve to avoid an animal crossing or lying right in the middle of the road for a nap :) We decided to stay an extra day in Jaisalmer because the Desert Festival is happening from February 21-23. The whole town is buzzing with excitement. There are even more camels here than usual! At 9 AM, the festival kicked off again at the local stadium just outside the city, which is basically a large gravel/sand area. For the occasion, tents were set up so spectators could find some shade. The tents were divided by status—locals, foreigners, and VIPs. After breakfast at a cozy little restaurant where we had sandwiches and omelets, we hopped into a tuk-tuk and headed to the festival grounds. There were competitions for both Indians and foreigners. First up was the contest for the most beautiful camel, followed by a tug of war between Indians and foreigners (men and women separately). Both the male and female foreigners won against the Indians. Each participant on the winning team received 100 rupees as a prize :) The games continued with a race for Indian women against foreign women to see who could run 100 meters the fastest while balancing a pot of water on their heads—guess who won? All the foreign participants ended up quite wet as they spilled most of the water over themselves, much to the amusement of the Indian spectators :) Finally, it was time for the camel races, which we had been looking forward to. Seven camels were lined up at the starting line. When the starting signal went off, they all jumped up quickly, but not all seven ran straight ahead—only two camels headed directly toward the finish line, while the others ran off in all directions, even among the spectators! The next races were a bit more orderly, as all the camels managed to figure out how to run straight toward the finish line, so no more spectators were put at risk :) At 1 PM, there was a break, so we headed back to the city to arrange transportation to Pushkar the next day. The bus would take about 11 and a half hours, so we hoped to rent a car with a driver to get us there faster. After inquiring at several places, we settled on a price of 3600 rupees for the fastest car that could get us to Pushkar in 7 hours. Sure, it’s a bit pricey, but we don’t have the time or desire to spend an entire day on transport :) It’s clear that it’s getting warmer in Rajasthan, so we went up to the rooftop of our hotel to soak up some sun. When we went out for dinner, we ran into some of the foreigners who had also participated in the competitions at the festival grounds. We had intentionally chosen a very touristy restaurant, hoping to find another group heading to Pushkar the next day, as that would make the transport a bit cheaper. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on our side, but hey, it’s only 400 kroner for a 7-hour ride in a private car :) At the restaurant, Monicas, we tried the house specialties—a Chinese dish (ginger chicken) and an Indian dish. Both were really good, though the Indian names are a bit tricky to remember :)