THE WORLD'S LARGEST CAMEL FAIR

Trekking for miles across Rajasthan's arid landscape, sometimes for days at a time, countless residents of the region--often with their herds of livestock in tow--travel to what has become the world's largest place to buy, sell, and trade camels.

Liz gets a morning sniff from a resident camel.

It's called the Pushkar Camel Fair, and as seen previously on the site, it's an incredibly scenic and often hilarious event to behold.  We stopped by the festivities for a few days with our friend Alex from DC, who was as amazed as we were at the sight of so many camels (estimates put the number at around 50,000 animals) living, breathing, braying, sleeping, and racing in one place. 

Two traders, after trekking for three days, lead their herd into town at dawn at the start of the Fair.

Our Pushkar alarm clock, set for sunrise each day.

Trading takes place over the span of five days, and many of the men and women in the photos below have trekked for hundreds of kilometers to bring their camels to the fair.  Not wanting to miss anything, we got to the fairgrounds at sunrise each morning to take it all in. OK, we will admit, our early rising was also due to the fact that we had a group of vigorous, obnoxious, insomniac monkeys that frequently pounded on our windows at all hours, as well as the fact that our hotel was located next to one of the many temples in Pushkar, where pilgrims worship their gods quite vocally at all hours. Unfortunately (for Liz) the god of sleep does not have a temple in Pushkar.

But no matter. Thanks to the monkeys and noisy pilgrims, we were ready with cameras every morning to watch the camel camp come alive. More photos to come.

Camel herdsmen gather around the fire for a morning coffee and smoke.

Wake Up Kiss: A camel tries to give another a morning smack on the neck.

Mamma and baby wake up with the morning sun.

Mustachioed herdsman in Pushkar.

Taking in the view.

A camel trader who has not yet had his cup of coffee.

With so few women around, Liz quickly made some friends.