Cultural Program

The main program that i arrived for was the cultural events. Ya know ladies dancing with pots of fire on their heads, men putting burning coals in their mouths and spitting out fire balls; that kinda stuff; oh right and a bunch of music and dance. Since i was a white guy with a large camera i got an all access pass; it was really cool.

Night Festival

So the camel festival moved about 40 km outside the city to a desert village. I missed the day activities because i had errands to run, but i made it out there for the night stuff; and i am very glad i did. I missed the last free bus out, so i had to hire an autorickshaw to take me out there. That was a long and bumpy ride in a very uncomfortable vehicle, but we made it. We parked the rickshaw and began walking in the desert. I really had no idea of what was going on or where we were going but i trusted that the hoards of Indians walking over a large sand dune must been the way to go. The sight that greeted me atop that dune was quite startling; i could have been a military base, or a desert rave of some sort, or just something out of Mad Max; it was pretty awesome.

Indian marlboro man/Sunset beard guy

These two pix rule, but don't really fit into any category; so they get their own.

Mr./Ms. Bikanar

This was a beauty contest of sorts. It was hilarious. The men were very serious, but in a totally tongue in cheek kinda way (i think). The women were quite serious and had to even give a little speech thing, which of course i could not understand. I have no idea what the parameters for winning this contest were, but it was a blast to watch. The three kids were were completely adorable in their little Rajastani outfits.

Two Words: Camel Festival!!

This was the greatest thing that I've stumbled into in my trip to India thus far. Suzanna and I went to Bikanar for the simple reason of seeing the rat temple. This was reason enough to go to a place in my opinion, however when we got their we were happily surprised to find out that the annual camel festival was starting the very next day!!! Who doesn't love camels dressed up and with beautiful carvings on their fur, well i know i do!! Camels are really cool and crazy looking animals. People came from all over the desert to show off their beasts; it was wild. Their was also a cultural event and a male/female (human) beauty contest of sorts. The next several blogs will deal with this one event. There was a one day event in the city of Bikanar, and a two day event in a small village 40 KM away, i went to both.

RAT TEMPLE!!!!!

Near the town of Bikaner is the Karna Mata Temple. I've been to many temples in my stay here in India. Some of them are known for their architecture, some for their deities, and then there is this one which is known for their rats. The rats are sacred here, as they are considered to be incarnations of holy people or something like that. I have to admit, i thought there would be many, many more rats, but it was still pretty cool - if you like rats, which i kinda do. Here is an article about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karni_Mata

Ranikpur

This was the second stop on the trip from Udaipur to Jaipur. This is a Jain Temple in the middle of nowhere. It's about 500 years old; so to put it in context - when columbus sailed the ocean blue: this place was built. It has over 1400 columns; all of which are different! Anyway, this temple was quite amazing.