Pushkar Camel Fair

Pushkar sits around a small lake in the Aravallis, ringed by ghats and several hundred temples, and holds one of the very few temples to Brahma anywhere. The fair is fixed to the Hindu calendar rather than the Gregorian one: it builds through the week leading up to Kartik Purnima, the full moon of the month of Kartik, when pilgrims bathe at the ghats.

Alongside the pilgrimage, and much older in character, is the livestock trade. Herders bring camels, horses and cattle in from across Rajasthan and camp on the dunes outside town. Animals are groomed, decorated, shown and sold; the trading is real work, and most of it happens early, in the first days before the crowds.

What the visitor sees is the festival grown around that trade — moustache and turban-tying competitions, folk musicians and dancers, a fairground, and a temporary tent settlement on the sand. It is genuinely crowded, and the town is small.

Pushkar is about 15km from Ajmer, which is on the Delhi–Ahmedabad rail line; Jaipur is roughly three hours away by road. The town is vegetarian and alcohol is not sold, which visitors often do not expect.