Snakes and Elephants and Camels, Oh My!

The day before yesterday started out rainy, but that wasn't enough to put a damper on our collective spirit. We climbed on our nice plush bus destined for Pushkar, with a few stops along the way. First stop was the Palace of Winds in Jaipur to shoot a few pics, but the main attraction for me was the trio of snake charmers across the street. We schmoozed with them for a bit and took some great pictures.

Moving on, we visited the Amber Fort, also in Jaipur. Construction on this fort/palace began a thousand years ago. Amazingly, its still in great condition. It sits atop a hill and commands the road below in a narrow valley. Its a long uphill walk to the top of that hill. Or, you can go by elephant which is just what we did! Traveling by 'phant is different. While it is a way cool means of transportation, the ride isn't particularly sedate. From a distance, those big fellas look like they're just gliding along. But in reality, riding one is sorta like being in a cement mixer. You're up so high that when they take a baby step, the applied trigonometry moves your short side of the triangle about a yard. That is not a complaint, mind you. Their herky-jerky gait is trumped by the fact that you're actually sitting on an elephant. I want to be a mahoot and drive my own elephant.

The fort was beautiful, built in a fusion of Hindu and Muslum styles. Very posh. Complete with a compliment of red-faced monkeys. The sun came out and dazzled the polished white marble everywhere.

We didn't think the day could get any better, but when we arrived in the very holy town of Pushkar, we discovered that our accommodations were tents! Big, comfortable tents with toilets. In the desert. Like (upscale) nomads. Most excellent, we thought. Can't get any better than this! Wrong again.

We couldn't help notice the gang of camels hanging out in front of our tents. Yup. Our camels! We tossed our bags into our tents and seconds later we were cameled-up and headin out. Whoohoo! Off into the desert for a moonlight camel ride with strains of "Midnight on the Oasis" playing in our little heads. (Well, it would have been a moonlight ride if the moon had been out. Minor meteorological technicality). Along the way we passed an encampment of gypsies and their kids came over to gawk and wave hello. I tossed a little girl a tootsie-pop and you'd have thought it was a diamond bracelet the way she light-up.

We were so pumped by the great day we'd had. We all went up to the grassy sitting area to relax and have a beer or two. Someone asked how could this day get any better and I jokingly replied "Bring on the dancing girls". Believe it or not, within 5 minutes a troupe of local tribal musicians and dancing girls arrived and set up right in front of us for our exclusive benefit! My gast was flabbered. Wow, did they put on a show! They were so beautiful in their traditional costumes and they just danced and danced.

How could you beat a day like that?