Jaipur Part ll - HOLI!

Day 141 - 143

The final stop on this incredible Indian adventure brings us back to Jaipur on the eve of India's biggest and most colourful festival - Holi!

After successfully sourcing some appropriately white attire (albeit very last minute) along with plenty of lovely mustard oil for Ellie's hair & the beard we were ready for the celebrations. We went to bed fully prepared for total carnage come morning, truthfully I was not expecting us to make it into the Uber without being completely bombarded with paint, only time would tell.

At first light we headed over to Monty's, our previous CS host and were joined by some of his family for some pre paint party prep. We miracualously made it to the Uber and across town unscathed, concluding the children must still be sleeping, it was 6am after all! Monty has sourced a stack load of paint, we couldn't wait to get started & took to the roof to get our pre battle faces ready. The children it appears have now awakened, boomboxes have moved to the rooftops and Hindi classics can be heard far and wide!

Driving through the streets of Jaipur to our Holi party was quite a sight, children, shop owners, policemen & just about everybody else was head to toe in pink, yellow and blue paint. The streets for Jaipur standards at least were deserted, with the participation in the colour festival taking precedent over the usual day to day activities.

You wouldn't get what came next anywhere else but India, certainly not in the western world. We arrived at 9am to a festival like area with booming music, a delightful if slightly odd combo of Hindi & Western remixes. Not only was everybody dancing their heart out, there was not a drop of alcohol or drugs in sight. We quickly loosened ourselves from our typical western reluctance to dance when not properly intoxicated and headed for centre stage to really let go, limbsters moves especially proving a hit with the locals. My mix of classic old man dancing merged with the odd bollywood move I'd copied of a local was less attractive, the video doesn't lie.

By midday the dancing began to take its toll, not only is dancing to Hindi music rather intense, the constant throwing of paint under the 34° heat was having it's own impact, my initial bright colours beginning to darken as the swear started to seep through - nice. We sought the solace of our hostel rooftop for the remainder of the day, hiding in the shade and enjoyed some well deserved Jalebis.

The remainder of our stay here was consumed with somehow shifting the 13kg of Indian goodies we had accumulated for our dream house back in the UK (Still hypothetical of course). The post office as expected after our previous Nepalese experience was pretty old school but by far the cheapest option. After waddling our way there we would spend a mere two hours inside before parting with our cash and saying goodbye and good luck to our well travelled belongings.

It is also time to reluctantly say goodbye to India and what has been an unforgettable adventure. We had toyed with overstaying our visa, given the willingness to accept a good old bribe I'm sure we would escape the government customs officers just fine but eventually decided against it, memories here will last forever - & it's time to make plenty more in the Phillipines.Читать далее