Holi is the festival of colors, and marks the beginning of Spring in India. The whole country celebrated it on the 10th and 11th of of March. My crew here and I did too, and it was a blast!
There is a bit of a lead-up to the holiday, as Hindu temples start having extra services and stuff a few days ahead. The fun part of Holi is on the 11th though (this changes according to the lunar calendar). That’s the day people play with paint. The streets of India’s towns and cities become reminiscent of a George Romero zombie movie. Hordes of men, absolutely doused in paint roam about. They are covered in in pink and purple, green, blue, and yellow, and are typically very drunk. Little kids everywhere run about, hurling paint powder or paint mixed with water at anybody on the street.
Something like this... but with more pink.
This is mostly in good fun, but with the levels of spirits and inebriation, it actually gets a bit dangerous. Many people mix paints with dangerous chemicals that burn people. Women are molested(that’;s why the streets are full of dudes. All the women watch from the rooftops). Apparently a couple people died in Delhi when some of that pesky “communal violence” broke out. In order to avoid any situations, our tour guide hired a bus and took some routes to avoid the biggest gatherings. It was like riding through a Mad Max movie. Young kids put rocks in the road in order to set up road blocks. Our guide yelled at the driver not to slow down. We took a back road into the hotel to avoid stone-hurling youths. It was quite strange, and really reminded me of Kosovo or Albania.
Once we arrived, though, we had a grand time. There are some photos out there with a lot of paint on me.
This trip is Tadhog Approved
The 12th also marks one month on the road for me. Fortunately, I have somehow avoided getting The Big D (you know, where you go to the toilet a lot). Now that I’ve posted that fact, I’m sure to get it in the next 24 hours… It’s funny though, I read up so much about it before leaving that I end up in random conversations about people’s bodily functions. I’ve run into the same French woman in 2 cities. I still don’t know her name, but we’ve had successive conversations about her dysentery. You have some great conversations in this country…
So far I’ve hit up 3 countries on 2 continents in 3 time zones. I got a bunch more to go. I’m currently in Agra, just steps away from the famous Taj Mahal. It is probably “the most extravagant monument ever built for love”, but for some reason, I can’t stop thinking “Tango Down!” in my head. I think I played too much Rainbow Six in high school. I’ll actually enter the grounds tomorrow to see the sunrise. Then it will be off to Varanasi, then Calcutta, and then down south.
Since my last update, a bunch of us did some biking and climbing in Pushkar. Biking around Indian roads really early in the morning is quite sublime, as everyone is still asleep, and the constant hustle and din of a million cars, bikes, hawkers, beggars, et al has not started yet. The cows are still there, though, and one must avoid them. The only cow trouble I had was when one cow decided to headbut me while I was chaining my bike to a post. I’m not sure what his problem with me was…
After that we went to Bharatpur, which was the last stop in Rajastan. There are many famous birds there. I’m really not excited by birds.
Oh, and now that I’m near the Taj Mahal, there are going to be so many action shots. It’s going to rule.
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The official word has (sort of) come down. Tibet is open as of April 5. So we should be good to go for all that. At least, that’s what the AP tells me.
Currently I’m chilling out on the cliffs of Varkala, in Kerala state. It’s pretty nice. I don’t have the heart to tell the hippies here that the 60’s ended 4 decades ago, though…
OK, pop quiz!
Tadhog Goes Walkabout (Part 3) 