festival of color
Just a quick update – we’re alive and well with just a short bout of illness. We made it all the way across the county to Varanasi where we are holed up in a fancy hotel for cheap in the holiest of holy lands, the Ganges River.
Before heading east we celebrated Holi in Jaisalmer and then I had to celebrate in the shower for a couple of hours trying to get bright dye off of my skin, hair, gums and ears. It was a pretty crazy experience; child, adult, man and woman rubbed or sprayed us with powders and water dyes, once with a silver paste that smelt like rubber cement (we’re both thinking if we die early, it will be linked to that). We were invited into homes to share food and drinks laced with opium – we were told frequently that many people are high on opium all through the festivities, no beer though, (and by laced I don’t mean they were trying to be sneaky, opium use is a very open and accepted activity, drinking and eating beef, not so much). We were also warned by some chatty shop keepers that some people like to ‘play bad Holi’ which we unfortunately ran into in the last 10 minutes of our outing into town…nothing to cry about but we (I) were relieved to get back to our hotel and away from hordes of kids and teenagers.
side note: Why it’s good to be a man in India
1.1 billion- the population of India. And the number of eyes staring at me, all the time.
0 – the number of men who direct a question at me instead of Greg
13 - the age of the kid who made kissy faces at me from the back of a rickshaw.
52 - the number of cat calls when I appear to be walking alone.
12 - the number of wandering hands during Holi.
1 - the one occasion I wore a skirt. Mistake.
And finally, why it’s good to be a man in India – exterior plumbing. End of Story.
After Holi we hopped a night train to Agra and spent the day taking in our 2nd World Wonder of the trip – The Taj Mahal. Afterwards another night train to Varanasi.
On the 16th we are heading north to Pokhara, Nepal where we’ll start our 10 day +/- trek.
i like those pics of you guys enjoying all the colors lol