Yes, this is my second time blogging in a day - we are resting in our hotel and taking advantage of wifi and a/c.
Monday morning we woke up and had our granola and peanut butter. We generally keep these things with us when we travel because often breakfast is either tough to find in other countries, at least before 10am, or it's hotel food and way overpriced. This way, all we have to buy is the milk- we borrow utensils from the hotels. After hearing about Holi from many people here and in Nepal, we had made the wise decision to buy super cheap clothes to wear for this day so we could throw them away afterwards. Smart, smart choice. Also smart: we wore sunglasses and brought a bottle of water. Not smart: didn't put oil on our hair or skin as we read about, and I really wish I had bought a facemask or something. Why? Sit ye back and I'll tell you why Holi isn't for the faint of heart.
Firstly, we decided to spend Holi in Vrindavan/Mathura, which is said to be the birthplace of Krishna, who is one of the Hindu gods. So this place is a sacred place and also is known to be the absolute best place to celebrate and experience Holi around India. When people here in Jaipur even ask us about where we "played Holi" (that's what they say), and we say Vrindavan, they all go, "Oh! Very nice place for Holi!"
Secondly, we had targets on us as there weren't a ton of tourists around, and as it is everywhere we go people come up to us and either want a "snap" (picture) with us or want to ask all about where we are from. As a side note, they always ask Nolan these things-including if they can "take a snap with madam"...like I'm his pet or something. Nobody talks directly to me, and they often disregard anything I say. This doesn't keep men from staring at me or saying inappropriate things to me, for which I've had to keep Nolan from lashing out a couple times...but I digress. Inequality and disrespect for women in India is something I could say a lot more about from my brief experience here so far.
It sucks that I can't walk out to find us ice cream by myself here.
So, Holi: we put on our cheap clothes and ventured outside our room. Before we even made it out of the hotel courtyard, we had been sprayed with purple liquid dye, smeared with turquoise dye powder and blessed with a sprinkle of pink. Again, before we even made it outside. Still feeling excited and adventurous, we went out into the streets and...it was utter chaos. People hanging out of rickshaws and motorcycles and pelting you with dye as they zoomed past yelling, "Happy Holi!" Wild little kids with literally buckets of dye that they poured on you even if you said no. Other wild little kids who slung cow poo at you (here cow poo is good luck-they apparently often bring a cow into new houses and have it poo to bless the home) and mud. The ladies politely wish you a happy Holi and touch your forehead and hair with dye powder. The absolute worst villains of the day are the men-particularly young men. They walk up to you and smear it on your face, in your hair, and take liberties wiping it all over you on the one day they can't really get into trouble for molesting you. For me, they would dump it down the front of my shirt (which wasn't low cut even!), or more particularly shove it in my mouth and all over my lips.
As a note to you readers: generally this isn't edible dye or nontoxic even. The standard here is industrial strength material dye. So...now re-imagine all that I just described. Our water bottle was used primarily for rinsing out our mouths and lips and even eyes.
EVERYONE wanted pictures with us again, and I gained a small amount of sympathy for celebrities as it's exhausting and very irritating.
"You said 1 snap, that was 1!" "No sir, now another".
On Holi, you cannot say "No" to people, you cannot escape them, and the only place you may find five minutes to eat your roti without a thousand million hands on your face is right next to the food seller.
So many hands touching us. So, so many. Even the poor cows had dye on them, and the monkeys were scampering nervously away on the walls.
There are basically 3 forms of dye used on Holi. First is the liquid dye. This stains easily and is often applied by the bucketful, but is easily wiped away from orifices. Second is the powdered dye. Ooh, I hate this stuff. We bought 2 bags so we could play too, but we threw it pretty mildly I think. This stuff sticks to you, stains (it all does), fills your mouth, ears and nose, and makes it hard to breathe or drink water or see out of your glasses. It also clumps in your hair and forms a sort of shell. Third and worst is the foam. All of the above, but it sticks easier, is difficult to wipe off, smells awful, and is always, ALWAYS aimed directly at the face.
After about 2-3 hours of this madness, we beat a hasty retreat to our hotel, hopped in the shower, and scrubbed each other for quite awhile only to find that the dye wasn't coming off of our hair and skin and would be our companion for a few days. The harsh chemicals dried out my skin and especially hair. I'm still a little afraid I'm going to wake up missing clumps. We hung up our ruined clothing and ran stealthily to the hotel cafe for a safe meal avoiding the chaos. The rest of the day we spent indoors trying to get wifi, debating sticking our heads outside to look for milk or bottled water, and I actually spent it napping since I wasn't feeling so hot. Nolan was brave enough to venture out for granola, fruit and milk, and we had that for dinner as we waited out the rest of the crazy day in our room. Holi is exhausting!
As I write this, Nolan is pointing out that it sounds like Holi is terrible. It's not. I just want to convey the intensity of it, which we were wholly unprepared for. It was beautiful, crazy fun and so interesting to take part in such a joyous holiday with another culture. It was everything (okay, and way more) than I imagined, and I heartily recommend it, if you're up to it. However, like I've said, it's not for the faint of heart and there were definitely parts of it I was uncomfortable with...but that's part of the experience!
Happy Holi!
Monday morning we woke up and had our granola and peanut butter. We generally keep these things with us when we travel because often breakfast is either tough to find in other countries, at least before 10am, or it's hotel food and way overpriced. This way, all we have to buy is the milk- we borrow utensils from the hotels. After hearing about Holi from many people here and in Nepal, we had made the wise decision to buy super cheap clothes to wear for this day so we could throw them away afterwards. Smart, smart choice. Also smart: we wore sunglasses and brought a bottle of water. Not smart: didn't put oil on our hair or skin as we read about, and I really wish I had bought a facemask or something. Why? Sit ye back and I'll tell you why Holi isn't for the faint of heart.
Firstly, we decided to spend Holi in Vrindavan/Mathura, which is said to be the birthplace of Krishna, who is one of the Hindu gods. So this place is a sacred place and also is known to be the absolute best place to celebrate and experience Holi around India. When people here in Jaipur even ask us about where we "played Holi" (that's what they say), and we say Vrindavan, they all go, "Oh! Very nice place for Holi!"
Secondly, we had targets on us as there weren't a ton of tourists around, and as it is everywhere we go people come up to us and either want a "snap" (picture) with us or want to ask all about where we are from. As a side note, they always ask Nolan these things-including if they can "take a snap with madam"...like I'm his pet or something. Nobody talks directly to me, and they often disregard anything I say. This doesn't keep men from staring at me or saying inappropriate things to me, for which I've had to keep Nolan from lashing out a couple times...but I digress. Inequality and disrespect for women in India is something I could say a lot more about from my brief experience here so far.
It sucks that I can't walk out to find us ice cream by myself here.
So, Holi: we put on our cheap clothes and ventured outside our room. Before we even made it out of the hotel courtyard, we had been sprayed with purple liquid dye, smeared with turquoise dye powder and blessed with a sprinkle of pink. Again, before we even made it outside. Still feeling excited and adventurous, we went out into the streets and...it was utter chaos. People hanging out of rickshaws and motorcycles and pelting you with dye as they zoomed past yelling, "Happy Holi!" Wild little kids with literally buckets of dye that they poured on you even if you said no. Other wild little kids who slung cow poo at you (here cow poo is good luck-they apparently often bring a cow into new houses and have it poo to bless the home) and mud. The ladies politely wish you a happy Holi and touch your forehead and hair with dye powder. The absolute worst villains of the day are the men-particularly young men. They walk up to you and smear it on your face, in your hair, and take liberties wiping it all over you on the one day they can't really get into trouble for molesting you. For me, they would dump it down the front of my shirt (which wasn't low cut even!), or more particularly shove it in my mouth and all over my lips.
As a note to you readers: generally this isn't edible dye or nontoxic even. The standard here is industrial strength material dye. So...now re-imagine all that I just described. Our water bottle was used primarily for rinsing out our mouths and lips and even eyes.
EVERYONE wanted pictures with us again, and I gained a small amount of sympathy for celebrities as it's exhausting and very irritating.
"You said 1 snap, that was 1!" "No sir, now another".
On Holi, you cannot say "No" to people, you cannot escape them, and the only place you may find five minutes to eat your roti without a thousand million hands on your face is right next to the food seller.
So many hands touching us. So, so many. Even the poor cows had dye on them, and the monkeys were scampering nervously away on the walls.
There are basically 3 forms of dye used on Holi. First is the liquid dye. This stains easily and is often applied by the bucketful, but is easily wiped away from orifices. Second is the powdered dye. Ooh, I hate this stuff. We bought 2 bags so we could play too, but we threw it pretty mildly I think. This stuff sticks to you, stains (it all does), fills your mouth, ears and nose, and makes it hard to breathe or drink water or see out of your glasses. It also clumps in your hair and forms a sort of shell. Third and worst is the foam. All of the above, but it sticks easier, is difficult to wipe off, smells awful, and is always, ALWAYS aimed directly at the face.
After about 2-3 hours of this madness, we beat a hasty retreat to our hotel, hopped in the shower, and scrubbed each other for quite awhile only to find that the dye wasn't coming off of our hair and skin and would be our companion for a few days. The harsh chemicals dried out my skin and especially hair. I'm still a little afraid I'm going to wake up missing clumps. We hung up our ruined clothing and ran stealthily to the hotel cafe for a safe meal avoiding the chaos. The rest of the day we spent indoors trying to get wifi, debating sticking our heads outside to look for milk or bottled water, and I actually spent it napping since I wasn't feeling so hot. Nolan was brave enough to venture out for granola, fruit and milk, and we had that for dinner as we waited out the rest of the crazy day in our room. Holi is exhausting!
As I write this, Nolan is pointing out that it sounds like Holi is terrible. It's not. I just want to convey the intensity of it, which we were wholly unprepared for. It was beautiful, crazy fun and so interesting to take part in such a joyous holiday with another culture. It was everything (okay, and way more) than I imagined, and I heartily recommend it, if you're up to it. However, like I've said, it's not for the faint of heart and there were definitely parts of it I was uncomfortable with...but that's part of the experience!
Happy Holi!
1 comment:
Our silly string fights are tame by cmparison!
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