Hindu Festival 'Holi'

Tuesday 26th March 2013

Today saw the exciting Hindu festival of Holi, a celebration of colour! On waking up I changed into old clothes, as I had been advised, choosing black trousers and a white vest top to show up the colours. As I walked through the streets to Bijendra’s house I got bombarded with water balloons and coloured powders from passers-by. Just as I stood on Bijendra’s doorstep ringing the doorbell a group of kids came and tipped an entire bucket of water over my head at which point my mobile phone (which was in my pocket) gave up the ghost! Heather, Juliet and Bob turned up shortly after me and the games began: we all assembled on the roof terrace (it was blazing hot!) and dodged water bombs thrown by the kids in Bijendra’s family and those on neighbouring rooftops. I had my face painted by the kids – they did it gold with a pattern in green made using a fork! 

Me with my golden face and green fork pattern

Holi party on rooftop

Ready and waiting to attack

The boys armed with water bombs

When no water bombs are to hand other receptacles will do!

Bijendra ambushes Heather and Juliet

Attack and defence

Carnage!

Time to clean up!

We played for over an hour and then stopped to eat breakfast – the kids all showered and changed but we stayed in our grotty gear in preparation for the afternoon’s shenanigans. Heather, Juliet, Bijendra and I headed to Tri Netra to see the children, they had already finished playing “Colours” but were happy to see us and we had a soft drink and a singsong. From here we walked into Thamel to the outdoor venue Electric Pagoda where several of our friends had assembled to be covered in colour, drink beer, and dance! The waterpistols and supersoakers came out, thank goodness it was so hot! After a while we headed over to Funky Buddha club which was rammed full and had a DJ and lots of people throwing colour powder in the air and all over us.

Visiting the kids at Tri Netra

The colourful streets of Thamel

Having fun with friends at Electric Pagoda

The last party at Funky Buddha

We dined at a local momo (Tibetan dumpling) restaurant and then I headed back to the hotel for a very hot, very long shower to get rid of the day’s grime! On stepping back out I bumped into my friend Kumar, owner of a local bar, who insisted on trying out a new cocktail recipe on me!

Heather, Juliet and I at Momo Star 

Me before having a shower!