Holy Holi! - Jodhpur and Udaipur

Click here to see the photos from Jodhpur and Udaipur

On the 7 hour train from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur, Matt and I received a portent of what Holi would entail. A few stops after Jaisalmer, when we thought we'd have the whole berth section to ourselves, about 7 or 8 men crammed into our area, covered head to foot in a pinkish-purple dye. This is what Holi consists of. Throwing coloured dye from a bottle or squirter onto one another... We made sure our clothes stayed clear, as it was rubbing off on the seats, and as the men ambushed others walking down the aisle. We made it clear to them to leave us out of it, as we had heard the dye can be quite difficult to remove from clothes if totally soaked in. I was definitely planning on buying a cheap t-shirt and pants or shorts when I arrived in Jodhpur!
The night we arrived in Jodhpur, we checked into the Shivam Paying Guest House (I love the names!), at the base of the Merhargarh Fort, with stunning views from the rooftop restaurant. Seems like every hostel in India that is in a city with a fort has a rooftop restaurant!
We went straight to bed, and got up early the next morning and had breakfast at the famous Omelette Shop, near a gate in the old city wall not 100 meters from our hotel. For 12 rupees (about 15p), you get two little omelette sandwiches, from a menu of them including cheese and masala ones.
We walked around a small bit, getting our bearings, and I spent most of the afternoon uploading my photos and doing my last blog entry since it was already too late to visit the fort or the palace on the outskirts of the city. From the rooftop of the hostel, the Maharaja's palace is an imposing sight. It's not only his residence, but it's also a 5 star hotel as well. Instead, we walked through the bazaar near our hostel, crammed full with shoppers, rickshaws, cows, stalls selling chai, spices, vegetables and kids clothing. I was desparate to find myself some cheap clothes for Holi the next day, as some kids were already beginning to celebrate, and we had to give them some nasty faces to keep them from covering us head to foot with dye, as I was wearing clothes I wished to keep!
After a nice stop at a chai shop, we found a nice quiet square, selling spices, wheat and grain. Funnily enough, there was one shop there selling T-shirts and cotton pants where I bought one of each. The shopkeeper convinced us to take part (as they were already soaked through and covered!), but only did our faces, taking care not to get any on our clothes using a thick paste. He invited us to join him outside a friend's spice shop, and we chatted for about 15 minutes and shared chai.
We made our excuses as we wanted to witness the sunset from the fort. So after a quick stop in the hostel, where I resigned to the fact I would now get ambushed due to my dyed face, I changed into my cheap clothes for the walk up. Good thing too, as within 5 meters from the hostel, a bunch of kids ambushed me without warning! I'm glad I took part. Most of the tourists were shying away from it, taking refuge in their hostel cafes or restaurants. As far as I could see, Matt and I were the only ones participating! Once we were covered, we received many warm greetings and smiles from the many locals in the streets, shouting out 'Happy Holi!'.
I walked barefoot all the way up to the top of the fort, since I didn't fancy having pink flip-flops or hiking shoes afterwards! It was pretty painful, and had to avoid any glass or cow-pats in the streets!
We returned to the hostel, much to the delight of the staff there at our appearances, and had dinner, followed by a shower. I tell you, I was still pink after it. I scrubbed my face 3 times with face scrub, and the dye persisted... I was then told the dye would stay on my skin for a further 3 days... Ah well. Sitting upstairs, we saw many bonfires made from cow-pats and sticks, with people playing music all over the city, already celebrating Holi the night before.
So the next morning, still pink in the face, Matt and I decided not to make it any worse, and we took refuge like many other tourists. We got many amused glances from the white skinned folk at our appearance. The streets were absolute mayhem, screaming kids and adults rioting with bottles of dye, music blaring on every street, dancers outside each house. I braved a short walk down the street to take some snaps, and almost received a deluge of dye poured from a blacony above as I was holding my new digital camera, but luckily it missed me by half a meter! The bottom of my trekking trousers weren't too lucky though, but it was a weak mix, and easily washed out.
We spent the morning and afternoon reading, waiting for 2pm when the Merhargargh Fort opened. I had the weirdest experience. Whilst reading, my mind sort of wandered, and I suddenly had a strong series of flashbacks of poignant memories in my life. From lying in bed looking into Sev's kaleidoscope eyes of blue, grey and yellow, listening to her musical laughter, to being driven out of my father's house when I was 13. From a friend of 10 years betraying my trust and confidence during my final week in London, to being severely bullied at school in Hong Kong. From retaliating against my mum once when she was beating me, to sitting on a window sill 11 floors up, contemplating suicide, one of many times as a teenager. In the space of 10 minutes, I remembered and felt heavenly joy to the deepest depression. From furious anger to quivering fright. From remorse to total disregard for my own life. It really took me by surprise, and I couldn't break out of it. Distinct memories just flowed through my thinking. Matt waved a hand in front of me, and asked if I was ok as I was just staring into space. I snapped out of it and told him I was just thinking. It seems cheesey that it happened here in India, where so many say they come to 'find themselves', which I see as a bunch of nonsense. I'm sure if I had visited Nepal or somewhere else first, it would have happened there. Maybe it is India. That would really make me one of those 'soul-searchers' then right? I hope not...
So that really set a melancholy mood for myself for the rest of the day. I was mostly silent as we headed up to the fort, thinking about what happened. The audio tour from an MP3 player round our neck cheered me up a bit, an Indian man talking in perfect Queen's English narrating the history and sights within.
On the way down, a man greeted us, and invited us into his home for a chat. We sat inside his small living room as his wife washed their children's clothes, pink from the Holi celebrations that morning. He showed us his son's collection of foreign currency, and told us what each of his kids were studying and asked what we did. After a nice 15 minute conversation, Matt and I returned to the hotel to relax, not before having some more of the omelettes and buying a few bottles of beer to sup on the roof of the hostel. We spoke about our lives, relationships, and about how I look at myself as a mixed race child, and where I belong. We even touched on EU politics. Fun!
The following morning, we woke up early at 6am to check out and catch our 7:30am bus to Udaipur in the south of Rajasthan. It was a 6 hours long, breaking out of the edges of the Thar Desert, into rocky plains, and up into the moutain ranges housing Udaipur. The bus journey was mostly monotonous, except for a 20 minute intermission, when our driver pranged an auto-rickshaw on an uphill winding road. Cue a huge arguement, with exclaimations of 'madachudh', and other profanities, including and not excluding any member of each others' family. Within minutes a huge group of people crowed round the pair, some locals who obviously knew the rickshaw driver, holding sticks ready to join in the fighting if it ensued. And it did, fists started flying, but the crowd was so thick, the friends of the rickshaw driver could not get in. Luckily some local officials turned up just at that moment, and stopped the fighting. Everyone dispersed, and continued with their chores or drove off without a word. It was kind of surreal. I love the Indian people.
So here I am in Udaipur. I was told there was no lake here, that it had dried up, but it's looking very healthy right now due to recent rainfall (maybe the same ones we experienced in Jaisalmer!). We checked into the Kumbha Palace Guesthouse, run by a Dutch lady married to an Indian man. We met the bright, talkative manager, Prakash, who seems to be enthusiastic about everything, and is hard to stop from going on and on about a subject. He's like Kosh. He just won't shut up sometimes. ;)
As we arrived in the afternoon, Matt and I decided to walk around part of the lake, and paused for a rest at a lakeside cafe. The scenery was amazing. As Matt said, it was like sitting by a lake in north Italy. The view of the lake, bordered by verdant hills and gleaming white buildings, made us feel like we were back in Europe. It is certainly the most picturesque city we have been in so far. The ghats (wide steps beside and running into the lake), we crowded with women washing, beating and rinsing clothes them in the water. A musical, rythmic chorus of 'thwuck's echoed around the town in the early evening.
That night, after dinner back at the hostel's, you guessed it, rooftop restaurant, we booked a private car to take us out of town the next morning to Kumbalgarh, and impressive fort sitting high in the surrounding moutain range, with a 36km wall stretching and winding it's way across the countryside (it's the second longest wall in Asia, after the Great Wall of China), and on to Ranakpur, a complex housing 4 Jain temples with some of the most intricate marble carvings in all of India. The ride was fabulous, winding roads through verdant valleys filled with terraced wheat fields and sugar cane. Women in the distinctive coloured sarees of Rajasthan and gold decorative chains from their ears to nose carrying everything balanced on their heads from huge bundles of firewood to cow pats (for fire fuel) to kalashes (water jugs). Kids in white longhis waving wooden canes, herding goats or water buffalo along the country roads. Men in bright orange or red turbans squatting non-chalantly on the side of the roads. This was certainly the highlight of the day, driving the 3 and a half hours from Udaipur to Kumbalgarh to Ranakpur. I must admit, I succumbed to the previous night's lack of sleep and dozed off in the back of the car the final hour before arriving at Ranakpur, and having a cheap (17 rupees, about 22 pence) lunch in hall not dissimilar from a prison canteen. Food, dhal and chickpeas, were dumped unceremoniously into your bowls from a ladle and steel bucket. I guess you can't go wrong for all you can eat for that price!
At Ranakpur, the main temple is simply stunning. The marblework is just exquisite, with the hundreds of columns in the semi-open air structure dominating. Detailed facades on every wall, ceiling and surface, shiny black, red and white idols inside with shrines with large glaring, all-seeing eyes. The head priest approached me as I was kneeling, taking a photo, and blessed me by rubbing a gold tilak in the center of my forehead, before placing both hands on my shoulders and murmuring a prayer to the gods.
The smaller temples were no less impressive. They were small, and quite simple inside, with fairly bare shrines, but the carvings on the outside walls were incredible. There were scenes of gods fighting demons, worshippers praying to gods, and erotic sculptures of love scenes and some gods. Unfortunately, a lot of the erotic scenes had been vandalised in the past from Muslim occupation. Some have been badly restored, but some have survived.
One the way back to Udaipur, we stopped in a junction town in the hills called Saida where Matt and I took some photos. We then continued back, again stopping, but at the workshop of a master artist in Rajasthani art, Aslambhai (bhai is a term of respect, meaning elder brother). I bought a certain present for Sev to put in her flat, which I won't mention here as she reads this blog. I'm sure she'll love it.
On return to our hostel, we relaxed a while and went to a bar called the Savage Garden, which he heard about the day before from a flyer, celebrating St. Patrick's Day. There were quite a few backpackers up there, with some guitar playing, singing and good conversation until 11pm when it closed.
Today, we haven't done much. We walked through some back streets of Udaipur, getting lost, taking photos and greeting the locals. We're taking a bus this evening down to Surat, where we'll only stay for as long as it takes to find a bus onwards to Ellora, our next destination, to see the wonderful Buddhist caves carved out of the mountain side. From there, we'll also head to Ajanta, another place with Buddhist caves, before heading south-east to Nasik, the site of next year's Kumbh Mela celebrations.