Kathmandu The Holi Festival - Day12
Last night after our shower and freshen up we went to a local restaurant for dinner. The waiter was very good and occasionally cracked a subtle joke or two. Michael had been hanging out for some seafood. He could have had fish along the way but they advised it was very boney local fish so he chose not to. He ordered the British fish and chips and asked if it had bones. The waiter replied " You want bones? I can put in for you!" We joked and said put in some chicken bones and the waiter laughed, not expecting us to join in. He told us they were very busy, and a meal might be a bit later. Zelda asked "How long, a few minutes, an hour, A Nepali minute? He said "about Nepali 10 minutes so about an hour, but I will bring you some free snacks. About a half hour later our meals were being delivered so everything was on schedule. The meals as we have come to expect here were fantastic, and we had the most amazing home made lemonade with mint. After dinner we returned to our room and retired for the night.
One thing we did do before we left for dinner was scrub our shoes and riding gear. Because of Australia's border control, if you have been in the country in many countries your footwear is thoroughly inspected. Any signs of dirt means your footwear has to be discarded or thoroughly cleaned before entry.
Tip No 9 Take a spare toothbrush or scrubbing brush to clean your footwear if you go overseas and enter farming country or jungle.
Tip No 10 Many bead necklaces are made from seeds or seed pods in Asian countries. These will not be allowed back in unless you want to pay for gamma radiation on them.
Tip No 11 Check with Australian Border Force before returning/entering Australia for prohibited items.
I want to bring back a Kukri so Tip No 11 was valuable for me.
Now about the Holi fesitval. This is known as the festival of colour or the festival of Spring and is an ancient Hindu Festival. The people all gather in the streets celebration and spreading colour around.
We started the Festival at the Hotel with our host Prabin putting some coloured powder on our faces after we took a before shot. We had hardly reached the end of the street when a water bomb hit Ann on the side of the face. Michael and Zelda wanted a white T-shirt to wear and found one in a nearby shop. As they already had paint on their face, the only way they could try them on was to cover the painted area first. Michael had a plastic bag over his head just so he could try on the shirt.
Before long we were getting powdered and sprayed from all angles with chants of "Happy Holi" It seems the Nepali love to spread the love especially to us tourists. The kids were having a ball as well throwing bags of coloured water at us and before long Peter and I were chasing the kids around trying to hit them with paint as well. By the time we got to the square, we were a mass of colour and the centre of everyone's cameras. We met a range of people there from all over the world, including Ireland, Finland, Germany, Portugal and Holland to name a few. They were all plastered from head to toe in colour.
After Peter got interviewed for a local TV channel we headed to a rooftop bar for a much needed drink and break from the paint. We also had a great vantage point of the whole square from there. We had a light lunch while we waited for Michael to turn up. This was our predetermined rendezvous point, but somehow Michael ended up waiting next door for over half an hour. It wasn't until he looked to see if there was more room on the other side of the wall that he saw us all sitting there. After he had travelled down 4 flights of stairs and back up another 4 fights he eventually joined up with us. After some drinks we all started our way back to the hotel.
The crowd coming to the square was hard to navigate through but somehow we managed. The trip back was more paint and water bombs and chants of Happy Holi, with Michael leading the way. Eventally arriving at the Hotel we had our mandatory after photos. Ann and I were wearing Taubmans Tshirts we picked up at a trade show. Now if this isn't a good advert for Taubmans paint colours. nothing is!
The final result...... speak for itself
Below is a short video of the festival
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