Udaipur: Getting ready for Holi festival

February 27 – 28 March, 2010

We arrived in Udaipur on the 27th after a 5 hour drive from Bundi. Interesting drive, but even more interesting was the driver who had a serious nicotine habit and small bladder. We stopped at least 6 times for him to pee and he must have spit out the window at least 20 times (heavy tobacco chewer). But we arrived safely, so what the heck.

Udaipur is probably the most beautiful city we’ve seen, with lakes and white and sand colored palaces. It’s a little more touristy so as a result it has all the comforts you could want. We arranged for another great room right on Lake Pichola looking out at the palace on the water. It’s actually three rooms and one is a domed room with an extra floor bed perfect for naps and blog entries. We get in just as the city is gearing up for the Holi festival – huge India wide festival that stems from some mortal out burning a god? and also welcomes in Spring. By the way the 28th was a full moon, making the waterfront view even more enchanting.

The night beginning the festival there are hundreds of staging areas (near temples) for large bonfires and parties. We landed a roof top table at a restaurant near the largest temple to watch the festivities. They started with blasting bollywood music and dancing, and some religious processions from the temple. Then the bonfire – now this bonfire is like no other. A huge dead tree wrapped in dried branches about 50 feet high. The structure is interlaced with firecrackers and aerial fireworks. This particular structure was in the main circle of town by the largest temple, so it was huge. They strung firecrackers down the street and around the structure for ignition. What a – BLAST! The fire and fireworks went on for about 30 minutes, with the large aerials going off in every which direction towards people, buildings, temples and yes cows. One aerial shot directly into an electrical transformer during the melee and the whole city went dark. That abruptly ended the loud music and frenzied dancing and the party sort of petered out. Throughout the night you can find the same fires going on every few blocks – it looked like the city was on fire. What a crazy site. As some other Swiss tourists said – this would never fly anywhere there were insurance companies or attorneys.

Laurie