Happy Holi
March 14 - And to celebrate, butter chicken.
For those who know the significance of my butter chicken reference, it will be surprising for you to learn that in the two and a half weeks that I have been here, today was the first time that I was able to order it. I have had butter paneer several times, but not chicken. According to one of the women who was on tour, there was a case of avian flu in India recently. Several restaurants are no longer serving chicken, but there is no consensus. The restaurant in our hotel in Jodhpur served chicken, but not the local restaurant we went to one day for lunch. The restaurant in our hotel in Varanasi did not serve chicken, but we had some on the Jet Airways flight to Delhi from Varanasi.
Well, as you can see, there wasn't a second train ride. Jaz and I flew from Varanasi to Delhi yesterday and from Delhi to Udaipur today. I think one of the 33 million Hindu gods must have been watching over us because this drastically impacted our holiday. Not only did flying relieve us of further train trauma, but we were actually able to tour Udaipur today since all of India will be shut down tomorrow for a religious festival. If we had stuck to our original train and driving plan, we would have arrived too late to see the sights.
The celebration of Holi started tonight — the Hindu spring festival. On the first day, a bonfire is lit at night to signify burning Holika (a demon in Hindu mythology). On the second day, known as Dhulandi, people go around into the afternoon throwing colours at each other. At dinner we watched (and heard) the various bonfires being lit throughout the city, which were accompanied by fireworks. Tomorrow we have been told to stay in the hotel until about 7pm for safety reasons. The coloured powders that will be thrown around could potentially be toxic for us North Americans not used to them and there is also the issue of being foreigners in a large crowd during a large celebration.
Udaipur is the Venice of India. There are three lakes that surround the city, along with lovely mountains. This very clean city has a population of half a million people and is known for their handmade paper and leather-bound books, and artwork. We visited the City Palace, the largest palace in the state of Rajasthan. The four sections that make up the palace overlook Lake Pichola (man-made). We also saw the fountain park, which was used one month a year by the maharaja to escape the palace, and the Jagdish Temple (hard to describe the amazing carvings, so hopefully my pictures will do it justice).
Our hotel room also overlooks Lake Pichola and we can hear the women beating the clothes on the rocks accross the lake and the birds are continually flying by, including pigeons cooing outside our window. Tomorrow, in our confinement, we will be repacking the suitcases in an effort to consolidate all of our purchases into bags that can easily be checked for our flight home in three days.
Udaipur was a great choice for the end of the trip because it is so relaxing and peaceful. The city is clean and we haven't encountered any beggars (so far).
Photos of Udaipur
For those who know the significance of my butter chicken reference, it will be surprising for you to learn that in the two and a half weeks that I have been here, today was the first time that I was able to order it. I have had butter paneer several times, but not chicken. According to one of the women who was on tour, there was a case of avian flu in India recently. Several restaurants are no longer serving chicken, but there is no consensus. The restaurant in our hotel in Jodhpur served chicken, but not the local restaurant we went to one day for lunch. The restaurant in our hotel in Varanasi did not serve chicken, but we had some on the Jet Airways flight to Delhi from Varanasi.
Well, as you can see, there wasn't a second train ride. Jaz and I flew from Varanasi to Delhi yesterday and from Delhi to Udaipur today. I think one of the 33 million Hindu gods must have been watching over us because this drastically impacted our holiday. Not only did flying relieve us of further train trauma, but we were actually able to tour Udaipur today since all of India will be shut down tomorrow for a religious festival. If we had stuck to our original train and driving plan, we would have arrived too late to see the sights.
The celebration of Holi started tonight — the Hindu spring festival. On the first day, a bonfire is lit at night to signify burning Holika (a demon in Hindu mythology). On the second day, known as Dhulandi, people go around into the afternoon throwing colours at each other. At dinner we watched (and heard) the various bonfires being lit throughout the city, which were accompanied by fireworks. Tomorrow we have been told to stay in the hotel until about 7pm for safety reasons. The coloured powders that will be thrown around could potentially be toxic for us North Americans not used to them and there is also the issue of being foreigners in a large crowd during a large celebration.
Udaipur is the Venice of India. There are three lakes that surround the city, along with lovely mountains. This very clean city has a population of half a million people and is known for their handmade paper and leather-bound books, and artwork. We visited the City Palace, the largest palace in the state of Rajasthan. The four sections that make up the palace overlook Lake Pichola (man-made). We also saw the fountain park, which was used one month a year by the maharaja to escape the palace, and the Jagdish Temple (hard to describe the amazing carvings, so hopefully my pictures will do it justice).
Our hotel room also overlooks Lake Pichola and we can hear the women beating the clothes on the rocks accross the lake and the birds are continually flying by, including pigeons cooing outside our window. Tomorrow, in our confinement, we will be repacking the suitcases in an effort to consolidate all of our purchases into bags that can easily be checked for our flight home in three days.
Udaipur was a great choice for the end of the trip because it is so relaxing and peaceful. The city is clean and we haven't encountered any beggars (so far).
Photos of Udaipur
posted by Dawnabelles at 7:50 PM
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