Holi Mt Abuuuu

Hello Hello-
we have been on the run so much we have been so neglectful of this poor little blog. we have so much to share but will pick the best of the best for right now!

Yesterday we experienced Holi, the festival of color, India's largest festival! It was quite an experience. We headed for the hills for this one because we heard it was something that you want to experience for the first time on a smaller scale. We found ourselves in a lovely hill station called Mt Abu in Rajasthan. there were tons of Abu's... The night before Holi large fires were lit throughout the town and as we were observing one of these very fires we were happily greeted by and indian man and his wife who asked us to join him in their walk around the fire. the idea is to remove your shoes and walk once around the fire to "burn" away your sorrows. it was a lovely thing to be part of but the REAL celebration of Holi took place the next day. During holi peeps run around throwing colored powder and water at each other. they particularly like to smear you in the face. we set out early looking to pick a fight and were invited to join a drum circle sitting outside a holy hindu temple. the lead singer was playing a small instrument that we call the box-harpsi-piano. everyone was singing and immediately when we sat they covered our heads, face and all, in color! we sat and enjoyed the music. holi men, pardon the pun, were sitting with us. long beards, long hair, and rose and our german friend felt they were stuck out because i fit in. we enjoyed running around the small city being playful and greeted by many benevolent people playing holi.

by the end of the event we were covered. our clothes were ruined and we were feeling great. we got a few beers and hung out on the roof of our hotel where our room was. after some time we realized we were being robbed. MONKEYS!!! they got our last orange and even tried to make a meal of my beloved earplug. i was tee'd off to say the least (actually it was amazing and i was able to check off "monkey experience" on my "India to do" list) they got a bit aggressive and chased us out of the room when we tried to enter. I came to the rescue with a plastic chair and we locked the windows tight from there on out!!

we are now in the beautiful (yet touristy) town on Udiapur. We will be here for 2 nights then off we go on our much anticipated adventure NORTH! We will be in Amritsar basking in the beauty of the Golden Temple come this time Friday!

Lots and lots of love