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Happy Holi!

Holi Festival, when Indus celebrate the beginning of Spring, by throwing coloured water and gulal (powder) at anyone within range, Bundi, Rajasthan, India

Holi Festival, when Indus celebrate the beginning of Spring, by throwing coloured water and gulal (powder) at anyone within range, Bundi, Rajasthan, India

We could not wait to see what this color throwing was all about and stormed into the street early morning. Whether this was a good or bad idea we will never know… This early start made us the first and actually only tourists in the small streets of Bundi… And hence a prime target for anyone.

We quickly realized the Holi Festival was mainly a men’s party, not that lots of women are normally seen in the street. The few Indian women we saw travelled on scooters and maybe had a whiff of color on their sari. But none of them had their face, clothes, hair, neck plastered with color like Kelly and Heidi. Probably it is not well accepted that strange men touch women in their face and neck. We did not want to be party-poopers and once people saw our smeared faces, they just felt it was okay to put more powder on us.

Holi Festival, when Indus celebrate the beginning of Spring, by throwing coloured water and gulal (powder) at anyone within range, Bundi, Rajasthan, India

Holi Festival, when Indus celebrate the beginning of Spring, by throwing coloured water and gulal (powder) at anyone within range, Bundi, Rajasthan, India

Holi Festival, when Indus celebrate the beginning of Spring, by throwing coloured water and gulal (powder) at anyone within range, Bundi, Rajasthan, India

Holi Festival, when Indus celebrate the beginning of Spring, by throwing coloured water and gulal (powder) at anyone within range, Bundi, Rajasthan, India

Holi Festival, when Indus celebrate the beginning of Spring, by throwing coloured water and gulal (powder) at anyone within range, Bundi, Rajasthan, India

Holi Festival, when Indus celebrate the beginning of Spring, by throwing coloured water and gulal (powder) at anyone within range, Bundi, Rajasthan, India

Of course we wanted to take photos of all this, but it became a real nightmare. Gilles camera was shining in all colors and we had no clue what is would do to it. Well, the camera was back in shape after a thorough cleaning.

Holi Festival, when Indus celebrate the beginning of Spring, by throwing coloured water and gulal (powder) at anyone within range, Bundi, Rajasthan, India

Holi Festival, when Indus celebrate the beginning of Spring, by throwing coloured water and gulal (powder) at anyone within range, Bundi, Rajasthan, India

Holi Festival, when Indus celebrate the beginning of Spring, by throwing coloured water and gulal (powder) at anyone within range, Bundi, Rajasthan, India

Holi Festival, when Indus celebrate the beginning of Spring, by throwing coloured water and gulal (powder) at anyone within range, Bundi, Rajasthan, India

Holi Festival, when Indus celebrate the beginning of Spring, by throwing coloured water and gulal (powder) at anyone within range, Bundi, Rajasthan, India

Holi Festival, when Indus celebrate the beginning of Spring, by throwing coloured water and gulal (powder) at anyone within range, Bundi, Rajasthan, India

All in all it was good fun, but the groups of teenagers descending on Kelly were getting annoying and after about three hours we unanimously decided to call it a day and retreated to the peaceful inside of our hotel room. When we dared to venture outside again early evening, it was all over. A few faces still showed traces of Holi, especially ours! Even after four scrubbing, the red was still there. And yes, it took almost a week for everything to disappear…

Holi Festival, when Indus celebrate the beginning of Spring, by throwing coloured water and gulal (powder) at anyone within range, Bundi, Rajasthan, India

Holi Festival, when Indus celebrate the beginning of Spring, by throwing coloured water and gulal (powder) at anyone within range, Bundi, Rajasthan, India

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