Contiki Eternal India: Holi in Jaipur

This trip keeps on giving! We just experienced Holi in Jaipur, which was magical. I'll back up a bit, though, and start with our itinerary in order. We arrived into Jaipur in the early evening and headed straight to a carpet and textile factory where we learned how they make hand woven carpets. While the experience was a bit too "salesy" for me, the work they do is quite impressive. I didn't buy anything, but a someone got a suit and another couple bought a carpet! After the factory, we checked into our hotel and grabbed dinner before going to bed early because we had an action packed day the following day.

We left for our bike tour (or, in my case, rickshaw tour) before sunrise as the goal was to be on the streets as the city of Jaipur came alive. Our bus dropped us off at a location where there were a bunch of bikes and one rickshaw waiting for us. Once everyone got fitted out and we got a quick orientation, specifically the words “Radjah Radjah” which is an expression that they use in Jaipur for a bunch of things, but it's almost like “all is good” or “let's go”, we hit the road. Our rickshaw weaved down alleyways and streets to our first stop where people fed some cows. I stayed away as I didn't want to accidentally get trampled.

After our cow stop, we went to a local place to get masala chai. Everywhere we go the chai is beyond hot as it is triple boiled, so it takes a while to cool off to the point where we can drink it.

While we were having our chai, the city started to wake up. We made it to one of the city gates for a quick picture. I didn't get out of the rickshaw since we were literally in the middle of traffic.

After the pit stop, our group went to the City Palace. There wasn't a way for a rickshaw to get nearby, so it dropped us off about a 5 minute walk away and we made our way to meet the group. Our group didn't go into the palace, but took some pictures in front of it. It is the former residence and government offices for the king of Jaipur.

We then got back on our bikes and in our rickshaw and the city really came to life in those 15 minutes, I have no idea how the people on bikes made it through the absolute chaos to our next stop. The tour company had escorts that helped stop traffic so the bikes could cross the roads, but it was still absolute mayhem! Our second to last stop was the facade of the bazaar, which was tall and beautiful.

We ended our tour at a place for breakfast samosas and a delicious sugary treat along the side of the road, which was also next to a Holi celebration. It was absolute chaos and exactly what I expected when coming to India - I loved it!

Bellies full, we went back to our hotel to have a very quick bite to eat and change into our all white outfits for Holi. I also packed all white sunglasses to protect my eyes that I got for $5 at Five Below before I left, which really completed the look when paired with my white sneakers that were on their last leg and I planned on tossing out after our festivities were over. Some people put oil on their hair and skin to keep the powder from staining their bodies, I figured that my sunscreen would prove to have the same properties and lathered myself up. We took a “before photo” and headed for the bus.

Before we boarded the bus, our bus driver and bus attendant were also clad in white waiting for us with a bunch of Holi powder to christen our faces in a bit of color before boarding the bus. As we got some powder put on our faces, we took some powder and put it on theirs. The traditional thing was to get color and give it back while saying “Happy Holi”. Once we were in the bus, we headed to our Holi party!

Sonny, our local guide, explained that Holi is a celebration of spring and symbolic of a restart. Each of the colored powders mean a different thing and are aligned to one of the Hindu gods.

After about 45 minutes, we downed another water bottle as we arrived in the parking lot of the party. Instead of partying in the streets, we were going to a more controlled setting with a DJ. It was $10 general admission or $80 VIP where you got $80 credit to use towards drinks and colored powder at the event. Our group overwhelmingly voted for the VIP section as it was going to be safer, less crowded and just made a lot more sense.

Despite arriving at 10:30 AM for something that supposedly starting at 9:00 AM, we were early and they were still doing sound checks. We were able to go in to dance a bit before sitting in the shade until the party started, it was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit so we needed all the shade and water we could get!

After a bit, some color started to come out and we put it on each other to kick the party off. Slowly, the venue came to life. There were bags of colored powder, firecrackers that emitted streams of it and two sizes of fire extinguishers with it. Best of all, we were able to use the credit from the tickets towards it. Within a few minutes, our faces, hair and outfits started to become multi-colored pieces of art from head to toe.

The DJ music blasting, we had a lot of fun for at least an hour dancing in the middle of the VIP area which wasn't too crowded yet. Jess, our trip manager from South Africa on this trip, put me on his back to give me a piggyback ride through the chaos.

To say Holi is a wild party is an understatement, it is by far the most insane party I’ve ever been to. Random strangers dousing you in water or rubbing powder on you as they say “Happy Holi” and you reciprocating is one of the most unique experiences I've had in my life. We would up having such an amazing time that we extended our time and extra hour and left at 3:00 PM as the party wrapped up instead of at 2:00 PM as planned.

Towards the end of the party, we decided to use up the remaining credit on fire extinguishers of powder and had a field day. I have never used a fire extinguisher before, but it was awesome to just shoot blue powder at people!

They stopped playing music and we left shortly thereafter, walking through the now empty general area where it looked like a bomb hit - random shoes scattered with no owner in site, trash and powder everywhere.

Since the event was in a field our bus actually had trouble getting going and a bunch of people had to get our and push it out of a small divet so it would start going. Once we got rolling, the party continued on the bus all the way back to the hotel where we took our after photo.

We only had 45 minutes to turn around before we left for our next stop on the itinerary, so we all showered to try to get as much color off our skin and out of our hair as possible. We were all mildly successful - no matter how much I scrubbed my scalp or body, the water going down the shower drain was a consistent red. At some point, we had to all give up and go back down to the lobby. We were all somewhat still colorful and missed some spots, I had some still in my ear and my nose, but got most of it off my face. My hands were still stained, even though I scrubbed them for a good five minutes, but we knew it would only last for a few days so I gave up.

All but one of us made it to the bus for our next stop on the itinerary, Amer Fort. We drove about 30 - 40 minutes and were dropped off across the river from the fort which was perched high above us. After gathering in a parking lot, we hopped in the back of a bunch of Jeeps to go across the river and closer to the gate of the fort. The Jeep ride was very aggressive and it seemed like a thing out of video games where the driver seemed to be racing nobody, but we were swerving between people and motorbikes honking our horn at every turn.

We safely made it to the drop off point and climbed a few somewhat steep pathways to get to the main courtyard where we stopped to gather. The fort is known for having both, Hindu and Mughal architecture. The sun was setting as the tour went on, so the fort emptied out quite a bit and the accent lighting turned on. It was absolutely stunning, the most impressive thing I learned is that it has the third longest wall in the world protecting it, second to the Great Wall of China and another wall in India (Udaipur).

After we made it back to the bus, we drove about 40 minutes to our dinner stop at a family’s house. They showed us how they cook some of the food and also offered to answer any questions we may have about life in India. We were all so tired that I don't think we were the most engaging guests, unfortunately, but the family was lovely.

At around 10:00 PM, we hit the road and were back to our hotel a half hour later. We went to bed as soon as possible because we were literally the walking dead from such an amazing, action packed day by that point. We wouldn't have changed a thing!

The following morning, we hit the road at 8:00 AM for a long drive to Udaipur.