We had been looking forward to Jaipur where we had arranged to meet Rob and Marian (friends we met in Korea) and booked to see attend the annual Elephant festival and celebrate Holi. We were not disappointed as we had a great few days - we thought India was colourful before, this was incredible!!
In the time leading up to the festival we took a Rickshaw tour of some city sights including a great fort and water palace, we visited the home of some Elephants where we were hoisted onto their backs and we were shown the 2kg Chapattios they eat! We visited a monkey temple where we were protected from aggressive monkeys by children with water pistols, and we sat by snake charmers as (angry) cobras lunged towards us - we moved pretty quick!
As it approached the festival and parade we went 'back stage' where we walked amongst the Elephants as they were painted and and dressed with some amazing designs. We then took our seats and enjoyed the parade of elaborately dressed elephants, camels and horses, as well as a multitude of various dancers, drummers and bands - all described by some brilliant commentary ("we appear to have lost discipline so we urge you all to join in with the chaos").
The climax of the festival encouraged some of us to get involved so the 4 of us stepped forward for 'Holi on Elephants' (a prelude to the following days festival of colour), it basically involved being on or amongst elephants with bags full of paint powder and guns trying to cover everyone with as many colours as possible - brilliant!! We were literally covered from head to toe (including teeth) by the finish when we were presented with elephant tropies as mementoes.
As if that wasn't enough, the following day was actually Holi - so we did it all again (without the elephants) - we'll let the photos speak for themselves!! That evening we went to an ethnic 'theme park' where we ate loads, had our palms read (3 kids apparently) and were painted with henna - an amazing 2 days!!
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