Holi and beyond

Holi:

Geez I can’t believe today is our last full day in Nepal. This time tomorrow, if all goes according to plan we’ll be on the 1:30 flight to Qatar. It’s almost impossible to think that it has already been a month, and I’m actually really sad to leave.  We’ve had some great times here, and it was starting to feel like home.

On a completely different note, Holi was a complete blast! We went over to our friend Nhucche’s house so that my parents could talk about sweaters and business stuff.  Also, they have one of the highest roofs in the whole neighborhood so you can fill water balloons and completely drench everyone from up high. Before I get to into it though, let me give you a brief insight into what Holi is.

Godwin and I after Holi!

Holi (or the festival of colors), is celebrated by Hindu’s in country’s such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal. Holi is celebrated at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month. Now if you don’t mind I will take a quote out of good ol’ Wikipedia “Originally, it was a festival that commemorated good harvests and the fertile land. In addition to celebrating the coming of spring, Holi has even greater purposes. Hindus believe it is a time of enjoying spring's abundant colors and saying farewell to winter.” But in my opinion it’s just a good excuse to let loose, party, and throw stuff at people. Typically people celebrate it by either filling up plastic bags and/or buckets with water and throwing them at people from either up on rooftops or ground level. 

My friend Godwin and I braved the streets for several hours. Clean people don’t stay clean for long. Almost immediately we were mobbed by a crowd of colorful Nepalis.  We reemerged from the crowd and Godwin and I hardly recognized each other. We were a riot of color! We roamed the streets shouting “Happy Holi!” and throwing colorful powder at people and getting “Holi’d” ourselves.

Ahh so much to do, so little time!

Our friend Ram Karki and his family.

We left Nepal on Saturday, it was really sad as always. Of course all of our friends,  Rams family (and Raji our porter) came to have breakfast with us and see us off, which was very sweet, but very chaotic. We had a great last breakfast at our favorite restaurant called “Pumpernickel” and rushed back to the Tibet Guest house after discovering that our plane was going to leave half an hour earlier than we thought.  It was sad to think that I probably wouldn’t wander these meandering streets again for a long time, most likely not until I finish high school (oh the joys of the public educational system).  It was strange, I wouldn’t have to smell the rubbish filled Baghmati or dodge countless crazy taxi drivers for a while, and for some reason I was sad. But I knew the hardest part would be leaving all these amazing people here, all the amazing smart, strong, crazy and incredibly kind people.

            When the time finally came to get into the van and leave for the airport there was a small crowd of our friends in the lobby of the hotel, everyone was giving us khatas (the Nepali prayer scarves). With a “Namaste!” here and a “see you soon!” there, everyone except Austin climbed into the van and we left behind the good old Tibet guest house which had become our little home away from home for the past month. Waving goodbye to our family away from home, I thought how much I would miss this place, and how I couldn’t wait to return.        

            We flew into the Gatwick airport and took the tube back to our hotel. Unfortunately though it was a Friday night and as I now know, those Brits sure like to party. Before long the subway car was filled with extremely friendly young Londoners. Finally though we had to say goodbye to our new friends and wrestle our way out of the packed car and walk out into the crisp London air and though the enchanting English night.

As always, we woke up bright and early the next morning, had a lovely breakfast of bacon, eggs and tomato and took the # 24 bus to Camden market.  It was a crazy! Next time I have a couple hundred bucks to blow I’m comin here! It was like Pikes-Place Market on steroids! Anything you could possibly want to buy was there.