Holi Moley

I left Goa to make moves to Jaipur for Holi! I took an overnight train 12 hours to Mumbai where I had a much better experience than the first time. I talked to a Japanese girl for a while while waiting for the train and I met an Indian family that was sitting near me. The father gave me his e mail address incase I had any questions and if I made it up to Kashmir, I could stay with his family. He also helped me catch a cab to the other train station. One man was trying to charge me 350 rupees but Javid got a cop involved and I only had to pay 160 (this is a little over 3 dollars). I had to wait for another six hours in a small dirty station. There was one eatery, so I sat there to read my book, Shantaram (every tourist in India either had or has this book, a good solid 1000 page read). I ordered food, just plain rice, and it came out with a bunch of sauces; I said that wasn’t what I ordered and then man KNEW it, because he repeated my order back to me twice and most people speak usable English. I sent the sauces back and at the end he kept making up prices that I owed. I pointed to the sign and he was like no you ate this…blah. I kept arguing and basically made a scene in front of the full restaurant. I just got up and left- guh. It’s not about the money! It’s maybe 30 cents, it’s the principle; I don’t care where I am, I don’t care if “that’s India,” that’s not how people should treat one another, by stabbing them in the back to make a few cents—karma, buddy, karma.

My next train was to Jaipur—18 hours in an air-conditioned sleeper train. It was nice and clean (respectively) and only twenty rupees for sheets, a blanket, and a pillow—nice! I got to Jaipur at seven am where a rickshaw driver brought me to a guesthouse called Evergreen. I met a guy from the UK, Sam, in the lobby and we decided to share the room since all the rooms were doubles, therefore paying three dollars instead of six. I think the guest house owner thought i was a whore when I told him we were sharing because he suddenly got very excited and started hugging me and putting his arm around my shoulder; hands off, buddy.

We ended up sight seeing all day, getting a rickshaw driver, Ikbad, to drive us around for hours for only five dollars (his price, not ours). We saw an observatory with massive, beautiful structures that measure the sun; we went up to the top of a tower for a view of the city and then to Hawa Mahal which is like a palace, beautiful structure, pink and stucco, stained glass, and small windy staircases that lead to a stunning view of the crowded city. We then met up with his friend, Jeremy from Canada, who shared the room, as well. We all went out to dinner nearby and ended up chatting with an Indian man named Sam. When we were leaving I asked if he knew of anywhere good to run and he said there was a nice park nearby and that he would pick me up. At 7:30 he arrived on his motorcycle and we went to Central Park; it has about a four-kilometer circumference filled with lush grass and colorful flowers. We walked for a bit and then he brought me to a local chai shop—a little stand on the side of the street with a few plastic chairs. After, he showed me this amazing lassi shop by his work where they serve the sweet curd in clay pots.

Earlier, he had told me he was an energy healer. This is where I’m not sure if I had a really interesting experience or if I’m incredibly naive. I sat down in a chair and he worked on my energy by pressing into my head and the upper part of my chest. At first, I was open to the experience—I understood what was going on, or at least pretended that I did, but started to get uncomfortable as he “moved energy through my heart chakra” because apparently my mind and head are very open but my heart chakra is blocked. At the beginning, he did say to not think of myself as a tourist or a woman but just as a person and energy, but still, he was basically coping a little feel and I wasn’t ready or willing for that. Finally, I stopped him just when I realized there was no way I was going to relax into the experience (or I wised up, pick your battle) and told him I was uncomfortable. He was very kind and said I needed to relax and think about the experience, he didn’t press to continue, just gave me a hug and brought me back to the hostel. I took a shower and cried. What does a blocked heart chakra mean? I didn’t like the sound of that, so I looked it up; basically, someone who has a bad experience with love and now has a warped sense of it, they may be controlling in relationships and get into them for the wrong reasons such as control and manipulation…what? Maybe I read a bad definition, but if this is the case I’m sorry but that is NOT me. Maybe I’ve had my heart broken, who hasn’t? Sure there are scars but that hasn’t caused me to treat others maliciously. Maybe Im not fully understanding what a blockage means (so if anyone else does, please help me clarify) or maybe he was full of bull? Who knows. I’m planning on going to a known healer in the city of Rishakesh to see what he or she says. I’ll pay to be professionally felt up, thank you very much.

That afternoon Sam, Jeremy, and I went to the Elephant festival; turns out this is basically a show for tourists so all the white people in town flock to the same open stadium to see a parade of decorated elephants, camels, and bands. The elephants are painted, truck to toe, with bright colors with scenes of tigers, dancers, birds and gods. The female elephants wear bells around their feet and each has someone dressed as a Maharaja riding on a silk saddle. Dancing women with long dresses twirled to make a sea of swirling colors and reflecting mirrors, dancing to the sounds of what looked like a marching band from the fifty’s. We ran around taking photos for a while and then took off to the “Monkey Temple.” This is a hill with a road/path leading up to the Sun Temple; the area is overrun with monkeys running and eating. It had a beautiful view of the sunset overlooking Jaipur.

The next day was what I had been waiting for, Holi. I was so excited; apparently, it was going to be a color festival where everyone throws powders of every bright hue on eachother celebrating the end of Winter—not as fun as imagined. Sam and I got in a rickshaw to see the fun. The city was incredibly eerie; all the shops were closed and few people were on the streets, an odd sight when you’re usually pushed and stepped on continuously. On our way out, a few older Indian men stopped to warn us that this wasn’t a good day for women to be out and that we should stay in the hotel. So, since I’m such a stubborn mule, we went out. We told the driver to bring us to see Holi but he didn’t know of an exact location. We had him bring us to the market area, but apparently there really is no center for festivities because it was has turned into a day for young boys and men to get drunk and cause trouble, getting into fights, covering eachother in paint, and harassing women. I had a reach around bum grab later that day and was less than impressive. I grabbed the man’s hand and yelled at him but he just laughed at me; it was so frustrating and disempowering to have no effect.

Holi moley, that was a bust ☹ We watched movies the rest of the day and lounged by the pool.