Happy Holi!

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So we have cleared four states since we last blogged and pushed further and further North.
A short hop through Madhya Pradesh took us to Mandu where we cycled in the country chased by smiling children and explored tombs and palaces totally to ourselves. We then crossed into Rajasthan and saw more forts than you can shake a stick at as well as jumping in at the deep end for Holi the festival of colour, it was overwhelming intense and you have no chance of returning home clean or even with your shirt (women exempt from the latter) as coloured powder and water is chucked everywhere. It's basically like a water fight but sanctioned by the whole country.
We then took an unplanned trip to Delhi after strike action paralysed the rail network and forced us to choose another route so spend less than 12 hours back in the capital drinking beers in a dingy bar while ecstatic fans watched India beat Australia in the cricket world cup.
Yesterday we finally arrived (after the detour) in Amritsar, Punjab and today visited the Sikh Golden Temple which was fantastic, most impressive was the free communty dining room where they feed 80,000+ people a day in about 80 sittings of around 1000 people in one huge room. Feeding 1000 people in 10 minutes requires big pots (they only use 3 in total) and some speedy serving as you get dinner, dessert, tea and water and you're in and out in 10 minutes. We tucked in then gave an hour in the massive washing up centre where we ended up soaking wet but glad to have played a small part in washing thousands of plates, spoons and bowls.
We leave tomorrow for the mountains where the Punjabs will be replaced with Tibetans and fried fish with momos, three and a half weeks to go but hopefully loads more to see.

Love to all at home.

A&C xxx

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Photos

Holi-mania
'Playing colours' in Pushkar

Biking in the countryside
Mandu, where it's fields and tombs as far as the eye can see

Rajasthan
You can easily get fort overload

Venice-y
Udaipur lake

Udaipur
Lovely lake, freaky faces

Scrubbing rage
The pink seems to linger the most

Community kitchen
Where the golden temple feeds 80,000 people a day for free

Golden girl
Amritsar Sikh temple

Plates times a lot
This is what you need to feed 1000 people every ten minutes

Comments

[Gill Matthews]

Extreme face paints
I had to laugh when I saw you covered in colours as one of the things you hated when you were little was face paints and one of the things you enjoyed the most was a waterfight!! Looks as though this was the two together and was good fun (did Alice enjoy it the most?) apart from trying to get clean again. It is lovely to see photos of you both, and will be even better to see both of you again in a few weeks time. Enjoy the remaining time you have and continue to stay safe, All our love to you both, Mum and Dad in Alton xxxx

[markus maximus]

i am very jealous
Hi Guys, loving the blogs and esp all the india pictures. is whetting my appetite to want to travel again. looking forward to seeing your colour stained faces soon. can't wait. BBQ and beers all round!!!! lovely. you are both looking fantastic by the way. not long to go now. Are you ready to come home or not. Am sitting at wok doing sat evening emergency doc shift at hosp. only 45 mins to go now before can go home. we started tarting up the front of the house today to put it on the market for sale next week! Shit. both excited and sad about leaving. Plan is to try and sell the house this year and live in rented for a year so can move more easily. Also will save loads not having to pay mortgage. Plan then to move down next year sometime in the summer. You had better not bugger off to live somewhere else once you're back. I'll be pretty pissed off if you abandon us to J+G all on our own! Take care and come back safe and sound, TTFN, Mark (Doctor on call for 100000 patients, scary)

[mother hen]

Very impressed with the amount of washing up you appeared to have done. Hope you put some handcream on afterwards. So excited about your return in a couple of weeks - you'll have so many adventures to share. Make the most of what's left. Love you lots, Mum and Dad XX

[Hazel]

Hi Guys, hope you're enjoying your remaining few days in India. Looking forward to seeing you both at Easter. Lots of love from the Wotton lot.