Holi day, celebrate

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Included in the exorbitant price for my room is a free buffet breakfast, and it was a really impressive spread. There was a decent attempt at the ingredients for a greasy fry-up, with sausages, bacon, tomatoes, hash browns, and beans, as well as cereal, fruit, and a variety of breads. It was fairly clear from the other members of the dining hall that most of the residents of the hotel are either business people or members of luxury package tours.

Today was Holi, a Hindu festival marking the beginning of spring that is characterised by people throwing coloured powder and water at each other. I was wary of venturing outside as I was down to my last set of clean clothes, but curiosity got the better of me in the early afternoon and I headed out.

It seemed as though all the action had taken place earlier in the day as I didn't see anyone throwing things around, but a good 60-70% of the local people I saw were still covered in various shades of purple, red, blue, and yellow. I headed south to an arts and crafts market which the hotel concierge had said would be open, but unfortunately it wasn't so all I got out of it was some exercise. With nothing else open, returning to the hotel seemed the best thing to do.

I decided to make use of the hotel swimming pool, just to give my swimming trunks their first outing of the whole trip. What I didn't realise, and none of the attendants saw fit to tell me, was that the pool was a hundred yards or so away from the changing rooms. I had expected an indoor pool, so I was walking barefoot and with no robe, and was surprised to find myself trundling along indoor corridors and then outdoor paths strewn with leaves and mud, in full view of half the rooms in the hotel, before finding the water. I managed to reel off a few lengths before running out of puff, then trudged wetly back to the changing rooms. Back in my room, I took the opportunity to have my first bath in 4 months.

I returned to Machan for dinner and was treated like a long-lost friend by the wait staff - they gave me a window seat on a table meant for 4. After dinner I went next door to Rick's Bar to see what was happening there. The DJ was playing a superlative set of tracks, including Alphaville and Laura Branigan, which inspired me to stay and have a couple of enormous glasses of beer. Unfortunately at midnight the music took a dive, and it was with hip hop ringing in my ears that I departed for bed.

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