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Published: March 10th 2012
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Our last week in Goa was exhausting.... all that eating, drinking, chatting, swimming in a posh hotel resort, sunbathing... eugh I hope I don't have to do all that again soon 😉
I think we picked the best and worst time to go to Goa. Not only were the elections on, which meant two weeks of everything shutting at 10pm, but there was an alcohol ban for three days! Then, we were told Holi was to be celebrated, which meant more dry days... what we didn't expect was that we were to be included in all the festivity and celebrations!
The staff at Hare Rama (where we staying in Patmen), invited us to join in the three days of celebrations with them and their families.
From Wiki for info: Holi (
Hindi:
होली), is a religious
spring festival celebrated by
Hindus. Holi is also known asfestival of Colours. It is primarily observed in
India,
Bangladesh,
Pakistan,
Nepal,
and countries with large
Indic diaspora populations following
Hinduism, such as
Suriname,
Malaysia,
Guyana,
South Africa,
Trinidad,
United Kingdom,
United States,
Mauritius, and
Fiji. It is also known as Doḷajāta (
Oriya: ଦୋଳଯାତ) in
Orissa and Dol Jatra (
Bengali: দোলযাত্রা) orBasantotsav ("spring festival") (
Bengali: বসন্তোৎসব) in
West Bengal. The most celebrated Holi is in the
Braj region, in locations connected to the Lord
Krishna:
Mathura,
Vrindavan,
Nandagaon, and
Barsana. These places have become tourist destinations during the festive season of Holi.
Large parts of South India, however, do not celebrate Holi with the same fervour as in other parts of the country.
The main day, Holi, also known as Dhuli in Sanskrit, also Dhulheti, Dhulandi or Dhulendi, is celebrated by people throwing scented powder and perfume at each other. Bonfires are lit on the eve of the festival, also known as Holika Dahan (burning of
Holika) or Chhoti Holi (little Holi).
After doing holika dahan prayers are said and praise is offered. The bonfires are lit in memory of the miraculous escape that young
Prahlad accomplished when Demoness Holika, sister of
Hiranyakashipu, carried him into the fire. Holika was burnt but Prahlad, a staunch devotee of god
Vishnu, escaped without any injuries due to his unshakable devotion. Holika Dahan is referred to as Kama Dahanam in
South India.
On the final evening of Holi (which also happened to be our final night in Goa, and our penultimate evening in India!), we rocked up to Chan's family's house for an evening of drumming and colour! Armed with about 100 bags of coloured powder, whilst we were all dressed in white, we all had a mass session of throwing the coloured power at each other, it was incredible to have been part of such a special event. We are both still stained from the purple and red powder, and that was almost four nights ago now....
The next morning we headed back up to Mumbai on the train - a journey I was really looking forward to. Nat and Ash both recommended that we
take this particular train as the journey is spectacular.... the train hugs the coast line, and the views are just amazing. However, after the previous nights fun, we both slept the whole way (14 hours) on the top bunks, and didn't see a thing. Gutted.
We treated our selves to a "posh" hotel for the night to ensure a good nights sleep ready for the next part of our adventrure....
SINGAPORE! After a minor hiccup at the airport in Mumbai (losing my purse!), we had such a fun flight... really good food, we got a little drunky, watched The Help (which I've been waiting to watch for weeks!) We touched down in Singapore, loving the cleanliness... I got my rucksack from luggage reclaim, opened it, and there was my purse - WAHEY! Panic over.
On Ali's recommendation, we're staying in a hostel called "Beary Best!" Which is part of the "Beary Good Hostel" chain - it's a teddy bear themed hostel... and everything I had imagined it to be. It's super clean, super friendly, and slap bang in the middle of China Town. Thanks Ali! We've had good time exploring today, we walked down by the river,
ate food from the street vendors, walked to the Art and Science Museum, and wandered around a mega plush and mega expensive shopping centre, then got the underground back - the cleanest and most hi-tech underground I've ever seen!
So that's pretty much where we are now! I'm sat in a bear themed hostel, using their netbooks, whilst some other travellers are hanging out in the common room watching an Action film. Tomorrow we're meeting up with Yui and Rich for lunch 😊 then we're getting the 18.30 flight from Singapore to Phuket (yep, we're totally cheating, it was spending 60 pounds on a flight, or spending about 5 days travelling on a coach). Then we're getting a coach over to somewhere near Kho Phangan to meet wee Cherilyn! MEGA exited... not really sure what the next three months will bring us, but it involves a half moon party, Thailand, seeing Tomek in 6 weeks (YAY), Vietnam, and some other places. Ta ta y'all for now!
PS - Thanks everyone for your love-er-ly comments too, missing you all lots.
xxx
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Elaine daniels
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Your adventure
You make all you adventures so very real and its just great to read them....even if it does make me cry every time xxxxxx