Udaipur -- a break

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  Udaipur, India
Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Stopped in Udaipur for a break from overnight buses and delayed trains (late departure 6 hours, further 7 hours delay because of  landslide!).  I have been here before (last Christmas), so I knew it would be a nice place with cheap rooms to take it easy and eat well!  I was lucky to be here just on time for a festival celebrating Lord Krishna's birthday.  There was something going on at the temple in the afternoon, so I went in to have a look.  Several women were sitting on the floor inside while a ceremony was going on.  An old man with a white beard and turban was singing and dancing with another man dressed in a sari!  Other men were standing around holding some poles.  In the courtyard, young guys were jumping up to catch money thrown at them by men above.

Later in the evening there was an "amateur show".  I sat on the stairs going up to the temple with all the women while the men were standing around

Foreign dancers

.  We waited for an hour and just as the show was beginning, rain started falling.  I pulled out my umbrella and believe me, I have never made friends so quickly!  The women around and some young boys were all pulling on my umbrella to get under.  Luckily, it stopped after a short while and the show went on.  All the performers were young people and they all had to stop their dance before the end of it either because of a CD problem or just to let the next person perform.  The only dance that wasn't cut short was the one performed by 4 foreigners, obviously students here to learn the local dances. At some point a mister muscle and other guys took over the stage to show off a bit!  There were pushed down quikly by the organizers, but they did try again! 

The highlight of the evening was a human pyramid competition.  Several groups of men were taking turn climbing up on each other to reach and grab a 10m high pinata kind of thing.  As they were doing so, to add a bit of a challenge and get the crowd very excited, they were throwing a yellowish water at the participants (they add some kind of spice to the water).  Well, they didn't need the extra difficulty!  An hour and a half later, they were still at it.  Finally, they decided to stop throwing water to make it easier.  Still, no group could reach the pinata!  Another half hour later, they decided to lower the pinata a bit.  Well, that didn't help either!  So, they lowered it again!  The 5th group finally reached the thing, and man did it come to pieces!  It took at least 21/2 hours.  In the meantime, the crowd (mainly the men) was going mad jumping with their hands up and singing to the extremely loud music. Finally, I was able to leave (there is no way I could have made my way through the crowd eariler)! 

Now I understand why my friend France was so scared when she ended up being the only female spectator during the Holi festival with a huge crowd of drunken men.  Luckily, she was rescued by a hotel staff!

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Human pyramid

Human pyramid and cheering crowd

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