When you visit Bandipur on a usual day, you’ll be struck by the peaceful nature of the village: the serene natural surroundings, the friendly kids who greet you with a “Namaste” and a wave, the bleating sound of the baby goats as you take the billionth photo of their cute faces… Well all that changes on Holi.
If you do have the courage to venture out of the safety of your accommodation, you have to be prepared and geared up:
- Wear old clothes, or just the clothes you know no-one else will see you wearing them… and they should preferably not be white…
- Leave ALL valuables in your fortress… That includes expensive cameras, handphones and even just Rupee bills…
- Wear shoes that won’t slip off your feet if you do need to run… or go barefoot.
- Buy some coloured powder and carry it in a plastic bag around with you… all the time. You just don’t know when you’ll be attacked…
- Extras: fill a plastic bottle with coloured water which you can squirt at especially cheeky children… or if you have the luxury of water bombs, they may be useful as ammunition as well.
Walking down the Bazaar street, it was absolutely inevitable that I would be covered in colour within the first 5 minutes: a) if you don’t look Nepali, you are a favourite target and b) my students definitely wanted to get back at me for giving them homework or something… 
My running and dodging just never seemed to be enough to keep me somewhat clean… At one end of the bazaar, the kids had sort of created an ambush: there were children on the balcony with water bombs, children in the street with tonnes of powder and children squirting water from inside their houses… Running away from this deadly place, I was just thoroughly soaked, red water streaming down my back and yellow powder all over my face.
- Date: March 08 2012
- Location: Bandipur, Nepal
