Holi

Our first Holi holiday in India!  We took another trip arranged by the Embassy to visit a 16th century fort-turned-hotel in the town of Alwar over Holi weekend.  This meant that we got to celebrate by throwing and spraying colors on a group of friends.  Theoretically this would mean that it would be a more controlled and less crazy experience than if we had gone out to a public celebration, but in the end it was plenty crazy.  After everyone got busy with the dry Holi powder, the hotel staff brought out squirt guns with pink water, which was clearly died with a semi-permanent color... four days later and about 6 showers later, Ryan still has pink ears and pink hair!

Our family "before" picture in our new $1 white T-shirts. Ryan looks a tad nervous!

The Holi powder waiting for us to start.

No longer nervous, Ryan really took to this!

And so did Conor!

And so did Greg!

See what I mean about the pink water!

After (obviously!)

A Gandhi statue with pink Holi colors!

In Alwar Ryan and I visited an ancient palace that is now used as the city government buildings.  

Groups of men and boys were taking advantage of the day off and playing at least 3 different games of cricket on the grounds of the palace.

Pieces of the decorative carvings were littering the courtyard.  Amazing that they are just left there, sometimes clearly right where they fell.

Above the palace is a fort on the hill with a wall that reminded me of a portion of the Great Wall in China, I only wish you could see it better in this picture.

The museum in Alwar is known for its collection of weapons which are displayed in very creative ways.

Clock made out of bullets

The museum also had a collection of miniature books and illustrations that were really amazing.  There was not much information, unfortunately, about exactly how old they were though.