Holi Festival and Fancy Hotel Getaway

This last weekend was the Holi Festival! You know that thing they do at the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork with thousands of BYU students? Well, we experienced the real thing here! 

However, I do have to mention that apparently, south Indians did not celebrate the festival of colors until recently. It has become a trendy thing that has trickled down from North India. Most of the people who participate in it here are children and young adults...which basically encompasses the way people perceive BYU students here in our neighborhood. 

Regardless, we had a blast!

Here is an overhead view, from our balcony, before we decided to join in...

Colors everywhere!

People say, "Happy Holi!" as they throw powder at you.

We saw a side of Razu (our washerman) that I hadn't seen before! He was very into the game of seeing how much powder he could get all over us! This guy means business. 

Eventually they started throwing powder at us combined with water guns...so we had muddy colors all over us! The best was when it got in your mouth and your teeth lol. 

Washing off. I know, I look creepy. Most of our clothes are probably permanently stained, not that it matters. You have to live a little! Also, my hair has some green, yellow, and blue streaks in it that will probably take a while to go away. It's pretty ugly. It reminds me of Anne of Green Gables when she tries to dye her hair and it turns green. 

Random: I saw this guy up in a tree cutting the palms. He was in a little rope harness. So cool! 

So, this weekend, most of our group went to Chennai to visit Asha's birthplace. She was born here in India and then adopted and grew up in the U.S. Since the trip involved more long train rides, we decided it was best that I didn't go. Instead, we took a break from living in India and lived a day as a tourist passing through Vizag would! We checked in to a super fancy hotel by the beach. There were a lot of white people there. It was so weird! 

The view from our hotel window:

See the green in my hair? And that lovely pink around my eye? We checked in the same day as the Holi Festival. 

Swimming was really nice! 

We checked in Friday afternoon so that we could swim and checked out Saturday around noon. It was a blast! The best thing by far was the food...many of you have heard me complaining about food more than once. As it happens, the hotel restaurant had BUFFALO which tastes exactly like BEEF. So, I had a real hamburger for dinner! It was the best. And Craig had steak, which I also had a bite of and it tasted REALLY good. The breakfast was also delicious and we had carbs galore--lots of breads and pastries and cheeses. For lunch we went to an Italian restaurant up the street, which was also amazing. Let's just say I have been carbed and cheesed out. It was a wonderful little escape to Western foods! This pregnant woman was grateful : )