The Hindu festival of colours is an event that I could not see taking place back home in Ireland, where a whole city is turned into a coloured waterfight battleground. Throughout Kathmandu (and the rest of Nepal too we understand), shops and businesses close, and the streets become a dangerous place to stroll for those with aquaphobia and chromatophobia (a fear of colours – and yes I did have to look it up).
We were lucky in that we had pre-warning of these events thanks to our Everest Base Camp guide, Shiva, who very kindly had no problems guiding us through the festival as well. Dressed in our worst, Shiva took us from our hostel to the trekking office, where unlike most Westerners we were able to become hunters rather than targets by basing ourselves on the balcony of the office, overlooking innocent passers-by below.
A healthy supply of water balloons and food dye made many of these (in particular female) passers-by suffer. It was all part of the festival fun, well for us anyway!
Shiva had also very generously offered to cook us dinner at his home, which was a twenty minute walk away from Thamel. Leaving the twin comforts of a strategic balcony position and Westerner-friendly Thamel, the hunters most definitely became the hunted. Walking through what seemed like an endless stretch of residential areas, where we were the only Westerners, we became the preferred bounty of every rooftop and street-based festival participant, getting pelted from every angle with coloured water. Toward the end of this journey we started to wallow in self-pity, with gangs of schoolkids (who had the day off – for a waterfight!) picking on us, and the locals on the rooftops taking great pleasure to bombard the Westerners who were foolish enough to stray this far from the safety of Thamel.
Our dignity barely surviving, we made it to Shiva's house. Shiva lives in a single room, with a toilet that's shared between the whole neighbourhood. Thinking that Shiva made good money from his work, it was humbling to see where this man lived, in comparison to the complete luxury (relatively speaking) we inhabit. Everyone in his neighbourhood were in similar dwellings, and the sense of community, the kind of which is fast disappearing in Ireland, was in every sense apparent.
Our basic but filling meal was eaten graciously, after which we had a few beers in the communal yard outside Shiva's room, along with Shiva, Gopal (our porter on the base camp trek), and most of the neighbourhood.
Thamel isn't the real Nepal, this was.
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