Wandoor / Holi

Wandor was nice enough, I suppose.

The beach was pretty strange, almost spooky. The Tsunami (and other past events) totally destroyed the beach, and so dead trees litter the beach, with many sticking out of the water. It looked really cool at times, as if the trees were reaching out, for one last grasp of air...a hand or something sticking out of the water.

The problem, is that it's a one-guesthouse town....

And the guest-house, is run by an.. interesting character.

He was either - a world class bullshitter, or....

The son of a high up government official &
A smuggler willing to sneak tourists onto off-limits island &
a drug dealer in a very barren land (with many happy israeli customers),
and an aweful guest-house owner....

I stayed for 2 nights. His was the only guest-house on a beach that'd be full to the brim with Indians on Holi day - and so a great place to see it...

However, it was one of the worst places I've stayed on the trip... fleas has overrun the place, and he was just too lazy to do anything about it.

On top of that one of the main goals of going to Wandoor was to go to nearby islands.....However I feel really really wrong giving money to people thats going
to end up in the pockets of paid-off government officials... Yes, I know it's
done everywhere, and it's not going to change - however, I refuse to participate and support this practice (unless it gets me out of jail, of course)....

And so, even if it means I won't get to see amazing deserted islands, so be it...

--

In any case. I was there for Holi, and it was worth it. I went out at 9AM in my swimming trunks, walked down the road, and for the next 2-3 hours, essentially spent all of my time throwing/rubbing paint onto people, while trying to close my eyes/mouth in time to avoid the constant onslaught of multi-colored powdered paints.

As one would expect, it's a general excuse for kids to cover themselves and their friends with paint/colored water. However, as an added bonus, it's also an open invitation for everyone to attack the foreigner..... and in the case of western females, many of the Indian lads are happy to massage the paint into your more delicate spots - so beware.

Much fun was had.

2 days later, some dye remains... (photos to come later)