March 21 The Elephant Festival and the beginning of Holi

This was the event we had been waiting for, the Jaipur Elephant festival. They had about 40 elephants in all manner of costume along with camels and horses, all highly decorated. They paraded around the stadium for all to see and had a contest for the best decoration. Elephants here are highly prized and symbolize luck. Luckily, we arrived early enough to get a good seat in a shady spot. Temperature was about 95 degrees. (but it's a "dry" heat!)

There were dancers and bands there too. They had a tug-a-war with 1 elephant vs 36 guys. The elephant wins. After that our driver took us to see the Water Palace. Along the way we saw more elephants that had been in the festival and this camel.

The actual Holi festival begins at dark today. We are told it is the most important holiday in the Hindu religion. So we see lots of preparation on our way back to the hotel. Our driver takes some of the back streets so we can get a better idea of what is going on. On just about every block, people (ladies mostly) are preparing bonfires. They are building them right in the middle of the street!
Then as we approached our hotel, they start lighting them. The one below was right in our path. The ride back to the hotel was a sort of Disney adventure ride, but for real! We passed by the fire below at a distance of 2 feet. Glad the driver went quickly. We could feel the heat of the flames through the glass. We told him we were concerned about the condition of the car and he let us know that it did not belong to him, it belonged to the hotel.