"Live the Cover!" Contest: Thailand

Great Travel Moment

The photo was snapped in the old part of Delhi at the end of the first day of Holi--a festival with roots in the flouting of caste boundaries, one that involves throwing dyes and colored water on passersby (and tourists, as one might imagine, are favored targets)--shows me with many hours' worth of pigment on my face; eventually, it all runs red. For weeks afterward, everything is colored magenta--even dogs and cows! The pigment is applied intimately--with old men stopping you and marking your face with powdered color (for sale in multicolored moundsin the markets) on the tips of their fingers--and less so: children attack from building rooftops and rowdies will pelt you with water balloons.Eight years later, the magenta dye still stains my specs and the shirt I was wearing that day!