I had a similar experience in Jaipur. We were there the nights of Jan 13 & 14th and the 14th was the kite festival. My first thought was that it wouldn't be all that exciting, just a bunch of kites, little did I know...
So, after a well planned morning and early afternoon of sightseeing I was very bummed out because almost all of the stores in the main market in Jaipur were closed because of the festival. I was bummed because the market itself is part of the sightseeing in Jaipur. So we hopped in an auto rickshaw and sped back to the hotel to check out the kites from the rooftop. Well there were literally hundreds of kites being flown. They were almost all the same size, just a simple square with a really really long string - some of them looked like they were a mile up in the air. There were kids and adults climbing on almost every roof flying a kite. It was so much fun to watch so many people having fun with something as simple as a kite, especially nice since so many people here have so little, but these simple kites were something that everyone could afford.
And at sunset, fireworks all over the place. The fireworks were not organized by the city, rather individuals (or groups I suppose) so they were going off here and there in the city for quite a while. Some of them were really big and I was very happy that our hotel had such a good rooftop because we were able to see a lot.
It was just one of those wonderful moments in traveling when what you expect to happen doesn't, but instead you get something even better.
The next morning the hotel staff were busy picking kites out of trees and finding all of the string all over the place.
And here is a picture of some of the kite flyers and their kites. Click on it to get the full screen, I think there are 20 kites in this shot alone.
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