New Years in Burma/Thailand. 3 days of official holiday, 5 days of unofficial holiday, 8 in total and non-stop partying.
Day 1
Sunny, hot and 36 degrees. I ventured out and ducked the spray of a young girls water gun .. all good, until I made it to the main streets and saw the buckets .. there was no chance. Head to toe drenched after a circuit around town, I gave up trying to hide and took it full on.
The streets were lined with kids, families and shopkeepers, armed with water guns, hoses and pails .. all waiting to demolish you.
A few hours of being in the sun and you're exhausted (plus worried about your belongings) so I came home, dried up and washed the paint off my face. I took a rest under the whirling fan as the afternoon sun filtered in thrown the drawn curtains. 6 pm and it's safe to go out again but the restaurants are lined with water and apologetically ask you to come back in a day or two. "There's no one to cook", they say laughing. Families are sitting on mats, drinking rum in steal tea cups and eating from communal plates of food. Laughter spills into the streets.
That night, the fireworks started at midnight and continued until 5 am. I fell in and out of a deep sleep, the kind you get from playing in water all day.
Day 2
The plan was to meet up with a few others to have a hearty breakfast of roti and chickpeas at the local tea shop; it turns out the place was closed and we had to walk the circuit again to find a place to eat. After getting completely bombed, I ordered a much needed croissant and coffee and sat at a table behind a set of plants, hoping they would protect us from passerby's. 15 minutes later and the shopkeeper closed the place, moved the plants, set up a table of rum, soda, water and cigarettes and put us in the line of fire. In his defense he gave us a huge bucket filled with water, 2 pails and a running hose This time it was us that were armed. Feeling a little restless after yesterday's attack, we poured water over everyone's heads - children, parents, foreigners, grandmothers .. we stopped at the monk but judging from the water dripping from his robe, we were the only ones kind enough ;)
Day 3
I met up with my organization at 8:30 am, shuffled into the back of a truck with 20 others and made our way to the waterfalls, stopping and both throwing and getting water thrown on us from everyone we passed. A bumpy hour later and we arrived, laid out our picnic mat, eating coconut sticky rice, fried chicken and hard boiled eggs with rum, fanta and soda and a dessert of oranges and apples. Everyone went into the waterfalls .. not one but about 12 cascades, the sun spilling in and out of the trees .. it was beautiful, all that was missing was a monarch butterfly and grazing deer haha.
When we packed up, I thought the day was over, but we headed to the hot springs, again laying out the mat and eating snacks like pickled tea leaf and spicy salad.
We headed back into town and made the circuit, this time on the back of a truck, getting the brunt of the end-of-the-day party goers, all drunk off rum and soda.
Day 4 and I found out classes are cancelled for the next 3 days, as locals celebrate in and around town ..
An amazing experience and a great insight into the culture.
I wish we could let loose the same way and not worry about getting wet, getting dark, looking messy, feeling tired etc etc. Sometimes the best fun is in just letting go.
Hope this blog post finds you well ..
Day 1
Sunny, hot and 36 degrees. I ventured out and ducked the spray of a young girls water gun .. all good, until I made it to the main streets and saw the buckets .. there was no chance. Head to toe drenched after a circuit around town, I gave up trying to hide and took it full on.
The streets were lined with kids, families and shopkeepers, armed with water guns, hoses and pails .. all waiting to demolish you.
A few hours of being in the sun and you're exhausted (plus worried about your belongings) so I came home, dried up and washed the paint off my face. I took a rest under the whirling fan as the afternoon sun filtered in thrown the drawn curtains. 6 pm and it's safe to go out again but the restaurants are lined with water and apologetically ask you to come back in a day or two. "There's no one to cook", they say laughing. Families are sitting on mats, drinking rum in steal tea cups and eating from communal plates of food. Laughter spills into the streets.
That night, the fireworks started at midnight and continued until 5 am. I fell in and out of a deep sleep, the kind you get from playing in water all day.
Day 2
The plan was to meet up with a few others to have a hearty breakfast of roti and chickpeas at the local tea shop; it turns out the place was closed and we had to walk the circuit again to find a place to eat. After getting completely bombed, I ordered a much needed croissant and coffee and sat at a table behind a set of plants, hoping they would protect us from passerby's. 15 minutes later and the shopkeeper closed the place, moved the plants, set up a table of rum, soda, water and cigarettes and put us in the line of fire. In his defense he gave us a huge bucket filled with water, 2 pails and a running hose This time it was us that were armed. Feeling a little restless after yesterday's attack, we poured water over everyone's heads - children, parents, foreigners, grandmothers .. we stopped at the monk but judging from the water dripping from his robe, we were the only ones kind enough ;)
Day 3
I met up with my organization at 8:30 am, shuffled into the back of a truck with 20 others and made our way to the waterfalls, stopping and both throwing and getting water thrown on us from everyone we passed. A bumpy hour later and we arrived, laid out our picnic mat, eating coconut sticky rice, fried chicken and hard boiled eggs with rum, fanta and soda and a dessert of oranges and apples. Everyone went into the waterfalls .. not one but about 12 cascades, the sun spilling in and out of the trees .. it was beautiful, all that was missing was a monarch butterfly and grazing deer haha.
When we packed up, I thought the day was over, but we headed to the hot springs, again laying out the mat and eating snacks like pickled tea leaf and spicy salad.
We headed back into town and made the circuit, this time on the back of a truck, getting the brunt of the end-of-the-day party goers, all drunk off rum and soda.
------
An amazing experience and a great insight into the culture.
I wish we could let loose the same way and not worry about getting wet, getting dark, looking messy, feeling tired etc etc. Sometimes the best fun is in just letting go.
Hope this blog post finds you well ..
