Thingyan – Wet and Wild Days

The Buddhists have a strange way of bringing in their new year. While back home we might get dressed up and spend an evening overdosing on champagne or another booze of choice, this part of Asia prefers to dump buckets of ice cold water on anyone brave enough to enter the streets. Of course one day isn’t enough and the giant water fight lasts a total of 3 crazy days.

I had planned to stay (and hide) in Inle Lake as the atmosphere would remain slightly subdued to the chaos of the big cities. That said, after arming myself with the biggest water gun I could find, I joined Stefan for the hour or so pickup ride to Taunggyi, the nearest urban center for a taste of the chaos I thought I was trying to avoid.  As part of the celebration, a free concert was put on in Taunggyi headlined by the biggest band in Myanmar, Iron Cross.

It was about 30 seconds before our pick up was bombarded with bucket after bucket of freezing water and it was clear our vehicle which was bursting at its seams with people was going to be a prime target. Fighting back was useless as the waterguns were no match for those armed with buckets and hoses.

*Photo Courtesy of Stefan Kiehas

Teeth chattering and freezing cold, we both agreed it would be a terrible idea to was going to be a rough ride home. When the pickup reached its last stop we got in a taxi and headed towards the concert but realized far too late that our taxi had no windows. We arrived with the taxi so full of water it was past our shins but the driver only seemed to enjoy watching us get soaked for he slowed down at every road block encouraging more and more buckets.

We arrived just half an hour before the music got started and the first singer hit the stage. At first we were only on the outskirts of the crowd but it wasn’t long before we found ourselves in the middle of the mayhem. The majority of the songs were easily recognizable covers sung in Burmese and the crowd was clearly into it but things reached a whole new level when the Iron Cross singer hit the stage and joined his band for the firs set.

*Photo Courtesy of Stefan Kiehas

Obviously they were heavily influenced by American bands like Metallica with some exaggerated guitar solos and a strong head banging beat but also mixed in were some original sounding ballads and a few covers. I couldn’t help but like them. A few more strong licks on the guitar sent the fans dressed in costumes with faces painted who looked like they belonged more at a slip knot concert into a manic state. Now you take some already ridiculously friendly people, add some alcohol and ear piercing rock music and if you’re one of the two foreigners in the crowd, there is going to an insane amount of attention coming your way. At any given time throughout, we had a mass of people trying to dance, jump around, lift us up, feed us burmese cigars and pour some dodgy gin down our throats all to the beat of the music. The amount of male attention and the lack of any sort of personal space over a few hours left me reaching my breaking point and I decided to remove myself from the chaos just as Iron Cross finished their last set of the afternoon.  Not wanting to miss the last pick up back, I accepted a free moto ride back to the town and left Stefan to fend off the masses.

*Photo Courtesy of Stefan Kiehas

The following day, I promised myself to finally recover from the past week and sleep in. My only ambition was to bike to a nearby monastery with some unique windows which made for an interesting photo oppurtunity.

Feeling better rested, I headed back to Mine Thauk for another peaceful afternoon reading in the restaurant among the atmospheric location. The hour or so ride was anything but peaceful for the children created countless roadblocks and my trying to sneak by, only prompted an even worse soaking. When I got back to Nyuang Shwe, I figured I wasn’t winning so I switched sides. I joned a small army of kids and once they got bored of throwing water on me and could see I was drenched, we set an ambush of our own. Needless to say, the Thingyan experience is far more enjoyable when your the one on the end with the bucket.

I’d clearly made some strong allies for I was even able to get my camera out and get some photos of the kids in action.

After three days of being constantly wet, the water fight comes to an abrupt hault as the 17th is a day for visiting family or the monastery. It was during this day I flew back to Yangon for a couple days before spending a single night in Bangkok on my way to Cambodia.