Thingyan 2008

"I'm back!" goes my first SMS out to everyone the moment I landed and even when the plane was still taxi-ing, I didn't care. I needed to return to reality and have some form of phone signals. In case some of you don't know, which is entirely possible, I'll be using Burma & Myanmar interchangeably because IT IS THE SAME PLACE! Similarly, Yangon was previously known as Rangoon.

My main purpose for this trip is to experience the Thingyan i.e. the water festival. It is actually the pre Burmese New Year celebrations. I didn't quite expect what I got myself into. I'd rather not call it culture shock because it is although the culture but does not quite reflect the Burmese day to day life.

When we touched down on Day One, we checked into this beautiful hotel, Mi Casa. The airport was gorgeous considering it's only a few months old. Frankly, I wasn't expecting the neat and clean service apartment nor the Hong Kong International Airport lookalike airport, so I was more than thankful.

My travel partner this time round was just like me. I'm the chunky ever-eating monkey and she's the energizer bunny. Both of us love our tea the same way, we like our food with ketchup, we hate vegetables and in fact, I probably take more veggie than she does but most importantly, despite all the similarities, we like different types of men. I'll have more stories of Mask Bunny and myself below.

After we checked in, we went on to Jewell's brother's place which has a guard house, massive land, 2 dogs and housed a warm family of 5. Over there, we were introduced to the Burmese currency, the Kyats. And if you think you're holding stacks for rupiahs, think again. The biggest denomination is 1000 kyats which is equivalent to a little less than 1 USD so in order to survive a day, you are require to bring stacks and stacks of cash. To tip with endless pieces of 1000 kyat notes seems pure extravagant and trust me, it's alot more fun than you think.

After getting baked under the sun and in the air-conditioned house (!), we made our way to the "mahn dat" which is basically a stage like platform and it could probably house a few hundreds of people. To get into one of these, people pay indiscriminate amounts of money and the poor will just roam the streets. Water was everywhere and people on these "mahn dat" will just spray water at everyone including pedestrians on the roads, all in good fun. It costs about 60grand kys to get into ours and it's supposed to be the better one. We got in free because Jewell's cousin was the co-organiser. The people who were on our "mahn dat" were all her friends and many of whom are the offsprings of some of the most influential or disgustingly rich people in Burma. By disgusting, I don't mean it to be disparaging in any way but I can't seem to find a better word for that. It's pure obscene.

In a normal day Burma, people are relatively conservative. During the water festival, people go wild and crazy and using alcohol as the excuse, they flirt and party their heart out. On a street like a expanded Pasar Malam with more than 50 "mahn dats", the heat was just all around us, surrounding your every pore. In fact, we arrived on the second day of the water festival and missed a day of fun.

When I first got there, I was rather skeptical. I kept asking Mask Bunny repeatedly, "are we going to do this for the next few days?", "do you think we'll survive this?", "what am I doing here?!". We had plans to go sightseeing and do the what not shopping but only upon reaching there, we realised that it was their public holidays and just like Singapore during the Chinese New Year period, all the shops were shut. As we walked up the steps of the "mahn dat", we felt ourselves getting wetter and wetter and not before long, we were all drenched.

Friends of friends with bottles of alcohol approached us and before we knew it, we were drinking off the bottles. Over the span of 4 days, I've had more alcohol than I've ever taken in my entire life. Initially, I tried to get away by using my allergy as an excuse but realising that it doesn't work at all, I gave up and started drinking. Surprisingly, I didn't get drunk and trust me, I can't drink for nuts and I gulped down quite a deadly dose. I strongly suspect it's the never ending flow of water that was constantly and consistently cooling our bodies down.

Before I left for Myanmar, Mao Meen told me to get water purification pills. But it ran out so I didn't get any. Even if I did, it would have been totally useless. The amount of water I've been ingesting that was being sprayed all over me was beyond any form of control.

By Day Two, I was enjoying the party and I let lose of any inhibitions, I started drinking more and I was just dancing from dawn till dusk. By 2 or 3 pm in the afternoon, I would have been in a total high and possibly forgot my name. Luckily Mask Bunny was with me and we were constantly watching out for one another and winging each other. Anytime some cutie approaches anyone of us, the other one will sneak away like a crab but close enough so that when the guy goes off, we're with each other once again. When if the less welcomed guys come along, we'll just hug each other and dance and I swear, most people there probably think we're in love or at least, bisexuals. I knew who ere her eye candies and she knew the exact "Teddy Bear" who was "hanging around" 5metres from the locus. "Teddy Bear" was my eye candy and speaks with a light sexy Brit accent. Like most Burmese men, he's got beautiful eyes and those lips were just so kissable. But having said that, most Burmese men are still very cautious of kissing some girls although they have no qualms with hugging and dancing with you. So do make an intelligent guess if I managed to get a kiss from this "Teddy Bear".

On Day Three, we were aching all over but continued to party. We were hooked. Mask Bunny actually went home with Pui Pui Cousin Porky. *sly smile As for me, I went on to explore the Chinatown in Myanmar after dinner. By then, Jeffers De Jay has already arrived. JDJ told us that we were lucky because this year, the water's really clean. He went last year and went home with rust stained white t-shirts.

Day Four was the last day of the water festival. I wore a dress that got very translucent after getting all wet in the water. I was so embarrassed but that lasted but like a whole of 15 minutes and once I got enough alcohol in the system, I just ignored that. I should never ever wear a dress to the water festival ever again.

Day Five was supposed to be easy and slow before Mask Bunny and myself fly off the very next day but after being easily coerced by JDJ and Jewell, Mask Bunny and myself followed them to a beach resort in Ngwe Saung near Pathein, Bay of Bengal. And you've guessed it, it's owned by Jewell's friend. I pampered myself to a scrub and massage and I did nothing else but recuperate from the 4 days of insanity. And finally, I had access to the internet over at the resort. With a healthy dose of Manuka honey, all I wanted was to come home quick and safely and if it means to camp over at the airport, I'd do it. That was precisely what I did. But now that I'm back safely, the least I wanna do is to disturb anyone's life or to mess anything up so I'm just being a good girl and I'm staying at home blogging away for you people to read and catch up with my life.

Don't you dare think I was over worrying before my trip because my life was indeed in danger amongst all the party. The "mahn dat" we were in was co-organised by some general's grandson so we were the "MAIN TARGET" for any possible bombs but now that I'm back, I can't be more thankful.

I'm just glad to be home even if it means Mom can't stop nagging at me...