Burmese Birthday

Birthdays: they can be good or bad. Or both. But when they coincide with a national festival, they tend to be, well, let’s say special.

The Burmese New Year is celebrated sometime in April (depending on the phases of the moon) and is the longest national holiday in the country. Although the New Year is on the 17^th, and the Water Festival lasts for 3 days before New Year’s Day, the official holiday starts on the 11^th of April and ends on the 21^st, leaving poor tourists who didn’t plan ahead stranded in various parts of the country: most busses stop working, are fully booked or are extremely expensive, some restaurants close their doors for the whole period, and common people go on holiday to the most touristic places, booking hotels in advance. I tell you, it’s hard to be a tourist on New Year’s in Myanmar!

But if you celebrate a somewhat special birthday during a Water Festival, things can’t go wrong (or dry). Let me explain: it’s called the ‘Water Festival’, because, as it’s mid-hot season and the rainy season is months away, Burmese people try to ‘invite’ water into their lives by splashing everybody with... water. Traditionally, it’s done by pouring a little water from a small bowl on the back of a person but who can stop the young generation? They have buckets, water guns and hoses begging to be used so that you’d think you’re in the middle of a biblical flood. Every person walking to and from anywhere will, at some point, find their way into a tidal wave of pouring, lukewarm water and will not escape dry. Tourists especially, who have to carry their passports, cameras and maps with them almost always will find that this tradition can be quite irritating, most of all when they discover that their precious belongings are soaking wet and their gadgets don’t work anymore.

I knew the drill: I was armed with plastic bags in and outside my own bag so that at least some of my stuff would remain dry. I also experienced with some futuristic movements whenever I saw people equipped with any sort of water containers and tried to hold my bag away from any incoming water, thus looking like a monkey trying to do a ballet while walking on fire. It almost worked. Unlike other people I met, my stuff was mostly dry, except for the maps and cigarettes (other people’s experiences tell me that a camera and/or a mobile phone will dry in about a day). Convenient as ever, the bulk of this game happened sometime during and after sunset. And what does one do at sunset in Bagan? One watches the sun set over the 2500 or so temples propped on some higher temple far away from the waterless hotel room which means absolution. And only after the sun has set and the pictures have been taken can one turn back to the hotel. And while doing so, one can’t possibly avoid all the Burmese gathered around a barrel full of water and a hose. Repeatedly. So, while returning from the temples on the electric bicycle I rented for the day, I tried to:

• get the bag out of harm’s way with one hand while clutching the bike with the other hand (astronaut-monkey move);
• not flinch too much and close my eyes for too long while water was thrown at me and I was driving;
• keep the electric bicycle still working and not fall down.

So, after I successfully (though somewhat moist) returned the bike and returned to the hotel, I thought I should take the bull by its horns and go take some pictures. But then I thought that’s not the right way to celebrate a birthday or a national holiday so I did what any normal person would have done: I joined the crowds. I borrowed a bowl from the hotel, found a neatly arranged group of water barrels with satisfactory refill possibilities and started water-bombing everything in sight. Incidentally, the place I chose was set up by my hotel’s owner so, beside the water and the beers offered by said owner, we also had loud, loud, LOUD music to dance if we ever felt boredom approaching. We didn’t although everybody danced eventually. I also didn’t feel any dryness approaching for a long time.