vaga#3/3 Holiday Water
This is a photo that I took of a poster advertising the Festival
Part III
A transcribe of a copy of the email sent to the GROUP
I clarify that the emails called "in situ", are written as I experienced each situation and the emotion is too great not to share them on the spot, they are not edited, nor very organised, it is just how I felt that on the day .:
On April 16, 2018, 09:33 AM, I wrote:
Group I tell you "in situ" I arrived in the city of Mandalay yesterday, in Myanmar. I arrived during the "Water Festival" .. "Water Holiday" which I knew existed, but it was on some full moon in April ...... I didn’t know when the full moon was ......... I arrived at the airport and they informed me that they are in the middle of a "Water Holiday" ..OK ...... Sunday ........ OK ........ It turns out that it lasts until Wednesday, everything is closed for 4 days. It is unbelievable, EVERYTHING is closed until Wednesday, that includes everything. Banks, restaurants, offices, buses and most surprising of all, all trains have stopped running .... TOTALLY CLOSED ... There are no taxis, excuse me, it is not a religious holiday or a national holiday NO, but water will be played with for 4 days and everyone is happy. old, young, babies, nobody is safe from getting wet, nobody.
Yesterday when I arrived in an airport taxi, it seemed that I had arrived in a poor country in Africa because of the flat landscape, with dry palm trees, it reminded me of the Massai Mara area in Tanzania. That place in particular because there are many in Africa. I got to my hostel, I went out to buy a lighter because they took it from me at the airport. First, the guy from the hostel told me not to go out with the phone (OK, they might steal it from me) and luckily there was a Mini Market about 100 meters away. This measurement is called a "Gaig" here 1 giag is 91cm (“Tical” is the weight measurement - 100 Tical = 1.6 kilo.) They are so isolated that they do not have universal measurements, which happens in only 2 countries in the world. The great fortune of this mini-market" or convenience store" was that it was written in English, they sell a couple of beers, two types of noodles, some cookies, water, two kinds of cigarettes - I brought mine from Vietnam, - thinking ahead - and a couple more indescribable things, AH and local whiskey. I went out and within half a block a man of about 40 throws a bucket of water at me, hmmm, ..... I arrived soaking wet at the hostel with very wet money in my pockets. The thing about me leaving my phone was so they wouldn't get it wet. Fun. I arrived, changed my clothes and two hours later I had to go out to buy Maruchan (instant noodles) because there was nowhere to eat and to buy beers There were already several boys with plastic pools filled with water at the door of the hostel .... this is an opportunity..... I said to myself "If you can’t beat them, join them" in the photos it is clear. Today I went to the mini market and they had a lot of paper money drying on top of the cigarettes, everything is joyful and happy. On the balcony of the hostel, clothes are drying everywhere even those of the staff. I have come across no more than 4 tourists these days.
Today you can not do anything. You have to believe me even the few ATMs don't work ... why? I don't know ... this had been mentioned to me at the airport. I don't have a Kiat, Lukas (pesos) from here I don't know how to manage until Wednesday. At 2 pm I decided to go out to see the river and a monastery. I carried a map of the hostel, NO SIM, It was impossible, cigarettes, the key and the few Kiats I had and the phone I wrapped in 2 plastic bags. I had been warned, I told myself: go out and enjoy the fun The first time I was wet was OK, the second time, I was happy and by the third time I was grateful for the respite from the heat and I was catching on, so I started to turn the tables on them when they approached me and I threw the water at them, or when they approached me with hoses, they wet me even more and I took the hoses and turned the hoses back on them .... pure shouts of laughter from both sides ...... ......
My friend, Soferosa tells me that there should be the world day of "throwing water", There are days celebrating grandfathers, children, mothers, ........ why not have one to celebrate water and friends .... it would be a contribution to global joy, so necessary.
How they laughed when they saw older people get wet, I had to hide in a corner to take the video, because that bucket you see was for me. I showed him the phone and he didn't get me wet. I took the video, and put the phone in the two bags and there he was waiting for me ......... with the bucket ...... ... nobody is safe.
On my walk that day I saw these contradictions side by side.
The families settle down in the street, it is pure joy, nobody cares about the water bill, apparently, and this scene is repeated every 15 meters.
Now I know that the water festival is the Buddhist New Year and the water is meant for purification.
Then I read in a newspaper that it was originally 10 days of the water festival but the monks claimed that there were not enough people going to the monastery to pray so they shortened it to the 4 days. In 4 months therefore I have had 3 new years,
The Chinese New Year in Ta Van, Vietnam (February), the Western New Year in Kyoto, ... and the Buddhist one in May ......
My walk was very wet but I was encountering many unusual things. the videos are not my strong point but indenpensable to the story
On Tuesday morning at the reception desk, a single woman with her backpack, she seemed to be in her 50s was trying with very broken English to understand that there was no train, no buses, or anything to leave that city, NOTHING. she wanted to take a train to Bagan and did not understand why she couldn’t. It is hard to understand. I was listening and understanding that you can't get out of there…. I asked her if she wanted me to help her with English...,
YES, PLEASE… ..
Where are you from?
ARGENTINA…….
I was silent ..........
AND YOU?
I think for a second how to answer an Argentinian ....... And I told her ...
look, here I am here fooling around { in Chilean dirty slang, that only Argentinians understand} ...
She exclaimed at the top of her voice, as only Italians and Argentines do ...
!!!!!! CHILEANITA !!!!!!!!
Now I wonder why? ……… " CHILENITA " …… ..., sorry, I don't have the appearance of being a young girl, why the “ ITA ”, and secondly, it is known that Argentinians are the Europeans and superiors of Latin America and we Chileans are lower than them … My first time with an Argentinian, an older woman and also travelling alone, we became close friends, CHE Alejandra. For the first time in months I have been able to chat in Spanish… ..when I did talk, it was in English …… ... even more so we have very similar stories …….To sum up, we had won the Bicentennial Soccer Cup because Messi lost the penalty kick ... ...... hahaha ... ....... THAT'S WORTH GOLD ...... ... ..and to share such familiar stories was wonderful. It was funny, how the diners looked at us, because of the loud laughter, THE SMOKING AND DRINKING BEERS. We forgot to order food ... ... then they closed the place and we went home.
I was leaving on Wednesday on a bus to Bagan, she wanted to go by train, to cut a long story short she did not find a train and ended up taking the same bus. 187 km in 6 hours, (there will be a note) We talked about everything, I realised that she was good with technology. I took advantage of some advice and thanks to her I bought a phone charger, pfff that has served me well, ...... thank you,…. In Bagan by coincidence, our hotels were next door to each other, we discovered this when we got off the bus. We had dinner that night and we did eat, Burmese food, all very funny, with the way it was presented and the surprises that we had with each dish and we had a great time ... she gave me the information about Fatty the motorcycle driver who drove her through Mandalay, I took his details and I have a whole chapter of adventures with Fatty… ..
In the afternoon the teenagers with the water pools were installed outside the hostel
there was no way out and I said to myself again, if you can't beat them !!!!! join them !!!!
My Buddhist New Year was by far the most extraordinary, wet and happy, in 40 degrees of heat. Mandalay 2018.