"Thingyan: Burmese new year" Top 5 Page for this destination Burma Things to Do Tip by Mique

Well, that is a very wet occasion i can tell you that. During the water festival (the days before new year) i was drenched every single moment except for the time i had just changed into a set of dry clothes. And that dry state did only last as long as i stayed indoors. Being an obvious foreigner people came even running after me just so that they could pour/throw/squeeze/.... water over me. If i was lucky it was a little water and warm. But most of the time the water came by buckets. Though many people asked if it was ok that they did it. Or explained to me that it was part of the new year tradition. It was great being able to walk around again without being assaulted all the time the day the festival had ended. I had an absolute fantastic time though and so thoroughly enjoyed myself. Of course i also got into the spirit and soon had my own water bottle filled to the brim so i could throw/splash water over people as well. One of the days we managed to hitch a ride in a pick-up and so we also stood in line just to be sprayed with water at one of the numerous stands where this could be done. The last day we went to Bago by standard pick-up. We were sitting in front and at every village and at many places in between the driver and i (i was sitting in the middle) happened to find ourselves sitting in a swimming pool-like seat. We couldn't speak but this experience created quite a bond between us (Yangon water festival 2006)

In 2006 we we in Yangon and it was quite a festival (my first). In 2007 we celebrated in Mandalay. Amongst Burmese the Mandalay water festival is considered even better then the Yangon one. But unfortunately this year it was a little less good (the government stimulated celebrating in the new capital). 2008 i didn't celebrate it since Xenne was just too young (3 months) so hubby went with some friends. I did celebrate in 2009 and 2010 of course but gave this year a miss again being 5 months pregnant....