Monday 7th November
In Nyaungshwe (Inle Lake). A bit of a sleep in, since I soon won't be able to sleep in on Monday mornings. After breakfast I walked into town to the market which comes round every five days. It was mostly fruit and veggies and it was quite busy and I kind of felt like I was in the way as the local women were going about their business of buying and selling. So I went to a cafe and got samosas and tea and read my book; I soon won't be able to that on a Monday morning either.
Late afternoon I joined a group of other tourists and took a pick-up (taxi) to Taunggyi and to the annual Balloon Festival, about an hour way. We arrived in the dark but could see that Taunggyi is a modern city with designer shops and the locals are more westernised; they wear jeans and have mobile phones, whereas in Mandalay and Yangon they still wear the longyi. Because the city is westernised not many tourists come here; we prefer to see traditional places. This means that tourists are a rare sight in Taunggyi, so we got more attention than we do in the less developed towns where the locals are used to tourists.
The fire-balloon festival is part of the full moon celebrations, and goes for a week. As we approached the festival we saw the three neon-lit Ferris Wheels and huge crowds in an area about the size of 2 football fields. We went to look at the Ferris Wheels first. Although they are covered in flashing lights, the rotation of the wheel is not powered by electrical energy; instead there is a team of guys who climb up the struts/spokes of the Wheel and dangle from the seats on one side to effect the rotation of the wheel. Crazy. A dangerous job and all part of the show.
I walked deeper into the festival and found that most of the space was taken up by rudimentary gambling stalls. At one stall there was a table with 8 large football team posters placed over it. The punters lay their money on the team they think will 'come up'. Then a punter presses a button in front of him that is attached by wire to a wheel with lights and when he hits stop, the lights stop on the winning team; very basic, but fun. When the owner saw my Ajax beanie he put on his Manchester United Beanie so I shook my head at him and pointed at the Liverpool poster. Although the owner is a guy it was a group of ladies running the gambling stall. Everyone is seated and the ladies use feather dusters to draw the losing money to them across the table. One of the girls seemed to be rapping into the microphone along to the loud music while the punters decided where to lay their money. Some of the guys were putting down lots of money and I was a bit tempted to have a go, but resisted.
I stopped for Shan noodles and the ladies made a bit of a fuss of me and took turns to watch me eat and whispered and giggled with their friends. I walked back out to the main field to see the balloons. There were maybe 10,000 people in the field and I was drawn to a large group of guys dancing and jumping and singing. Most of them had been drinking and it seemed a little edgy but once the balloons came out it was ok. It is actually an air balloon competition so they bring them out one by one. It was extraordinary....
The balloon is brought out on the back of a pickup truck into the crowd and slowly and carefully unfolded. Each balloon is about half the size of a normal air balloon but without a basket, and each one is unique and made by the team that launches it. A metal structure, like scaffolding but wide rather than high, is brought out too and it has hundreds of fireworks attached.
Once the ballon is ready, naked flames, mostly from stakes held up by the balloon team, are used to inflate the balloon. As the balloon slowly starts to rise the crowd whoops and claps and it is a great sight, more so when the balloon rotates too, but at this point the balloon is still being stopped from flying away because the team is holding it in mid-air with ropes. Next, the team carries the scaffolding with the fireworks attached across to the balloon and attaches the scaffolding under the balloon, between the fire and the bottom of the actual balloon. Then they let the balloon go....
The first balloon took off, with the scaffolding swinging below it, and after a minute or so it crashed into a nearby lampost and hung there like a ragdoll slowly burning and as the one fire engine tried to put the fire out it was like something from an Ealing comedy. But of course the fireworks still went off and because the balloon hadn't gone very high, the fireworks spun out horizontally into the crowd; not such an unusual siutation apparently.
The next balloon launch was more successful and it was cool as the balloon rose up and when it got higher the fireworks were quite spectacular but they tended to fly down rather than up and again flames were spinning into the crowd and I ran for cover behind some cars along with the locals.
The third balloon launched ok too but the fireworks went off before it had got very high and so again flames were zipping out horizontally and into the crowd. It was mad and this time we were even closer. With the crowd, I turned around and made a dash for it and I could see the flames spinning into the ground around us but nobody seemed to get hurt and it seems to be all part of the fun. But my heart was beating a little faster by then and I decided that the novelty of running away from fireworks was over for me and I headed out of the field and up the gentle slope where families were sitting on blankets and eating and enjoying the show. From the elevated postion the view was better, and safer.
I chatted to a policeman who was guarding the entrance to the VIP area which was for TV people only. I told him I was a TV Director for the BBC to see if he would let me in, then realised that saying you work for the BBC in Myanmar is not too clever, but I don't think he understood and it was just banter.
At midnight, balloons were still being launched but we piled back into the pick-up and headed back to Nyaungshwe along the dusty bumpy road after a crazy night out.
Tuesday 8th November
Lazy day today, cat nap this afternoon. This evening I could hear some kind of ceremony coming from loudspeakers in the distance so I set out to find out what was happening. A few streets across from the hotel the sound got louder and I arrived at a pagoda with wooden scaffolding around the top. Below was an important looking monk seated in a special chair leading in prayer a gathering of about 100 locals seated on mats. A local guy, called Myat Min Soe came to chat to me and explained what was happening. The pagoda is being repaired and in a couple of days will have its upper part replaced and so I was witnessing a Pagoda Repair Ceremony. The pagoda is called the Ma Har Yan Aung pagoda which means Great Successful pagoda.
Myat Min Soe is a local farmer and has been to several South-East Asian countries and his English is good. He showed me some photos of the pagoda from last year when it was small and crumbling with weeds growing around it; it was originally built 600 years ago. Then last year they built a brand new pagoda in its place (not sure why it needs to be repaired already).
He also told me about the special coloured Buddhist flag which represents the 6 rays that emanate from Buddha, who is clean. The flag is used by Buddhists in 5 countries: Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Sri Lanka (I think this right?)
Wednesday 9th November
Walked down the main road and got three bread pastries with sweet soy bean; cheap filling food for a long journey. On the way back I got shan noodles in the same place I have been the last two days; not many veggies but very tasty and nice ladies who work there.
After checking out we got a pick-up to the Shwenyuang where I ate deep-fried prawn and onion in a tea shop where the locals were glued to a Van Damme movie. Our bus came by and picked us up at 3pm. The bus was ok and I read my book and enjoyed listening to my tunes. When we stopped for dinner, we were given a food voucher which meant free food; I don't completely understand but the idea is that until the full moon tomorrow, people donate money for the monks to buy robes, and in return the monks donate money for people to have free dinner. Monks often tend to be well-off so it is not such an imposition for them, but still appreciated.
Thursday 10th November
The bus arrived at Yangon's long-distance bus station about 4am and they put us in a pick-up for the rest of the journey into Yangon. We arrived about 5am and I checked in to the Golden Smiles hotel.
Slept in and then went for a walk around Yangon. I wanted to have a look in the church but it was closed so I sat on the steps around the side and read my book, but it was really hot so I just came back and had a lie down!
Today is Buddha day, so it is a public holiday in Myanmar; but only Buddhist-owned businesses are shut. Also the streets in Chinatown had foodstalls and games and stuff for kids; it was too manic so I didn't hang around. I went to a tea shop and watched the end of a movie, I guess it is a bit like going to the cinema for the locals and brings in the punters for the tea shop owner.
On the way back the tea shops on the pavement were showing live scenes from the Balloon Festival that I went to the other night. Tonight is the last night of the festival, full moon.
Friday 11th November
Had a last walk around Yangon, large plate of Thai noodles for $2 then back to hostel and caught a taxi to the airport with a couple of American guys. Flight here to KL was ok. Checked into dorm room at midnight and came out for food since AirAsia didn't feed me. The streets are quite quiet but I found a nice lady serving fried noodles and prawns - for just over $1; I am going to miss Asia.
No comments:
Post a Comment