Splashes! Splashes! Splashes!

The old year has gone and the new year is coming. That's the meaning of Thingyan or water festival which we celebrated every April during our 5 years stay in Yangon. 

From the window of my 'haunted' whitish bungalow, I could hear Splash! Splash! Splash! sounds. Oh ... The sounds actually came from my children who were running with their water guns 'attacking' and 'shooting' our helpers' children. In return they sprayed my kiddos with water from the water hoses connected to the taps :) 

Wow! That was really fun and I don't want to miss the celebration, too. So, I quickly called my ever obedient helpers, both Saroja and Mumu to join me to the garden. Together, we splashed water against   each other from the buckets and made ourselves totally drenched to the skin from 'man made rain' which the people in Myanmar believe is to wash away our sins.

Indeed, this time of the year also represent spring time where all flowers such as laburnums, violets, ruby red ingyin and yellow padauk are blooming. In particular, the yellow padauk where the flowers are the size of tiny bees has sweet scented fragrance. They lured and attracted most Myanmar women to wear them in their hair.

In fact, the next day, my family and I were also very fortunate to be invited by the Myanmar MOFA to join the celebration with the State Leaders, government officials and fellow members of the diplomatic corp @The Mayor's Water Festival Pavilion. We joined the singing and dancing which were performed by the celebrities and other guests while splashing waters against each other to mark the beautiful celebration. 

After feeling exhausted to the bone with singing and dancing under the 'man made rain' we were recharged with generous and delicious Myanmar cuisines such as the famous Mohinga and a dessert called Moke Let Saung (cendul) which is made of rice flour and coconut milk.

All in all, we all had a great time together playing water with our helpers, colleagues and friends during Thingyan Festival and always look forward to the event to come year after year. For my friends, far and near, if you are with us then, I'm pretty sure you, too will enjoy all the fun which we were experiencing in the land not just full of pagodas, but also rich with teak woods and glittering gems.