Water, water...everywhere!

We departed Chiang Mai on the first day of the four day New Year's celebration of "The Water Festival" (TWF). Known as Chaul Chnam Thmey in Cambodia, Songkran in Thailand, and Thingyan in Myanmar, the water festival holds significance in SE Asia as the time when the sun starts its northward journey. It also symbolizes a period of cleansing, "washing away" the old year and getting ready for the new. A kind of drenching renewal and sopping sprucing up. The TWF is a public party. No host. No leader. Its a game taking place in the streets, squares, plazas and right on the boulevards. The pieces of the game are buckets and garden hoses. The point of the game is to not simply 'splash' everyone you come in contact with (that would give the impression of someone filling a teacup and tipping it over on you). No. Your principle objective is to get anything that moves soaked to the bone by a constant water supply provided by the local rivers, lakes and streams. Tens of thousands of young people line the streets of downtowns, side streets, entrances to hotels, river walks, and marketplaces for the chance to soak you to your core.

They arrive by the truckloads. Some traveling for hours to get rowdy and drink beer and scare the 'bejeezes' out of tourists...of which there were amazingly few. On the other hand, we were surprised by how orderly and respectful and good natured the vast majority of youth were. We had people come up to us like we were rock stars or aliens (depending upon their familiarity with white foreigners). We seemed to be targeted, as if we were wearing homing devices. Young people on the streets of Mandalay would focus on us, like human drones identifying a strike zone, for the opportunity to pour a bucket of water over our shoulders and down our shirts. After the first ten minutes in downtown Mandalay we were very literally drenched, head to foot.

The pictures (above and below) were taken from our car before we got to "Submerge Central" located at the Royal Palace area in downtown Mandalay. The Palace grounds is a square approximately 1 1/2 miles on each side. Lining these streets were bandstands constructed by companies sponsoring events that included Malaysian 'rock stars' and pop singers. The day before we purchased plastic pouches for our phones so they didn't get waterlogged and damaged. I didn't dare pull the iPhone out of the protective container never knowing from what direction the next waterfall was coming from. It is for this reason that there are no pictures of Adele and I at our wettest. You will need to use your imagination.

Our guide planned a full day of 'hoopla' and reveling knowing this experience was new to us. But, after a full morning, four hours or more of 'wet whoopee', none of it continued to be amusing. We had our fill. So, Adele and I opted out of the afternoon "festivities"...and, spent the balance of the day at our hotel's pool??? Go figure.  

[As you can see, Adele and I are back in business. We arrived in Dubrovnik at 11 PM last night. We are no longer 'dark' and receive any and all messages from you. Bless you all for being there and reminding us of home. We are grateful]