THREE years ago, Yuichi Iwaya moved to Yangon from his home in Japan for work and was amazed to see a queue of cars waiting to have water thrown on them in front of a line of pandals.

Mr Yuichi Iwaya		Ms Da Bok Lim
“I was happy to see young people behave like that because they are the new generation. They should be doing fun things like that.”		"I’m really happy during Thingyan festival in Myanmar because it is very lively and everyone behaves like children."

He said it was a strange experience to see cars and people lining up to be drenched, even though he had seen similar celebrations on television in Thailand. The difference he said, was that in Thailand people used small hoses but in Myanmar the pandals were armed with fire hoses.

Looking back to his first year here, Mr Iwaya said he could not remember how many times he changed his clothes because he could not get used to being wet – especially since some people were using iced water.

As a newly arrived foreigner, Mr Iwaya said he was afraid that the water may be coming from rivers and ponds and would be dirty.

Mr Iwaya was working as sales manager at Nikko Hotel three years ago and he did not have much fun during the festival because he was assigned to run the restaurant.

He also said that he was surprised to see Myanmar people freely laughing, singing and dancing with joy on the stages during the festival because normally Myanmar people are very quiet.

“I was happy to see young people behave like that because they are the new generation. They should be doing fun things like that,” he said.

Last year, Mr Iwaya spent his holidays at Ngwe Saung beach and he said it was good fun because people threw water inside the car along the way.
“This year the holiday period is so long, so I want to go back to Japan or visit another country,” he said.

However, Ms Da Bok Lim, a South Korean database system expert who is working at the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, said she would like to spend her Thingyan holiday this year at Ngapali beach if she could convince her friends to go along; if that fails she said she would like to return home.

“I’m really happy during Thingyan festival in Myanmar because it is very lively and everyone behaves like children,” she said, adding that she had also seen the Thai water festival.

She said some Thai people use elephants to get around during Songkran, unlike Myanmar people who always drive around in cars.

Ms Da Bok Lim said she spent her first Thingyan with her Myanmar friends walking along Inya Road, which was packed with pandals and crowds of people.

“I was very happy because the air was filled with music and both young people and adults were dancing on the stage,” she said.

During the festival, she said she walked the streets to see pandals and she sang Myanmar Tu Po-Tu Po songs.

For her second festival, Ms Da Bok Lim said she drove around with her aunt and friends in cars.

“When we drove around Yangon in a car the traffic crawled very slowly and I needed to go to the toilet. But I didn’t know where to go and we were all wet with water, so I just went where I was and let it wash away with all the water that was thrown on me,” she said.

She also said that she liked Mon Lone Yay Paw (the floating dough ball), one of Myanmar’s traditional festival foods.

“It is great when we eat Mon Lone Yay Paw with chilli instead of jaggery (palm sugar),” she said, adding that she enjoyed that Myanmar people made special foods during the festival and gave them to passersby.

However, it was not all fun and games and after Thingyan festival; she said her back and eyes hurt and she was sunburnt.