Lawkananda festival

Throughout the year Myanmar has loads of special festivals. This week we had a taste of a riverside one in New Bagan.

Our lovely colleague Khin Lay escorted us (thank god she did as the crowds were full on and it would have been a much longer excursion without her helping).

We jumped into a tuk tuk and zoomed past the many temples to go check it out.

It’s a bit like any agricultural show, without the ‘agriculture’ although we saw loads of pineapples being sold.

There are rides for kids, lots of fabulous naughty fried foods and stalls selling all kinds of stuff from tools to trowels, from pots to pillows. It is a riot of colour and throngs of people trying to negotiate passage along narrow manmade alleys with motorbikes.

Villagers come from all over the region travel to attend these festival which go for a few days before stall holders move on to the next pagoda festival.

The annual Lawkanada pagoda festival features boat races on the river. We caught a glimpse of these between the shoulders of others.

We grabbed a watermelon to share with everyone back at Sanon and headed back because of the heat. It was another serendipitous day in the life of a volunteer.