Fox Trotting

Last weekend, Evelyn and I travelled to the beautiful city of Taunggyi in Shan State for the Fire Balloon Festival. Thadingyut marks the beginning of the Festival of Lights for the entire following month, known as Tazaungdaing, ending at the full moon in November. The lovely people of Taunggyi and the surrounding area have decided the best way to celebrate the end of the Festival of Lights is to have a week-long fire balloon contest.  From the pagoda at the top of the mountain above Taunggyi. The city below is on a plateau and about 1400 m above sea level.  It was so lovely to be out of Yangon and breathing this wonderful fresh air.  It does get cool at night, so it was also nice to wear jeans and a sweater for a change! The Festival grounds at night  - more human-powered carnival rides! You know those pretty small paper balloons you always see people in Thailand lighting to send floating into the sky? Ya - the Fire Balloon Festival is like that but done Myanmar styl

Last week, October 23-25, was the Thadingyut Festival in Myanmar. It's also known as the Lighting Festival and happens over the full moon every October. It's the second biggest festival (the biggest is the Water Festival in April) and  is supposed to celebrate Buddha’s descent from heaven after he preached the Abhidhamma  to his mother  who was reborn in heaven (thanks Wikipedia). Because its the Lighting Festival, everyone decorates their balconies with different kinds of lights - it's almost like Christmas at home! Most of the country had all three days off as a public holiday, but we only got the 24th since we work for an international organization. But, I'll take what I can get. It did mean it was a little lonely in the expat world  since most people took off the week and went travelling, but Evelyn and I made the most of it. On Tuesday night Evelyn and I headed to the Yae Kyaw Night Market.  Streets near the market  were  shut down and packed with people