It was about 5.15 am in the morning. It was still dark. The bus to Chaungtha left Yangon making a loud noise 15 minutes later than it was due.

Today was first day of "Thingyan" (water festival). We chose Chaungtha beach of spend three days out of five Thingyan holidays taking a rest. But I realized that our trip would be a bit hard and tiring, once I judged the bus. We bought tickets for an air-conditioned bus, but the bus did not seem to have an air-conditioner installed, wherever I looked at in the bus. But the word "Air-con" was written in big letters on the tickets. So we had no choice to get natural air opening the windows of the bus. The bus was so crowded. Even the aisle was over crowded. Although it was over crowded the bus conductor was still calling more passengers.

Air-con Bus without Air-conditioning system

It was beginning to be light in the environs. The bus was going in a very fast speed making the sound and I looked at the beautiful panoramic view of farms. We drove pass a very magnificent bridge. I did not used to see such bridges in this country. So I asked my husband " There are magnificent bridges, aren't there?"

"The bridge was said to finish only last year and it took three or four hours to cross this river including waiting time. How convenient it is now." He said in an old man's voice.

After crossing the bridge, the bus stopped over at a place where we stretched our legs. It would be very tiring for big-bodied persons. The car restarted its trip while I was controlling my desire to reach the beach and drink beer.

While the bus was driving, the drops of water entered the car with a sound "splash". I had no idea where it came. When I turned round and looked I could see a group of children throwing water at passers-by and cars.

"That's it. Today is Thingyan" I completely forgot that. As the sun was getting higher, the children from the villages ran to the car and threw water as we drove pass. Because they had to wait for the bus to come for a long time.

Therefore, when I knew they were waiting for the buses to throw water, I protected water from entering by closing the windows. When they were closed continuously, it was very hot in the car because no air entered the bus. This was the very air-conditioned bus that had no air-conditioner. It was rather tiring to shut and open the windows again and again. I could not keep myself calm because it got again and water entered again for several times.

I changed that dry situation into a rejoicing one by throwing water at passers-by with water form plastic bottle for we only we had be to thrown water at. I thought that we got to Pathein in a short time since I was enjoying myself doing so. The town was rather big. As we entered the bus stand, much water was thrown at us. In my opinion, it was advantageous to experience Thingyan festival unexpectedly for we had a plan to participate only on the last day of Thingyan in Yangon. We had to wait for the passengers who were to get on the bus here. We thought of going to gown center. But when we saw everyone holding bowls full of water, waiting to throw. We did not want to get wet any more. So we decided to kill our time at a nearby teashop.

An hour later, we got on the bus and set out to the place where we took ferry. It took for a long time to wait the ferry to come and put the bus on the ferry. It would be convenient if the bridge were finished here. But it was not too bad to wait like this because I could see a lot of interesting things. Hawkers were selling various kinds of eatery. Some eateries were very inviting and made my mouth water. Among them, I noticed most was rice cracker made of prawns. Each cracker contained many prawns and smelt sweet. Big crackers, which contained big prawns, cost 100 Ks each. Smaller ones cost 25 Ks each.

When we reached other side of the river, water drops came into the bus unexpectedly. All passengers got wet including the roof of the bus. But nobody got angry with water throwers. The bus drove pass a road in the valley while we were being thrown water at. I did not know if the boy who was sitting at aisle, eating ice cream heartily had vomited the ice cream he had eaten into a plastic bag. The bus was shaking and jumping, the juice from the bag was leaking drop by drop. So the crowded bus was filled with foul smell, which I could not express exactly for a long time. After driving about an hour and 20 minutes, we got to the beach where fresh air and sea smell welcomed us.

We got to the beach at 1.30 pm. So it took us eight hours to cover the whole trip. We planned to go to the hotel where we would stay carrying the bags, which turned white with dust. But the hotel was a bit far. And there were not any taxis or trishaws. There were bicycle rental shops. We made a trip to the hotel along the beach after hiring bicycles at expensive shops. We made a trip to the hotel along the beach after hiring bicycles at an expensive rate of 200 Ks per hour. A strong feeling came up to shout something like in teenage movies.

When we got to the hotel, we asked a staff to show our room. As I have thought before, it was in a very bad condition accordingly the rate 3US$. Although the room was of a bungalow type, it was terrible compare with other guest houses and hotels. We just took the room because we were said there were vacancies of rooms and tents when we made reservation by phone. It was quite different from what we had imagined. So we decided to look for another place to stay at. But at other places, the condition was the same and was almost full of visitors. There were many guesthouses that asked fro-expensive rate knowing our difficulty. To make matter worse, we had forgotten our US dollars. So it was very disappointing.

Guest house zone

My husband suggested, "Shall we go to the hotel we first made reservations. So we went to the hotel, but the room had already taken. We had nowhere to stay at. How could we spend the night? While we were walking disappointedly and hopelessly, we heard voice of a boy who seemed to work at a near by hotel. He said that there was a vacant room. The rate was reasonable. So, We asked the boy to show the room hurriedly. It was quite good. It was a little far from the beach but we could take rest peacefully. We both liked the room and checked in. We went straight to the beach without wasting our time any more there. We intended to enjoy the view and drink beer. I even felt a thirst for beer. I drank beer as if I were drinking water.

"What tasteful beers". My husband said. "The sea goes well with beer, it is great". I said. When I happened to look at the side of the shop, a worker from the shop was digging something in the sand. When I made sure, I realized that it was ice. That was it. That was the way ancient people kept ice in the sand so as not to melt. So I thanked him.

Ice is kept underground, the wisdom to survive

e had late lunch or early dinner there. We went back to our guesthouse taking deep breath of fresh sea air. It was soothing. We became fresh after taking a cold bath under the shower. Then we fell asleep soundly because we were very tired from traveling. The hands of the watch showed only eight.