The Heat Came

After the Thingyan(Water Festival) delicious mangoes had come into season. It was getting hotter and hotter gradually. At the end of March, my wife arrived here and we went to Ngapali Beach. Then, we came back to Mandalay. After words, we made a trip to Bagan. We spent water festival holidays in Mandalay. I had written about Ngapali in previous articles. I would write about Bagan in three facts.

First, we set out to Bagan by ship at six o'clock in the morning and arrived at NyaungU at about 4 o'clock in the evening. The wind from the river that makes people comfortable had changed to the hot one before we had noticed. I felt something like suffocated though we stayed on the deck.

The second thing was the scene that we could see when the ship moored at the three places like jetties. The children were shouting something on the bank. The people opposite them (generally foreigners, about fifty persons) throw small things and food to the children. They tried to snatch and some of them even fell into the river.

The third thing was about the bus we took on our return trip. It was ruined old bus used in countryside in Japan. The body of it was almost unusable. All the seats were raised to the same level. They stuffed vacant space under the seats with bags of crops. Aisle of the bus was also filled with goods and so we could hardly move. It would be more suitable to say we took the bus on the goods than on the seats.

I think water festival in Mandalay was more magnificent than that in Yangon. There were big stages in front of the moat. The sponsors were beer and cigarette companies. The stages were high light of the festival because they could get enough water from the moat. There were music shows on the stages at night. People and cars from not only Mandalay but also nearby towns were crowded here. One needed to be rather patient.

I moved back to the hostel from the hotel three weeks after my wife had returned to Japan. The heat was increasing during this period. Temperature in daytime was up to 35'-36' C. So was that of the night. We had to suffer more from the heat when we went to bed. The temperature fell down to about 30'C at dawn and it was a little comfortable for us to live then. We felt a bit cool when it was about 30'C. So, feeling of men is a bit strange. I lost my appetite when it was very hot and I lost 2kg. I was worried about what would happen next. But I got used to the heat while I was drinking water very often. I felt good and recovered from it. It was lucky.

After dinner, I drank plenty of water. I did not know where the water had gone after urinating in mid-night. I used to keep boiled water in the fridge. But, I could not do a lot of boiling. So, I made water cold directly without boiling and drank it. I had an experience of break out of fire concerning with boiling of water. I happened to smile with a pain in my heart whenever I thought of it.

Mangoes are the fruit that come into season in hot time. To compare with Yangon they are cheaper and more delicious in Mandalay. In morning market there are mangoes in various kind of colour and size. I ate three slices of mango this afternoon. They were sweet and delicious.