Taunggyi balloon festival

I love quirky things when travelling - it is so refreshing to do something a little obscure or unusual. So I knew as soon as I saw the Taunggyi balloon festival (when I googled "Burma November festivals") that I wanted to go. It was to become the most unusual experience we had in Burma.

Let me break it down:

Getting there
Instead of taking a taxi, we thought we would go the local way on a pick up truck. Perched on tiny little green plastic stools, we bounced our way from Nyaungshwe to Taunggyi. The rainy season had just ended and everything was a beautiful lush green. The steep ascending roads offered stunning vistas of the mountain ranges, dotted with the occasional glint of a golden stupa.

We were unceremoniously dumped in a back alley next to a Fair & Handsome advertising billboard. Following a bunch of women, we managed to get to a busy road but had no idea where we were. The nearest modern looking shop was a mobile phone shop but the people there struggled to tell us where the festival was, pointing to both left and right. Eventually we stumbled across a sign for a hotel where an elderly man drew us a comprehensive map of the town and how to take a pickup truck to the festival.

We stood on the street shouting "pwe? pwe?" at every passing pickup truck, and eventually got on one along with some Burmese women dressed in their finest. They didn't seem to speak any English but managed to charade to us to watch out for pickpockets. The police had shut down the road leading to the festival showground so we took a massive detour, only to end up about a block from where we were roadblocked. Finally we were there!

Entering the festival

Walking along the road, we passed by large groups of excited teenagers, families with children, and couples on dates. The excitement was palpable as we headed towards the festival, the entrance to which was marked by a Kenbo gate. Even though we were in rural Myanmar, the festival was sponsored by Kenbo, a motorcycle store.

The row of stalls seemed to be endless - shops sold all types of clothing from pyjamas to longyi to jackets, many promising "export quality!" or "Korean style!"; herbal supplements seemed to be popular as did thanaka (a type of branch which women rub on their faces for a sunscreen effect).

Thanaka stall

Soft toys next to toy guns for sale

There were lots of food stalls which sold greyish desserts, cookies and dried snacks as well as all types of freshly grilled foods such as whole chicken on a stick. As we got deeper into the stalls, more became teahouses and beerhouses where locals waited for the balloons.

Tasty but super spicy rice pancakes stuffed with sprouts & tomatoes

Eventually we came to an empty flat space which appeared like an oval except all the grass had been trampled away and the whole space was covered in all sorts of rubbish. Plastic bags floated melancholically in the air and old rice bags were on sale to protect from the rubbly ground.

The rides
One couldn't walk a metre near the showground without seeing the rides. To start, the music was so loud even earplugs didn't help all the way on the other side of the grounds. The neon lights flashed all shades of gaudy pink and green, as if it was Christmas gone wrong.

There were two large pirate boats which were operated by a primitive diesel engine, operated by an adolescent pouring things into the engine. As the boats swung, huge plumes of black smoke filled the surrounding air - simply gross. The others were however pollution free - at first I thought there were a bunch of people trying to get a free ride on the ferris wheel, then I realised it was operated by a bunch of boys jumping from one rung to the next to propel it forward! The carousel was also spun manually, one little boy stopped going around as his "spinner" got bored and walked away.

Propeller boys in action on the bottom

Time for balloons
Before the balloons came, we could see a blue neon outline of a buddha moving slowly across the showground. This was ceremoniously parked in the middle of the grounds.

Buddha arrives

Two truckloads of people dressed in blue & white uniforms then arrived as well as two large packages. They had a team leader who had a megaphone, and a photographer with an impossibly large lens.

The group split into three - the first group formed a human barrier by holding hands in a large circle, keeping the crowd out; the second group unpacked a huge multi-level structure with all sorts of fireworks hanging out of it; the third group was responsible for the balloon itself.

First the balloon was unfolded and laid flat upon the ground. Then branches were lit and the fire was held under the balloon to inflate it - I wasn't sure if they used any aids to this as it seemed to inflate quite quickly. Once the balloon inflated (it was an advertisement for a new block of apartments), about 20 people held onto the balloon to prevent it from floating away, standing on their tippy toes. Then there was a mighty big shout by the team leader, and the second group picked up the whole tray of explosives and started hooking it onto the balloon. The fire sticks under the balloon were just inches away from the explosives, a truly disturbing sight. The attachment of the tray took no more than 10 seconds as everyone was eager to hook up their corner of the tray.

Look at those explosives!!

Then the balloon holders let go and the balloon shot up into the sky. Fireworks started going off immediately and as it was only a few metres off the ground, the burning embers started falling to the ground at an alarming rate. The crowd stopped cheering and started running for their lives. I was making a video of this at the time, and half of the video was of the ground as I was trying to get away from the fireworks!

The balloon continued to drift upwards and at a certain altitude, a proper firework show started (I think the earlier ones were just strays) and the crowd started cheering and dancing (now that they were no longer in danger of death)

Getting home
I had the worst headache ever at the festival because of the intense noise from all the blaring music. We decided to go early but even then it was a bit of a disaster. Back out on the road, we asked every pickup truck if they were going to Nyaungshwe, but it appeared that no one was. We were stuck between several taxi drivers all of whom wanted to make the exorbitant fee - in the end we went for an old man with a hat, and he turned out to be a real gentleman.

So that was that, our fun day out at the Taunggyi balloon festival. I'd seen pictures of animal balloons being floated during the day and we were sorry to have missed that, but we sure had a bloody bizarre time!