Festival de globos de Taunggyi / Taunggyi's fire-balloon festival

El festival de globos de Taunggyi forma parte de las celebraciones de la luna llena de Tazaungmon (el octavo mes del calendario lunar birmano), y estando a escasos kilómetros, no quisimos perdérnoslo.

Alquilamos una furgoneta con conductor en Nyaung Shwe con dos holandeses y tres canadienses, dos de l@s cuales hicieron el trek con nosotr@s. A las ocho de tarde estábamos en una feria enorme que me recordaba sin parar a las fiestas de Villalba: atracciones, casetas de feria, puestos de comida y de ropa...

Caminamos casi una hora viendo puestos llenos de abrigos y gorros (esta es una zona montañosa y por las noches refresca, aunque a nosotr@s nos sobra con un jersey), juguetes, comida y stands promocionales de marcas varias (agua, café, telefonía móvil...) hasta que llegamos a la zona de las atracciones. Mientras, la gente que se cruzaba con nosotr@s nos miraba y saludaba. Supongo que los dos holandeses rubios de casi dos metros, la guapa canadiense estilo Barbie y las barbas de Alvaro no dejaban a nadie indiferente. 

La zona de entretenimientos era mucho más curiosa que la de consumo: había casetas de juego de todo tipo, aunque en la mayoría apostaban dinero. De los tradicionales dardos en los que hay que explotar globos pasamos a campos con botellas (agua, Coca Cola, zumo o cerveza) a los que se lanzaba rodando una rueda de neumático que tenía que caer rodeando a la botella sin tocarla. También había ruletas en las que l@s jugador@s apostaban dinero a distintos equipos de fútbol. 

Junto a las casetas la gente hacía cola para subir a una noria y a un barco pirata. Mientras las canadienses se subían al barco pirata tuvieron que mover la noria manualmente para que bajara la gente: se había ido la luz.

Vivimos todo esto como un sueño extraño, con la muchedumbre a nuestro alrededor haciéndonos fotos o haciéndoselas con noostr@s, monjes incluidos, señalándonos y saludando sin parar. 

También vimos a muchos borrachos, tantos como se pueden ver en las fiestas de cualquier pueblo en España.

Pero nosotr@s habíamos ido a ver los globos con fuegos artificiales, y de eso no había nada.

En una carpa con fotos de estudio a la entrada se cocía algo, y fuimos a ver qué era. Moqueta verde de minigolf y fondos extravangantes albergaban una colección sin fin de vestidos de noche llenos de lentejuelas. Una mujer mayor maquillaba a las chicas que querán hacerse una foto mientras tres jóvenes las vestían detrás de una cortina. Pregunté el precio: una foto un euro y medio. ¡Yo quiero una! Mientras las canadienses se hacían su foto de princesas Disney yo opté por algo diferente: un traje típico de una etnia de Birmania (la Shan, creo). Y éste es el resultado.

Seguimos dando vueltas hasta que terminamos en un descampado donde niños iban vendiendo sacos para sentarse encima y recogiendo botellas vacías. De pronto vimos un grupo enorme de gente "maniobrando". Estaban colocando el globo, pintado con estupas de Bagan, que poco a poco  se iba inflando. Muy despacio al principio, y en seguida rápidamente, el globo empezó a ascender soltando chispas y fuegos artificiales. Fue precioso verlo perderse entre chispas en el cielo nocturno. 

Tuvimos la suerte de ver como soltaban otro globo, que no tenía fuegos artificiales sino un enorme candelabro con velas. También lo vimos perderse en la noche antes de volver a Nyaung Shwe muy ilusionad@s; ha sido la vez que más cerca me he sentido de casa después de un año sin pisar Madrid.

Taunggyi's fire-balloon festival is part of the celebrations that take place during Tazaungmon (the eight month in the Burmese lunar calendar) full moon, and staying only a few kilometres away we didn't want to miss it.

We rented a van with a driver in Nyaung Shwe with two Dutch and three Canadians, two of whom had done the trek with us. At eight in the evening we were in an enormous fair that reminded me all the time to Villalba's annual festivities: attractions, fair huts, food stalls,  clothes shops...

We walked for an hour seeing stalls selling coats and hats (this is a mountain area, and it gets chilly at night, even if for us a jumper is more than enough), toys, food and promotional stands from various brands (water, coffee, mobile phone companies...) until we reached the area with the attractions. On our way, the people stared and said hello to us. I guess that two Dutch blond and tall guys, the good looking Canadian Barbie style, and Alvaro's beard drew everyones attention.

The entertainment area was much interesting than the consumption one: there were huts with all types of games, but on the majority of them they were betting money. From the more traditional games with darts in which you have to burst balloons we moved on to the fields of bottles (water, Coca Cola, juice or beer) to which you had to throw a tyre rolling. To win, the tyre had to land around a bottle without touching it. There were also roulettes in which the players bet money on different footbal teams.

Next to the huts the people queued up to go on the fair wheel and on the pirate boat. While the Canadians were riding the pirate boat, they had to move the fair wheel manually so the people could go down: the light had gone out.

We lived all of this like an akward dream, with the crowds around us, taking pictures of us and with us -monks included-, pointing at us and saying hello all the time.

We also saw many drunk people, as many as you can in any village's festivities in Spain.

But we had come to see the balloons with fireworks, and there was no sign of them.

In a covered place with studio pictures on the entry something was going on, and we went in to see what it was. A green mini golf carpet-like floor and weird backgrounds housed an endless collection of night dresses with no shortage of shiny things. An old woman was in charge of the make up and three other women dressed up all the girls who wanted a picture behind a curtain. I asked for the price: one picture for one and a half euros. I want one! While the Canadians got their Disney princess pictures I went for something else: a typical Burmese ethnic dress (the Shan, I believe). And this is the result.

We continued wandering around until we ended up in an empty space where the kids were selling big plastic bags to sit on top of them and collecting empty bottles. Suddenly we a saw a group of people doing something. They were preparing the balloon, painted with  Bagan's stupas, that little by little was being inflated. Very slowly at first, and quickly all of a sudden, the balloon started going up into the sky throwing away sparkles and fireworks. It was beautiful to see it getting lost in the night sky

We were lucky to see how they released another balloon, which didn't have fireworks but instead had a huge chandelier with candles. We also saw it getting lost in the night before we came back very happy to Nyaung Shwe; it has been the time that I've felt the closest from home after a year without being in Madrid.