Happy Thingyan! Burmese New Year

So Monday marked the start of Thingyan - the Burmese New Year Festival, which this year runs from 13 to 16 April.

Related to Songkran, the New Year Festival in Thailand, Thingyan is a wonderful festival where young and old alike give alms to monks, pay respects to elders, hold great feasts, take part in dances, go to open-air shows, and most notably lob gallons of water at each other! Thankfully April is the hottest time of the year in Burma and so likelihood of hypothermia is fairly low.

However, actual Thingyan celebrations can be hard to come by in the UK. Therefore, my family and I decided on the next best option and went to the Songkran festival last Sunday at the Buddhapadipa Temple in Wimbledon. The grounds are beautiful, the Wat (Thai temple) itself is spectacular, and we had a great time.

Here's a picspam to show you how fab it was:

Gilding the Buddha

Traditional Thai dancing

Tawana Supermarket

Mini Thai Princess Contest

Khao Kriab Paak Maw stall

Chicken scratchings (these were really delicious)

Snake Beans for sale

Stir-fry Stall

Thai ice lolly machine - Vimto, Green Cream Soda and Pepsi Max flavours!

Fishcakes aka Tod Man

The evil acacia leaf aka Cha Om (recipe here)

Som Tam master at work

Best Som Tam ever with teeny blue crab!

For a proper review, visit http://eatthatyellowsnow.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/songkran-buddhapadipa-thai-temple-wimbledon/ - I'm even in one of his pictures ...