Christmas 2017 in Myanmar

First of all, we would like to apologise for the long silence on our blog. We were quite busy the last couple of months. But we promise that we want to prove better manners again in 2018! So many stories of 2017 have not yet been told. We will try hard to tell them one by one within the next weeks and months. Here is a short story about how we spent Christmas 2017 in Myanmar.

This year, we spent Christmas partly in Myitkyina (Kachin State in the North of Myanmar, more will follow with another blog post) and partly at home in Yangon. 

In Switzerland, we usually start celebrating Christmas on 24 December and it often lasts until 26 December. In Myanmar, the Christian people celebrate Christmas only on 25 December. There are many Christians in Myitkyina. So, we saw many people preparing themselves and their churches on 24 for a big celebration on 25 December. On the 25^th, the churches everywhere were full of people, during the whole day. Even the breakfast buffet at the hotel on 25^th was almost empty because the staff wanted to rush off as soon as possible to their churches and families. :-) But let’s begin the story with the 24 December in the evening…

So, it was 24 December in the evening when we were still in Myitkina. We searched for a nice restaurant for eating a lovely dinner. We came across a very hip and newly opened restaurant and tried our luck there. It was nothing like Christmas atmosphere. But it was fun to be there.

Video…

After the amazing ambience, we returned to our hotel room and enjoyed several skype sessions with our loved ones at home in Switzerland. We could even join in some Christmas story telling by Lara’s grandmother Sünni, see the beautiful decorations of tables, Christmas trees, presents, dinners and so on. A short and beautiful moment of closeness with our families. On Christmas, it is sometimes a bit hard to be so far away from home.

 Joining Christmas at home through skype (pic taken by Christian L.-H.)

On 25 December in the morning, we started the day with some Christmas songs over youtube to compensate for the missing Christmas feeling (with songs like “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey etc.), a bottle of beer (because we had to drink it before the flight or throw it away  - obviously no choice), and packing our bags for flying back to Yangon. But we still had some hours left before the flight. So, we again rented a motorbike and drove around for a while. Back at the hotel, the friendly staff offered us to make a Christmas shooting with their wonderful Christmas decoration. We very gladly accepted because we wanted to show our friends and families how a Christmas decoration in Myitkyina, Myanmar, looks like.

Left: Western Christmas tree at the hotel.   Right: Traditional Myanmar Christmas tree at the hotel.

Then we took the plane back to Yangon again in the evening of 25 December. We spent the rest of the evening at home, watching Lord Of The Rings II, extended edition, and enjoying a glass of red wine to celebrate a quiet Christmas evening.

At Myitkyina, the passengers can walk to the airplane without too many safety guidelines. That is quite convenient.

On 26 December, the washing of our cloths, the cleaning of the apartment, and the construction of Flo’s climbing wall kept us quite busy. But more will follow about the climbing wall another time. This deserves its own blog post. :-)

Very soon, many friends from Switzerland will arrive to Yangon. We will spend the next few days and New Year’s Eve with them. We’ll be around Yangon, Dawei, and Hpa-An. And we can’t wait to have them here!

We wish you a very nice rest of the year 2017 and a fantastic start into 2018!

Best, Lara and Flo