Buddhist Lent

This is not the first time that I have meticulously planned a business trip only to learn after arrival that a public holiday falls during my brief stay. Now I'm not dumb, I have every holiday I can think of for the countries I visit entered into my Outlook calendar (Malian Independence Day? Ethiopian New Year?). This helps with scheduling trips, understanding why colleagues are unresponsive, and getting brownie point by sending a holiday greeting. However Lunar Holidays always evade me! 

During my trip to Myanmar, the moon was such that Buddhist Lent fell during our trip. It ended up being fine- we had no meetings previously scheduled, so tourism day it was.

We took advantage of a full hour of sunlight and went to visit the Shwedagon Pagoda. If you're going to visit a giant pagoda, you might as well do it on the same day that the entire country is visiting. 

Navigating the pagoda made me think of swimming in a school of fish. Turning to the left or right wasn't something you got to decide to do on your own, you had to hope for an opportunity. Cutting across the rows of people entailed a fair amount of swimming upstream and then waiting for your chance, crossing, and then swimming back.

Even more fun was that there were almost no tourists. We were swimming in a sea of Burmese grandmas, babies, and entire families on a picnic. 

Where's Laura?