thanaka

First night sleeping aboard and woke this morning to the chug of engines as we begin the journey north which will take us almost 800 miles up the Ayeyarwady River.
Destination Thayet Myo, once a border post between Royal and British Myanmar following the second Anglo Burmese War of 1852.
Transport by horse cart! and a bulky lot we are compared to the delicate Myanmar people who fit three or four to a cart...a max of two for us!

As luck would have it the town was in party mode celebrating the Festival of Thayet City at the Tooth Replica Pagoda. Held every three years we chanced upon the last day.
A farmers market, fair and food stalls in full swing competed in the noise department with motorbikes, loud hailers, music and a lot of gawking at this mob of foreigners trailing through their midst.
These ladies are selling lengths of thanaka wood and wearing on their faces the paste that results from grinding the bark on a stone plate with a splash of water. Applied to the face of men, women and children it serves as a mosquito repellent, sun block, blemish banisher and all round beauty product.
Australian customs would blanch at the sight of luggage bearing logs of wood so thankfully it is also sold as a paste in small pots or powder form. We had a demonstration on board this evening of grinding and using thanaka and sat sipping the evening cocktail with thanaka striped cheeks.