Tanaka

They took my sunscreen at the Bangkok airport because it was too big (don't worry, mom, not the one I bought in America. One I had bought in Bangkok.). This was unfortunate because Huyen's little bottle of sunscreen ran out after a few days and in case I haven't made this clear, Myanmar is HOT. We went to every pharmacy in Bagan and nobody had sunscreen. It was okay though, we decided to become locals and put on tanaka.

One thing you notice right away in Myanmar is that 99% of the women and probably 60% of the men wear mud-like cream on their face. We were told that it is called "tanaka" and that it: a) works as sunscreen b) makes your skin lighter c) cools your body d) makes you look younger. To the people of Myanmar it is the all-in-one cream.

Huyen and I decided to give the cream a shot. Huyen put it all over her face and looked like the Wicked Witch of The West.

I put on the cream and just looked idiotic. Luckily I sweated off the cream in a couple of hours.


Unluckily by sweating it off I got FRIED:

Perhaps the cream does work.