Travel Diary - Turd lake and facial paint

In the comfort of the aircon room we got lazy.

We began our last day in Mandalay by sleeping in and reading. It wasn't until hunger hit us that we felt the need to leave the room.

An Argentinian couple had talked about a good restaurant by the river and so we began to walk there. 

On our way we walked past a lake that smelled indescribably awful. It was filled with garbage, rotten food and even poop bags. It was litterally the town's dump lake. We quickly moved on, but not without noticing that a lot of people were living and eating right beside the lake.

We kept on walking towards the restaurant by the river, but when we arrived it wasn't open. Disappointed we decided to change our course, but first we sat down in the shade so Syrena could put on some sunblock. 

Suddenly a bunch of kids walked up to us and started poking Syrena where she applied the cream. One girl pointed at the sunscreen and put her hand forward and so Syrena gave her a tiny dot of sunscreen on her hand. Soon the other small hands followed the older girl's example and they all wanted sunscreen! Syrena gave them each a small dot on their hands and then we asked them if Syrena could get some of the yellow they had on their face.

We had seen women and children wear yellow on their faces ever since we arrived in Myanmar. We had found out that it served as some kind of sunblock/facial mask that was good for your skin, but we still hadn't been able to try it out. This time we did.

The children held our hands and dragged us to their home - a small shed with one wall and a roof - and started grinding something yellow against a wet grinding stone and then put the mixture on Syrena's face.

Meanwhile Robert was showing the other children how to work the camera. They were so happy and excitedly pressed the button which resulted in a lot of blurry photos ;) 

All done!

When Syrena had been painted all over her face we said goodbye to the happy children and continued our walk and search for something to eat. All the while people were smiling (and laughing?) at us as we walked past. 

Later we heard that the yellow on the womens' faces not only worked to smoothen your skin and protect from the sun but also worked as make up - and Syrena had just been given a full face of make up by a 9 year old ;)

//Wayu & Robert