MELODY TIENYUN

To the Market | 29/06/2015

Jia Mei and Jia Sheng are from Myanmar, so to give us a taste of their culture they took us to a market that can be found only on Fridays.

Each of us were supposed to finish TWO bowls of noodles for breakfast. It doesn’t matter how hot it is, you drink the hot soup and just sweat it out.

Cost: $40 Thai Bahts~About $1.33 USD per bowl. (I know, right?)

Apparently, this is not the all natural honey from wild bees that the locals buy. This is only for show to trick the foreigners 😉

Burmese steamed glutinous black / sweet potato sticky rice dessert

THANAKA: Powder made from ground bark worn (more commonly) by women. Apart from cosmetic beauty, it also gives a cooling sensation and provides protection from sunburn.

Other than physical attributes that separate Burmese from native Thai, the thanaka quickly distinguishes you. My host, Jia Mei said she faced discrimination when she first arrived as a teenager, and so she quickly stopped applying it on her face and body. However, when she did that, she said she would get acne and rashes over her skin!

See my photo gallery here