Thannaka
This is a yellow powder made from the bark of a tree and the women and children here in Burma put a yellow powder on their faces as a natural sun block. The women sometimes blot, sometimes swipe and sometimes make other patters on their cheeks and noses and sometimes forehead with it as well as they believe it also makes them more beautiful. They are right in most cases! It has grown on me and I think it looks fab..
Longyi
The men wear Longyi here, which is a type of sarong, but unlike a sarong it is made like a tube and not a single piece of fabric. The tube is wide (about 1.5 meters) and from the wait down to the ankles. You get in and then there are various ways of tying it around your waist with the knot in the front. The women wear the longyi with the knot on the side or they just wrap it around and tuck it in at the side.
Kyats
AS mentioned before 1dollar is 1200 to 1300Kyats on the black market. The governments official exchange rate is 450Kyats to the dollar, don't know what’s going on there.
But the funny thing is that the biggest note here in Myanmar is 1000Kyats, which is less than one dollar. So when you change two hundred dollars, you get three big wads of cash in a plastic bag..
Cheroot
The smoke of choice is the Cheroot with most of the locals, just as popular as any cigarette. This is a type of cigar which is made from local tobacco, which tastes fantastic wrapped up like a cigar a tree leaf (don’t know which one) The locals finish one cheroot in two - three attempts and the taste is much better on the 2nd or 3rd attempt I find!
Betel
Here's is the disgusting one.
One thing I had read about and was not surprised to see upon my arrival was the red lips of the men, their red and rotten teeth and the blood they spit out into the streets - well, what looks like blood anyway!
As an alternative to smoking, the men chew a small amount of tobacco, a small amount of betel nut and a few other ingredients wrapped up in a leaf. The whole thing is about the size of a walnut. You pop it in your mouth and chew away. The leaf and contents soon turn red and into a liquid which is spat (or squirted) out after about 5-10 minutes of chewing. It is blood red when spat out. It dyes the teeth, lips and gum red, the teeth also seem to rot and the gums bleed - not a pretty sight.
So while the women here in Myanmar usually have a perfect set of gnashers (except the women that also chew beetle!) the men usually have a ugly set that look like jagged red rocks sticking out of bloody gums.
Extend your right arm and touch the elbow of your right arm with your left hand
Whenever you take or receive something from another person, you must use your right hand. You extend your right hand and at the same time touch your right elbow with your left hand as a polite gesture. Took me a time to get used to this one, especially not to take or receive anything with the left hand, though they always ignore foreigners’ mistakes!!
English Premier League
This is sooooo popular here as with the rest of South East Asia. The people like all four teams at once - Arsenal, Chelsea Liverpool and Man Scum United. There are about 7-10 weekly newspapers all dedicated to the Premiership and the Beer Stations are full to the brim during the big matches.
Public Telephones, Drinking Water, Air Con on busses etc
There are public telephones in Myanmar, but not as we know it. Every block or so in Yangon and on the main streets in smaller towns, there is a table with an attendant sitting by it. On the table, there is anything from 1 to 5 telephones. These are normal household telephones and all the telephones are connected to the nearest telephone line or exchange.
You find out the price per minute of wherever you want to call, make the call then pay the attendant.
There is a mobile phone network here, MTPGSM (Myanmar Telephone & Post GSM) but the sim cards are so expensive that only a few businessmen carry around their mobiles and flash them about when they can.
There are clay pots containing water all around towns and cities housed in a little wooden hut nailed to a tree or built on the street. The water is straight from the river or the taps far as I am told, so I did not try it. But it's tradition to have these all over the place, with a cup resting on top of the pots. Everyone uses the same cups...
The Burmese love air con and when they have it, boy do they USE IT, AT FULL WHACK. So if you are on a bus with air con, you see people arriving and sitting down as if they are about to go on an expedition to the North Pole - wooly hats, jackets, gloves. You realise why when the air con starts, they keep it on the lowest setting and everyone tries hard to stay warm....
Burma's Flag
Map of Burma