The boy's face had a Mickey Mouse-like pattern painted on it in Thanaka

Boy painted Thanaka on face — Shot at the night market in Yangon, Myanmar

There were many stalls along the Strand Road along the Yangon River, forming a night market. This night market had not existed when I visited 8 years ago. It seems that all the stalls in the city were gathered here due to the reorganization of the city of Yangon. The city authorities seem to think that the clutter of food stalls is unnecessary for the newly developed modern city. That's probably why they moved the stalls to this location on the edge of downtown. The vibrancy of the common people is the charm of the city, and the idea of attracting tourists, even from abroad, must have been unthinkable.

I was walking through the night market, looking at the stalls that lined up. Then I met eyes with a boy playing beside a woman selling quail eggs in a basket on a table. The boy's face was painted with a generous amount of Thanaka. It was as if he had drawn some kind of pattern on it. There was a circle painted in the center of his forehead with what looked like ears attached to the circle. It looked like Mickey Mouse's silhouette was drawn on it.

By the way, the colonial Strand Hotel along the Strand Road was built by Iranian-born Armenian Sarkies Brothers, like Raffles Hotel in Singapore and Eastern & Oriental Hotel in Penang.

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