Faces Behind the Umbrellas of Borsang

A Colorful Day but NO Parade

Borsang a small town or village east of Chiang Mai is know for the making of colorful hand made paper umbrellas.  I have no idea how long they have been making them but it is the reasons tourists go out there to see.  I say see because as long as I have been coming here, six year now, I have yet to see any one purchase or carry  around an umbrella to avoid the sun.

This last weekend January 20 to 22 was the big weekend celebration that I was invited by my friend UK Mike, to attend the Friday opening day with a parade of floats and pretty young Thai women.  I went and these pictures are proof of the bright colors that abound every where.  

I am more please with the pictures of the interesting faces of the senior Thai citizens who are carrying on the tradition of making the umbrellas.

Bottom line no parade while we were there.  More about that later.

These two pictures are of Pim, a wonderful woman who is Thaiyai from the Shan State, a party of Myanmar/Burma who happens to be UK Mike's girlfriend at the moment.  She is lovely and very kind and fun to be around.  She seems to be learning English a lot faster that I am learning Thai.

                                                                                  

And here is their formal umbrella photo.  UK Mike is one of the people that I will be going to Myanmar/Burma this coming Thursday the 26th of January, for two weeks.  Pim will not as she works two jobs here in Chiang Mai.Take note of the amazing flower circle around them.  Reminiscent of the flowers at the Royal Floral Expo of a previous blog.

Here is a woman applying glue to the bamboo struts of a small umbrella.  The colored paper that she will apply are on the bench next to her.  Yes, the umbrellas are made of various sizes but even still, I haven't see anyone buying one.

There are ongoing performances all afternoon and I just happened to catch these young ladies doing a traditional folk dance. This is the first time I have seen a group this young doing the dances.  The dance is very slow moving and they stay in their places and use mostly hand movements and head tilts accompanied by slow foot steps.

I tried to imagine young American girls that I know doing this kind of dancing.

The children were in full makeup and that included the eyeliner with false eyelashes. 
What do you think?

And now the wonderful faces that have really experienced life.  Can you imagine how long these people have been doing these crafts?  They are all working in an assembly line doing just one small part of the production of the product.  The man above just paints the flower shapes on the finish umbrella, before someone else paints another part of the design.

Here is a face with history.  This lady is tying a white string through the bamboo struts that will control just how far the umbrella will open.  She has been sitting cross legged doing this same part of the production all day.

This picture doesn't really tell what is happening.  The lady is holding a sharp knife in her right hand and the handle is hidden by her forearm and the blade is moving rapidly and she shaves off the bamboo to the desired thickness of the struts.  This is the first thing that has to be done and then be passed on to the next lady.

                                                                       Here(next lady) is drilling through a handful of freshly shave struts.  It is hard to imagine the movement in these pictures but the hand drill again has a long handle resting on her thigh.

This wood turner is using a foot peddled lathe to turn the center connector that all the struts will radiate out from.  It is controlled but that taunt green rope that is attached top and bottom to flexibly bamboo poles and allows him to press down and then spring back up turning the piece of wood into a round form.  To think all those years I turned wood on my lathe, all I had to do is flick a switch.

This woman is demonstrating for me how the connector with all the struts in place will operate after the center handle is in place.  With no language to rely on, it was interesting how determined she was for me to understand the operation of the work she was doing.

Sorry about this ridicules straw hat that I was badgered into buying but I am very pleased to get the lovely Pim to come and have her picture taken with me.  She is one of a kind.  I feel very fortunate in knowing her and having her as a friend.

As in all Thai events there is many options for local food being available.  I find all the food prepared on the street by food vendors to be fresh and full of flavor, and some times a bit spicy!

To be continued when I get back from Myanmar/Burma

The Royal Floral Expo 2012 Ratchaphruek, Chiang Mai, Thailand

The Royal Floral Expo 2012 is an experience not to be missed.  In some respects it is a great excuse to come over to Thailand for a visit.  Before I write more let me back up and tell about the day from the beginning.

I biked on my trusty "golden streak" (bike) the 15 K from my guest house in the old city of Chiang Mai all the way out to the huge park where this flower show is located.  I have no idea how many acres of land this show occupies but it is impossible to see all the pavilions in one day.  If you have ever been to a Worlds Fair, this is what you will be experiencing.

The bike ride was amazing as I went with and followed a biker from my guest house, Phillip (UK) that literally bikes every day somewhere around CM.  He often does not return at night.  Anyway, he knows all the back roads, so we were never on the major highway that leads out to the Festival.  The ride goes through some of suburbia, then small villages and then to farmland, even an agricultural research farm that is apart of the Chiang Mai University.  Several resorts and restaurants are also hidden away.

When we got there Phillip would not join me and come in to the Expo as he was more interested in going biking and so he left with the agreement that I would not stay longer than 2 hours.  It was moving towards a hot day at almost 11 AM and I knew I could not see it all.  We parted ways and I bought my senior ticket for 100 Bhat=$3.00.

                                     
                                                                          

There are many displays of flower pictures like this butterfly and the cartoon figure off to the right.  The are eye catching as well as space filling designs that show the many possibilities of what can be done with color in gardening.  All flower gardens don't have to be borders.  This country is amazing in the unlimited range of plants and colors of plants that seem to be in bloom at all times.  A real gardener's paradise. 

If the truth be told, I don't even like orchids.  But, I do like color and the delicacy of the plant and range of size of the blossom is reason enough to push a camera button for.  I had no intention of taking so many and I didn't even want to stay in the pavilion.  But, as you will see, I did.  Enjoy the full range of color and think back to the corsages that you had to buy or wear for an occasion in the past.  And if you don't care for this flower,  just slide on by.

 

This is the first year that I have seen this huge Ferris Wheel.  Yes, I came at this Floral Expo the first year that it was created for the King's 80th birthday and his 60 years as Royal Ruler. (I like that sound.)  That was either 4 or 5 years ago and I haven't been out here since.  All of the major plantings of trees and bushes are fully established now and there are a few new additions but as you can see it is quite lush.

I have used some restraint in the number of Ferris Wheel pictures I am showing compared to the previous splurge of the orchids.  I don't like heights and I have a history of not going up on these contraptions, particularly at the traveling Fireman Carnivals that scatter over Frederick county every summer.  However, this is a new one and I was excited that it would give me a full view of the whole Expo.  And it did.  The amazing part was that I could hardly feel it moving and it made no sound and didn't lurch forward or creak as I have experienced in the past.  There wasn't much rust either as I see on the ones at the carnivals at home. 

 

These views from the top of the Ferris Wheel are of the Wat (temple) that was created specifically for the King's 80th birthday.  Most Wats in Chiang Mai are dedicated to the Buddha and have paintings on the walls of his life and places that commemorate significant experiences.  This building is not a religious/worship/mediation place but almost a museum for the King.  All the paintings on the Wat walls are of different parts of the King's life.  The King and the whole Royal family are held in high regard and it is against the law to say or write anything that has a negative slant.  Therefore this Wat is a center place for all the Thai's to gravitate to when coming to the Expo. commemorate

I like this picture looking down into the gondola and to the ground at the bottom of the ride.  It gives a full feeling for the height that the wheel when I was at the top as opposed to looking off into the distance at the Wat.

As you can see when you look off at the hills behind the King's Wat, the country side is quite green and this is the dry season.  It might have sprinkled twice since I have been here in late November.  All of the wild plants that make up the jungle can be found growing in any vacant lot that has stood empty for any length of time.  The owners of my guest house are constantly chopping down green growth of vegetation.  For the few banana plants that are here Gang's pickup truck is filled with the large leaves every 6 weeks.

 

 

I would of liked have stayed on longer but my time was up and I wanted to see more before I had to meet Phillip.  I plan on going back and go up around sunset and get different feel and color for the park.  The ticket to ride was only 150 Bhat=$4.50, more than to get into the Expo, but it was worth every penny of it.

I was caught by this bunch of giraffes clumped together in the Kenya Pavilion.  Many of the pavilions are from the South East Asian countries as well as Africa.  Each exhibiting plants from their native countries and selling souvenirs representing their culture.

                                             My Kenyan tour guide.  Very quiet, but stately.

Here are three views of the interior of the King's Wat.  I don't know the name of the sculptural shape that is the focal point in the Wat and this is the first and only time I have seen the three tiered arrangement of the shapes.  I always see the singular yellow/gold shape in front of the King's picture around the time of his birthday all over the city.  I don't know what that means either. 

Well, thank you for hanging in and looking at my views of the Royal Flora Expo.  I am surprised at how verbose my writing has gotten, but with some of the favorable emails of my blog so far and not having to write so many emails to family and friends, I wanted to do this special event justice.

I did finish up in the two hour allotted time, made cell phone contact with Phillip and we connected to bike home through the country side.  I opted for a return trip the same way that we came out so that I might learn the way and next time go on my own without bothering him.  We did take time to stop at a rather fancy resort that was very quiet at that time of day, for a very taste pineapple and water melon smoothie. 

                                                What a great day!  No snow to shovel either.