Brrr! It's Cold Outside

On my early morning walk, at 7.30ish, to the local street market for our daily shop of fruit and vegetables, it is a bit goosebumpy chilly. The locals are finding it even more so at around 16-18 degrees. 



Scrambling to buy jumpers and jackets

Hats too

Shop set up on a pedestrian overpass

Hot drinks at pavement teahouse

Novice monks wrapped up

Man selling loose tea

 

They've even cloaked up these Buddha images on a pagoda

Dressmaking

Bogyoke Aung San Market (named after Aung San Suu Kyi's father) is 5mins walk down the street from the apartment. It is paradise for fabrics (and also for precious gems, pearls and jade).

Ma Nai introduced me to Wa Wa Win Tailors who she's been going to with her mother since she was a young girl. I thought I'd take a couple of tops to copy. If it was a disaster then it was not going to be a great financial loss.  



 

Once the ladies at Wa Wa Win told me how much fabric I needed, then came the difficult task of choosing fabric from the endless small shops, some no bigger than a large cupboard. There is fabric for every occasion. Endless colours, patterns, silks, cottons, traditional and modern designs. 





My fabric man. You can just see his wife inside the shop where there is just enough room for her to sit. The fabric here is folded and stacked behind her and on the outside. 



An old overlocker

Cutting fabric

Tailors everywhere

My ladies at Wa Wa Win. All garments made on a treadle machine with hand sewing.

The end result was two copied tops at $3 a yard and for making $13, all added up to less than $25. Now to test run and send them through their first wash cycle.

Should I add a handbag or pair of locally made felt jandals? Any colour will lots of bling.

Adding pearls to a bodice

Or diamantes?

Now to accessorize

Diamonds?

And more pearls?

Pearls?

More pearls?

Emeralds, sapphires and rubies?

Rubies?

Jade?

Gold?



For uncut stones I could deal with one of the gem traders?

Puppets

I had the fortunate experience of having a special puppetry performance just for me. No one else had brought tickets for the show which is held in an intimate theatre that only seats 15.

Puppet entertainment in Myanmar has been around for hundreds of years. They were used as a way of educating people in literature, history, religion and promoted lifestyles and customs. They were also used as a means of making people aware of current events. In the days of royalty it was a way for the people to have their say or opinion of state affairs.

Before each item there was an English explanation of each story. Very helpful.

Each puppet has no less than 11 strings. Some were attached to eyebrows, mouths or each cheek of their bottom. That really brought out the individuality of the characters.

 

The puppet characters included common people, royalty, animals, mythical creatures and religious characters.
















With each item a black curtain hid the puppeteers, but before the end it was raised so I could see how they operated the puppets. The strings were attached to two wooden cross bars, with each of those bars having numerous strings, which were then twisted around each of their fingers.

As the puppets moved around each other, in the air, and upside down the talented puppeteers never got in a tangle. 



 

This is a family puppet troupe keeping this art alive. They recently received an award in Hanoi at an international gathering of puppet troupes from around the world.

 



And, at the end I got to have a lesson. Very tricky.