Sunday, October 5, 2014

Sew What?



During my last visit to Bangkok I discovered a rip in my shorts, thankfully before it became too embarrassing. I decided that rather than pull out my needle and thread and risk excessive blood loss, I would seek expert help. I didn't have to walk far: sidewalk seamstresses and seamsters are a common sight in the city, perched behind sewing machines and often working on a bagful of alterations while ready to take on quick-turnaround work.

The process, as illustrated below, was simple: walk to nearest or preferred tailor (there were at least 3 within 300 or so meters of my guesthouse on Phra-a-thit road in the area near Khao San road), hand over shorts, entertain artisan's children (or grandchildren) with a lively game of "push the skateboard," take some portraits of the kids, leave 5 minutes later after paying a dollar or two for a repair durable enough to withstand my daily regimen of walking, crouching to take photos, and eating way too much.

It might not have been a grand adventure, but the experience illustrated that one of the best things about Thailand is that even the most mundane of tasks can turn out to be unexpectedly entertaining.

After selecting matching thread, she was ready to get to work.

Luckily, he didn't ask me to ride it!

Giving a farewell "wai."

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Gotta Gettaway by Josh Lewis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.