The Chiang Mai Umbrella Factory

[bowie]

A bit more of the tourist game plays in the wonderful Province of Chiang Mai – The Umbrella Factory

Now, anybody who’s ever been a tourist in wonderful Chiang Mai has, of course, been to the Umbrella Factory. Every Tuk Tuk, Songtaew and taxi driver gets the touts mark delivery fee.

Now, that being set aside, today’s setup is quite pleasant. Far better than my first visit decades ago – then it was basically setup in the backyard of someone’s shack. You just looked at the folks making umbrella’s (if they were working). Today, it is a production line tour from start to finish, make the sa paper, cut the wood for the frames, assemble the frames, install the paper, dry, paint, lacquer, dry, package, sell.

Nice setup, informative, and the three tour buses and 7-8 commuter vans customers weren’t all that bored. At the end you get to the “gift shop”, yes, sells umbrella’s and just about every other tourist dedicated knick-knack you see for sale in any and all tourist venues in LoS. And, yup, the hard sell sales folk in full force, guiding you, sticking product baskets in you hand, Hell, they’ll even fill the baskets for you – yes, these girls are as good as anytime share salesman in the US.

But, caveat emptor applies just about everywhere. The umbrella production line tour is nice. The gift shop – not so much.


Entrance Sign


Sa paper


Wood Cutting


Frame Assemby


Paper Application


Trim


Drying


Painting


Painting Cell Phone Cases - side business for the artists


Artists


Big Stuff



Gift Shop

[Luigi]

I'm getting a sense of 'form over function' with quite a few of those.


If yer still around CM on Monday giz a shout.

[thaiguzzi]

Nice thread/post, thanx.
Never been and its not on my bucket list, so prolly never will, but thanx again, nice pics.

[cyrille]

Parasols rather than actually umbrellas of course.

Is it the long-necked tribe tomorrow?

[bowie]

Is it the long-necked tribe tomorrow?

Haven't a clue. Up to the extended family. Always works for me - as long as they keep me well fed. Glad they got off the Wat and Temple kick. We are up here primarily for business.

But, for myself, well, everyday's just another lazy adventure in paradise.