When a friend of mine
visited Yangon recently, he was repeatedly saying to me "please don’t take my eyes out with that thing." Of course, he was
referring to my umbrella. And on reflection, it seems a mystery that more
people don’t have visible facial injuries here, as everyday people are faced
with the dilemma of what to do with their umbrella when another is coming at
them in the opposite direction. Do you put it down or raise it higher? Do you
move it to one side? Or do you just do nothing, forcing the other pedestrian to duck, this being their only means of escaping substantial injury? To avoid this problem, people could just slap on some
factor 50, walk in the shade and leave the umbrella at home. But we all know
that this is not going to become a popular thing to do, especially not when the
umbrella business here is so huge. Let me explain!
In the western world,
we associate the use of umbrellas with one thing and one thing only. R A I
N! But usually when you get rain, you also get wind which means your umbrella
will turn itself inside out and blow away, leaving you looking like an idiot
(and also leaving you soaked to the bones). So not very practical in the
grand scheme of things. You can usually get away with a bit of light drizzle
though!
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| Drizzly 38th Street |
But here in Yangon the
umbrella has many more purposes. Its first and most common use (at this lovely time of year at least) is to provide
shade from the sun. Anyone with a brain carries an
umbrella. It’s hot here.
Some have better
umbrellas than others. Some go for the compact version whilst
others go for the gigantic family-sized ones that can fit 10 bodies under and
are, let’s be honest, fairly unnecessary.
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| Hot and Sweaty. |
For others, umbrellas
provide a certain sense of privacy when you are in one of the busiest public
places in the city. This is where it could be acceptable to have the gigantic
family-sized one but it’s rarely a sight that’s seen.
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| What are they doing under there? |
Another important use
is as a temporary market stall. The umbrella acts as the seller’s ‘shop’ and
also offers protection from the elements. You can recognize your local hat
seller by the colour of his brolly.
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| Checked umbrella = Wallet Shop. Red and blue = Specsavers |
With all the daily
wear and tear, you’d think that people would be out buying new
umbrellas like
they were growing on trees. Not so. If your
umbrella has a hole or rip in it,
or if one of the metal bits isn’t working; Or even if you want a new colour to
go with your new handbag or lipstick, you can just go here and any of these
guys will fix, replace or clean up any part of your
umbrella!!
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| Who'd have thought there were so many parts to an umbrella? These guys know how to fix and replace all of them! |
You could have a
different one for every day of the week as they only charge 1800 Kyats to get
the material replaced. And look at all the choices!!!
 |
Polka dot or flowery? Why not get both?
|
This one could easily have been restored to its former glory. Now I wish I'd picked it up.
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| It would take those guys 10 minutes to fix this one. |
Of course, there are
also the oh-so-beautiful paper
parasols that the religious types carry. I heard
that some are in fact waterproof but I wouldn’t risk it. They are great for the
cool season and you might think you look really fashionable carrying one of them but actually, unless you're a nun, you should only use one if you want people to think you are a lunatic.
Personally I prefer to use them for decoration.
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| See.... They look good on the wall. |
So remember, use your
brolly sensibly. Avoid contact with other umbrellas and especially with other umbrella
carriers’ faces. And never ever buy a new one (unless you leave yours at the supermarket), just get every part of it replaced until it’s brand
new again. Just like Trigger’s broom. And if you leave it at home one day, just
put some tanaka (sic) on and walk in the shade. It has the same effect and you’ll
feel much cooler.
One last picture for you though. Just so the kids don't feel left out.
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| The inflatable umbrella: Wow! |
