Well I managed to introduce my friend some sort of food related illness. Don’t have a clue where he picked up the bug, but it came on fast and kicked him hard. Had to make a quick run to a hospital in Bangkok for medication before getting on the train. Within 24 hours he is feeling better. Feeling even better today. Tomorrow will be another no riding day as we travel to Mai Sai for the beginning of the trip south. We plan to meet James Bolf in Mai Sai who will ride up 38 miles to take some photos with us and then back down to Chiang Rai.
Bumbled around Chiang Mai today. Dropped into a local restaurant famous for Khao Soi. It was very good. Went to a couple of places to look at leather good for sale. All types of leather from snake skin, alligator and crocodile, stingray to ostrich. Didn’t buy a thing as I already own more clothing than I can put into my closets. Did get over to where they weave and sell silk. Had an interesting display of the whole process of raising silk worms, how they are feed, how they are harvested, the silk unwound from the cocoon, dyed and then spun onto bobbins for the weaving process. I am always extremely interested in watching silk cloth being woven by hand. This 30 second clip shows a lady working on a loom. I asked her how long it took to weave one meter of silk. On a simple pattern she can finish 1 meter or 3.28 feet in two hours. The pattern she is weaving has six major colors strung on the loom and she is using 3 other colors on the shuttle cock spindles which she changes from one to another to achieve the desired pattern. She uses a simple paper gauge to determine how long each color patter is before changing out spindle colors. Unless both the silk on the loom and the shuttle cock spindles are the same color the final product turns out a blend of colors. New spindles are added by tying the end of the last thread to the new thread with a sort of slip knot that can be pulled until it slides inside of the weave to show little or no knot in the fabric. Any excess ends sticking out of the fabric are cut off close to the fabric so there is a minimum of high spots in the finished fabric. Modern polyesters can be dyed and woven to look like silk so well that an untrained eye might not spot a non silk product, so buyer beware if the fabric is too cheap.
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