by the grace of God: Thailand November festival Sydney 2012 - Loy krathong (ลอยกระทง) Part 4

Here are some of the showcases of Thai products

I was surprised to see how similar the showcased Thai products to Indonesian and balinese products. Apart from batik, Thailand also have shadow puppet, which is called 'wayang' in Indonesian.

Phrae Wa silk weaving (North East Thailand)

Phrae Wa silk is used for wrapping women's shoulder, waist and around the head. The traditional background colour is normally red and weaved in various ornamentation with 4 silk threads and 1 basic colour. (from Phrae Wa broschure)

Phi ta Khon Mask (North East Thailand)

One of Thai Batik pattern (Southern Thailand)

(Central Thailand)

Miniature size of Thailand's traditional hawkers - extremely similar to Indonesian

Northern thailand is my no 1 favourite stall. The vibrant color win.

Northern Thailand

Shadow puppet and Silverware making (Southern Thailand)

Tourism Authority of Thailand - where you get information on Thailand and a free cute small tote bag

Central Thailand stall

Krathong stall

Now, the traditional clothings modeled. I think different part of Thailand has different styles. They are beautiful.

I love the white silky wrap and the pattern - too bad the photo can't captured its prettiness

The head piece reminds me of Bali, but then again what do I know about Bali

The highlight though, according to me was the lolipop man. I think he is the coolest person in the festival. He doesn't speak English, so there was a staff standing besides him to translate. What does lolipop man do? Making lolipop of course! It's called Nam tam Pan (sugar moulding). According to the staff, the edible sculpture making practice has unfortunately stopped over 30 years ago. I lost the information i recorded about this practice so that's all I know. It's sad to see a traditional candy making no longer practiced, therefore the lolipop man should be made a national treasure.

Festival goers can choose what shape they want and keep the lolipop for free (everyone asked for animal shapes) and the lolipop man will gladly oblige to make you smile, he was so patient as the sugar was heated on a rectangular wok and it is hot to touch it and he made the lolipop using his bare hands. The sugar also became very hard and he has to stir it from time to time to stop it from becoming hard.

I just hope they pay this man good money for his hard work.