The Taiping Dobi Line

There is this area near the Taiping Lake Gardens where the old-fashioned laundry service is still available and it is more commonly known as the dobi line.  There is a flat and the laundry shops are all located on the ground floor.

There is an open space in front of the flat and this is where the washed laundry is being dried in the sun.

What is interesting about this service is the way they hang the items out to dry.  Ropes are used for this and the pieces of clothes or cloth are gripped by two pieces of twisted ropes.  No pegs are used at all.  

The laundry shops lined up the ground floor and there is a good mixture of Indian and Chinese doing this business.  They still do it the way their fathers and grandfathers did it, many decades ago. 

Once the cloth and clothes are ready, the ropes are raised above the ground by supporting poles.

Here we can see an old man pushing a cart full of wet laundry and getting them on the ropes to be dried.

Morning is a time when we can see them coming out to dry the laundry, most of which are washed by hand.

Most of the items come from restaurants and small hotels around the town, but they still get a lot of business from loyal individual clients too.

Then as evening approaches, it is time to collect the dried items back before night fall.   Usually on a hot day like this and with the wind constantly blowing across the open space, the laundry will be dried in the afternoon.. 

 
At present, this place is facing competition from modern laundry shops in town which use washing machines to do the job.  The main problem, however, is not one of changing the mode of operation, but one of the lack of man-power.  The younger generation no longer wants to continue doing this kind of thing, even though they are never short of clients.  Only time can tell if this particular institution of our society will remain or will it disappear in a few generations' time.   Washing machines are certainly not as pretty looking as the scenery we have here and now.