Adventures in the Cloth Market of Hoi An

As briefly alluded to in my last post, the entire purpose of my current sojourn to Vietnam is single fold: to obtain a custom wardrobe for my future travels through hot and tropical areas. Specifically, I wanted items that would fit several criteria:

• Able to stand up to constant sweat
• Somewhat modest (i.e. knee length or longer, shoulders covered, no cleavage)
• Still cute and stylish
• Blue, green, blue-green, teal, or black/grey/white 

The first requirement is fairly straightforward, I would think. Being of almost exclusively northern European ancestry, and growing up in Seattle, my body is not designed for 90 degree nights and 100% humidity. I start melting pretty much straight away. I am looking for things that won't just immediately become a giant sweat stain, or start to smell immediately. 

The second requirement, particularly in combination with the third, is what really sent me looking for some custom-built pieces. I can buy things to wear in extreme heat in the US, but it generally involves spaghetti straps, plunging necklines, short hemlines or slits up to there, etc. I'm finding that most of the countries and areas I go to with tropical weather have more conservative cultures. Sure, they've gotten used to tourists prancing around in bikinis, but it's still appropriate (and yields fewer creepy guys) to be a little more covered up. Different areas have different norms surrounding precisely what parts of the body should be covered, but generally speaking I was aiming for items that would reliably cover my shoulders, thighs, and chest. But still look cute and fashionable and be something I am excited to wear - over and over and over again. 

The final requirement - the color scheme - is one I strictly stick to in order to stick to a single carry-on bag rather than checking luggage. Every single item, from my shoes to my head, needs to be able to coordinate with every other item. Basically, anything on the spectrum from blue to green, or white, black, or grey. Jewelry is also strictly silver. 

In anticipation of this, I literally only packed three items of proper clothing as I set off to the other side of the world for two months: a pair of capris (grey) and two shirts (sage green t-shirt, emerald green t-shirt/blouse). Plus my sun shirt, which I consider more of an accessory than actual clothing item. It goes over whatever I am wearing. 

My first full day in Vietnam, I waited until the worst of the UV was over (so, down to 8 instead of 11, basically) and started to wander in the general direction of the cloth market, which I understood to be the place to get my clothing made. I figured I would get the lay of the land, maybe poke around and see what fabrics I liked, find the store I had seen recommended on a blog, etc. 

Instead, I got about half a block away from my hotel and was immediately outclassed by the sales ladies. My GOD those women are a force of nature. I managed to walk away from the first one (Flower), but found myself swept down a winding maze of tailors shops by the next one and ended up a custom shoe stall. I wasn't even intending to get shoes! I now have two pairs of custom walking sandals. While I'm sitting there, having bottle after bottle of cold water pressed into my hands by about five different people, Flower, the lady who first found me outside comes by, spots me, and waits until I'm done with the shoe lady to snatch me up and whisk me away to her tailor shop. I'm plunked down, immediately given another bottle of water, and given book after book of designs. Now, I did intend to buy clothes, so I settled into this one a lot easier, and told them about what I was looking for, and we ended up selecting a few designs and making modifications so that they would fit my requirements and be something I was excited to wear. They took me around to different stacks of cloth to choose my fabric for each item, took exhaustive measurements, and that should have been the day.

Except another lady, Ahn, came and grabbed me as soon as the tailors turned me loose, and dragged me off to her souvenir shop. I did a better job of turning down what I truly didn't want, but still ended up with a few more trinkets and knick-knacks than I intended. I'm probably going to leave some of it behind in my hotel room. And as I'm trying to make my escape from Ahn, she grabs my hands and decides I should get a manicure. And... dang it, I do want a manicure. Which somehow escalates into my being pushed into a chair in an empty luggage stall with yet another lady threading my eyebrows. She did an excellent job, but the brief terror as I felt her zipping around my eyebrows without so much as a by-your-leave was startling. Then she reached down, rubbed my legs, decided they were "too hairy" (this barely a week after having them waxed, mind you), and proceeded to thread my legs for the next half hour, while her daughter in law pulled up on a scooter with her manicure kit and started doing my nails. 

I finally made my escape after promising to get a pedicure when I came back for my fittings the next day. And I did indeed get my pedicure - the lady sat me down in a chair, and then whipped out an honest-to-god straight razor are spent an hour shaving off every last callus. She did a great job, my feet are still nice a smooth over a week later, but it was intense, to say the least. 

And I got my clothes! These are the two I am wearing the most often thus far:

We added small cap sleeves to cover the shoulder, and a higher neckline. This is me after two hours of walking in 110+ weather and sky high humidity, and it still looks fresh and lovely!

A light floaty fabric that is a dream in this kind of humidity. Higher neckline, and nice sun-blocking long sleeves 

I also ended up with a maxi dress (blue and white stripes), and a pair of green capris, that in particular go perfectly with one of the shirts I brought. And another dress that has no business being in my bag on a trip through weather like this, it was just a really fun design and I found the perfect teal fabric and went nuts and got it. 

I'm going to kind of end this post here with a thud, because I've gone on to have a few more Vietnam adventures and now I'm in Bali, and I don't want to get too behind! I really do want to properly keep up this blog again. See you in the next one!

An Evening in Dublin

 First, an exciting announcement: I appear to be FINALLY over my jet lag. *knock on wood* This means I can actually spend the middle of the day out enjoying where I am, instead of sleeping until I start work in the afternoon, then hanging out awake all through the wee hours of the morning with nothing to do but play around on my computer, and I didn't need to cross continents to do that!

I left Dublin by train this morning, and as referenced above and in my last post, between the sleep schedule and the work schedule I didn't get out and about to see much. But last night I was determined to venture out into the city before I left, so I booked an evening walking tour through the AirBnB "Experiences." 

It. Was. Spectacular. 

Daniel O'Connell, The Liberator

It was chock full of the history and culture of Ireland in general and Dublin in particular, ancient and modern. We started at The Spire on O'Connell Street, and learned all about it's namesake (that's him at the top of the statue there), wandered down the River Liffey and into the Temple Bar district, which included a surprising amount of rock n' roll history.

This is one of my favorite travel photos I've ever taken

A nice small group of friendly people on the tour with me!

I learned the background of the phrase "beyond the pale," and why milkmaids are traditionally understood to be gorgeous (it has to do with nutrition and immunization, of all things). I learned that Van Morrison is Irish, and still alive. And I learned that apparently there is an Irish superstition that Christmas decorations not taken down by January 8th must then be left up all year. Last year because of the lockdowns, the Temple Bar couldn't get enough workers to take down the giant Christmas tree you see pictured above, and so it's actually been there all year long. The whole city is starting to get done up for Christmas now, so it wasn't out of place to us, but apparently Jack the tour guide has had to explain it to people all year long!

It was such a fun night - I just wish I'd managed it a bit earlier in the trip so I could go back to a few places. After the tour, two members of our party had to split right away to make a dinner reservation, but the tour guide and the French girl Stephanie and I all hung around at a pub for well over an hour, talking Celtic culture and language and the French's obsession with food and all manner of things, and when we finally called it a night Jack was nice enough to escort me back to my neighborhood, even paying for my bus fare. 

It was an absolutely excellent evening, and I'm so very glad I got myself out to do it. 

Paris Revisited: Day One- Arrival and Antiques

The long flight wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. First of all, it turns out that AirFrance has an absolutely superb in-flight entertainment line-up. I was actually sad that I would need to sleep on the flight. Even watching movies non-stop for both the flight here and back would leave me sad that I had missed a few. But in the end, I just watched about an hour of Harry Potter, got half the plane in an uproar when I dropped my iPod and couldn't find it, and generally amused the same half of the plane with my antics trying to crawl over my sleeping seat partner (did it successfully both times, by the way). I'm pretty sure the entire coach section thought I was Lucy Ricardo brought back to life. But I found the iPod, and my seat partner was nicely rested when he got to Paris. Apparently, he is coming home for the first time since a year's deployment in Afghanistan (American soldier). I tried to stalk him when we got off the plane, to see the family reunion, but he had luggage checked, and I didn't. So I let him have his privacy and made my way into Paris.

A little worried about the state of my hair and make-up at this point, because when I first got on the plane, the flight crew spoke to me in French. As I exited, they spoke to me in English. I think I looked distinctly less polished. 

I actually got to Laura's place with minimal mishaps- a benefit to having lived in the city before, I would imagine. Problem was, when I got to her place at 10am, I realized I wasn't positive which one exactly was hers. I remembered the right range of numbers, but not the precise one. I settled on it being one of two numbers (it turned out I chose the wrong one), and awkwardly waited on the street for about 20 minutes. Obviously, this didn't work. Luckily, I had exited the Metro station right in front of a Starbucks, so I went back, bought a random green tea, and used their wi-fi to make contact with Laura. It all worked out, and I was able to drop off my stuff, meet The Puppy, and go grocery shopping (read: bread, goat cheese, crumpets, Nutella, peanut butter. Quite literally what I subsisted on for my entire semester here).

Nootka and her mommy, after I woke them up to let me in the apartment

The main adventure of the day was finally going to a Parisian flea market. I meant to the entire time I was here last year, and just never did. When we first got there, I could see exactly why I had never bothered:

Just a bunch of aggressive salesmen and plastic merchandise. Fortunately, Laura persevered, and we found the awesome flea-markety section, full of antiques and books and buttons and truly vintage clothing:

There were also some fun winding alleys full of antiques, but I forgot to get pictures. Sorry.

When we got back in, I was pretty well bushed, working as I was on about three hours of fitful plane sleep, and only about four hours of fitful can't-miss-the-plane sleep the night before that. So I canceled my plans to go see the Eiffel Tower, and we stayed in for the night, with pizza, the puppy, and an episode of X-Files. And then I got to stretch out on an actual bed (futon, rather, but when compared to an airplane seat...) and sleep for 12 hours. Bliss.

A Geological Marvel: Iceland, Part I

Leaving Paris was hard, harder than I thought it was going to be. But more on that later. For now, let's talk Iceland!

I arrived mid-afternoon yesterday (Saturday), and by the time I reached my hotel I already had two new travel buddies- Helen and Melonie. Helen is Canadian, and I met her at Charles de Gaulle, where we discovered that we had the exact same itinerary. Exact. As in, flying both in and out of Iceland on the same flights. Helen then met Melonie on the bus from the airport into Reykjavik. Melonie is a med student in Munich, here on holiday.

The craziness that I lugged all around Paris and Reykjavic. Heavy and awkward, but impressively small, considering that I lived out of the contents for 5 months.

First things first, we met up for dinner at a famous Hamburger Factory. This is where Gorbachev and Reagan ate after negotiating the end of the Cold War, apparently:

The hamburger place keeps a running tally of how many Icelanders there are. It was only 319,321 when we got there. How exciting! Though it does raise the awkward question of what they do when an Icelander dies....

You can see the picture of Reagan and co.

I tried a cheesecake made out of an Icelandic specialty, skyr, a sort of yogurt-cheese thing. It was actually quite good! While at dinner, we made plans to take a Golden Circle tour the next day (today). It would take us around to geysers and various other geothermal and geological treats.

It required getting up far too early this morning (compounded by the fact that I forgot to adjust my alarm to the new time zone, so it went off at 5:30 Islandic time instead of 7:30), but we were off!

Geothermal electricity generators, capturing the steam that rises from under the surface

Lava field! Now covered in some sort of moss/peat/lichen type vegetation.

Our first stop was in a little town famed for its greenhouses about 30 minutes out of Reykjavik. It's over an area with a particularly significant amount of underground heating, I gather, and so residents started to put up greenhouses to see what they could grow, and it just sort of expanded and now the University of Horticulture is there, and it's a whole big thing. 

Large puffin in the tourist greenhouse 

The next major stop was the Gullfoss Waterfall. Gorgeous....

We then made our way over to the Geyser area. As it turns out, "geysir" is actually the Icelandic name for one particular steaming/erupting hot spring, which became so popular and well known that now almost every single other language uses the name to describe the phenomenon. Geyser no longer erupts without urging (apparently you can coax an eruption from a geyser by pouring soap in it. Not recommended for home experimentation!) unless an earthquake has happened quite recently, but it's neighbor Strokkur goes off every 6-8 minutes, with a really intriguing sort of dome thing in the first few seconds. 

Continuing on our way...

Completely random statue at the Geyser place

It had to be done

I didn't quite get the dome in a picture, but here is Strokkur starting...

...going for it...

....drifting away in a cloud of steam....

...and water rushing back in to fill the crater.

 The final stop of the day was a two-for-one: the original meeting place of the Icelandic parliament (the longest-running parliament in the world, it was started as a general meeting of all Icelanders once a year in the 900s, and was held outdoors, in this spot, until the 1700s, when it was moved to Reykjavik), and the best place to see the effects of the Mid-Atlantic Rift.

Fissure that is part of the Mid-Atlantic Rift and the drifting apart of the tectonic plates. 

Lake that is in large part a result of the sinking of the land over the Mid-Atlantic Rift

 If you accept the extremely simplified version of the geology, I am standing in the Mid-Atlantic Rift here, between the Eurasian and American plates. 

Sadly, Melonie is leaving in the morning, but Helen and I booked our tickets for the famous Blue Lagoon for tomorrow afternoon, and will spend the rest of the day journeying about Reykjavik. I've heard great things about both!

Talk to you soon!

Glasgow

In the midst of my larking about Edinburgh, Clarissa and I took a day trip over to Glasgow, Scotland's largest city. Glasgow strikes me as very UK-esque, at least my generation UK-esque. Very hip alongside being very aware of its history, kind of edgy and gritty but simultaneously posh and country. Clearly, this city has personality!

We followed a walk in Clarissa's Rick Steves guide for the UK that wound us through the greatest hits of downtown Glasgow, including what was either Prince's Square or George's Square (maybe we went to both?) and the museum of modern art (some of which was interactive!).

Product Placement

Some random wanderings led us to a fabulous view of the rest of Glasgow...

Particularly from atop this neat graffitied hill thing.

For lunch, we found an extremely amusing restaurant that seemed to want to be everything stereotypically American and, more specifically, American university. Check out some of the decor: 

I am sadly without picture of some of the wildlife we saw passing through the windows, but there was a constant stream of college-age to twenty-something guys in really bad drag. Wigs askew, bright red bras on the outside of the shirt, unshaven, you name it. Lots of tiaras and beauty queen sashes as well. They kept coming in packs. We never did figure out what was going on, but it does give one something to ponder....

Thus concluded our time in Glasgow, and we packed it back to Edinburgh, where I moved over to Clarissa's floor. Up next: our Edinburgh wrap-up, and then onto Greece! Expect updates in fairly rapid fashion, as I was able to upload all of the photos today, even if I haven't written all of the annotations yet. 

Scottish Highlands: Inverness, Part I

Inverness is the fastest-growing city/town/etc. in Scotland, a few hours north of Edinburgh by bus. It's the major city attached to Loch Ness. Clarissa and I both fell hard and fast. It is adorable!

We arrived in the early afternoon of Friday, and checked into The World's Cutest Hostel- the Bazpackers Hostel, for anyone interested in doing Inverness/Loch Ness on a budget. We wandered around the town for a little bit, discovering this oddity:

Like a TJMaxx, but with a pound-sign attached to the same price numbers instead of a dollar sign, thus making it actually much less of a bargain

...then continuing on to the river that runs through town. Sadly, this was before we commenced the Grand Bubble Tour, so I just have some normal pictures for you:

There is a castle on Loch Ness, Urquhart (Urk-heart) Castle. Our bus passes got us to the Castle without having to pay a special fare, which would turn out to be exceptionally handy...

We arrived at the Castle at about 4:30pm. It turns out that the Castle is only open until 5, and the last entry is 45 minutes prior to closing. Whoops.

This was at first quite distressing- we were planning on leaving relatively early the next morning to allow for the maximum amount of time at our next destination, Skye, on Saturday (when the buses would still run around the island). And the Castle didn't even open until 9 the next morning! But we hopped around and took what pictures we could. And it ended up being an excellent turn of events, because it led to the advent of the Grand Bubble Tour!

We could only get pictures from behind a series of prickly bushes, but we did what we could.

The Scottish flag

An example of the prickly bushes lining the fence that kept you from gaining unpaid access to the castle

Castle! The last inhabitants blew it up rather than see it overtaken, thus it's state of... well, blown-up-ness

The Very First Bubble Shot

Do you see Loch Ness in the background??

A wedding appeared to be taking place

We started out at the castle feeling very unhappy, but by the time we left, we were So Happy. Bubbles just make the world a happier place! 

We went back the next morning before Skye, but this is already a super long post, so I'll make that a separate post. Entirely likely I will get it up in just a few hours, but if I don't, it will be about a day, because we are heading to Glasgow tomorrow for the day.