Full circle

[Charlie]

Ten years ago I went, with my wife, on a cruise around the Mediterranean Sea. The ship was the Island Escape'. During that cruise two things happened which have influenced my life for the better:
(1) I got my legs badly sunburned from mid-thigh down (I was wearing shorts and hadn't then discovered the delights of a skirt) and
(2) I bought a sarong for my daughter. In the cabin I felt very naughty and tried it on ... the rest is history and my daughter never did receive that sarong

It was shortly after this that I discovered Tom's Cafe and with the support of you guys haven't looked back.

Last week I retired from paid trouser-wearing (I can wear what I like now ) and to celebrate we took our second cruise on the same ship. A lot has happened in ten years and I wore sarongs exclusively from the time we left home to drive to the airport until we arrived home at the end of the holiday. I took a pair of trousers just in case, but they didn't get unpacked.

The Island Escape is a very laid back ship which doesn't insist on formal dress - I wouldn't go if it did. Many of the crew are from Indonesia and gave the sarongs a very good reception. They were even more positive when I told them some of my sarongs came from their country.

A couple of my fellow passengers also enquired about the sarongs; they wanted to know if I wore them for religious reasons (no, unless you count worshipping at the temple of trouser-free comfort). I just told them it was to be cool and comfortable - and my legs didn't get sunburnt

It was a really good holiday and I'd thoroughly recommend the Island Escape with its lack of dress code stuffiness.

Charlie

[skirtyscot]

An entire holiday skirted - that would be nice.

Not having to work any more - that would be very nice. (Damn! I have just remembered I forgot to buy a lottery ticket. I am sure I would have picked the right numbers and won £80,000,000!) Enjoy your retirement, Charlie.

[couyalair]

Good story, Charlie.
I do like " I bought a sarong for my daughter. In the cabin I felt very naughty and tried it on ..."
That important first step.

Martin (also retired and able to dress as I think fit -- including short sarongs, since my legs don't burn!)

[the_scott_meister]

That sounds like great fun. I can only image what the Mediterranean would be like, or a boat for that matter (living in the desert we don't see many of them, and have even fewer uses for them, except by the occasional monsoon-caused flash flood). Glad you had a great trip. I hope that my wife and I can enjoy a trip like that sometime. If we do I'll be sure to do it skirted of some sort.

I recently spent an entire holiday skirted, but it was just to camping in the woods with my family. But it was everything from the first morning while finishing packing, to the store for last second provisions, through the woods to hiking to the lake, and back again (earlier than planned due to having been rained out), to dinner at a restaurant, plus the rest of the weekend cleaning up, all while skirted.

Where do you get a sarong? I don't travel so Indonesia is out of the question. But my company has many offices in the Asia Pacific, so maybe I can have one of my colleagues from there send me one. I'll have to ask. Or maybe eBay would be best.

And, have any of you see than commercial for something that I don't recall, but there's a 5 second segment where an older black gentleman says something along the lines of "The freedom to wear a sarong and feel so right." Come to think of it it may be for Sandals resorts. But it's obviously supposed to be a play on words, sarong as in "so wrong and feel so right". Ok, maybe it wasn't that funny, but he seems to enjoy wearing he sarong. But you guys in the UK may not have seen it.

We've got BBC America over here, do you guys have like ABC UK or something stupid like that?

[Stevie D]

Where do you get a sarong? I don't travel so Indonesia is out of the question. But my company has many offices in the Asia Pacific, so maybe I can have one of my colleagues from there send me one. I'll have to ask. Or maybe eBay would be best.

Try these:

http://www.1worldsarongs.com/sarongs1.html
http://www.frombali.com/wholesale-jewel ... 95_us.html
http://www.batiksarong.com/bali_sarongs.html

Or just google search "traditional men's sarongs"

[couyalair]

Or just make it yourself.
A sarong is no more than a rectangle of cloth 1 & 1/2 times your circumference. Use the size and colour you fancy.
Mine have ribbons to tie round the waist, which I find easier than the traditional method of making a knot or rolling the cloth down from the waist.

Martin

[skirtyscot]

We've got BBC America over here, do you guys have like ABC UK or something stupid like that?

We scarcely need it - there's so much American stuff on the telly here anyway.

[couyalair]

Same in France, same in Spain; same the world over, I imagine. Every night, on every channel, American series that all look alike (acting, filming, noise to keep the audience awake), and to make sure you can't tell one detective from another, they are all dubbed with the same voices (in France & Spain, at least).

Martin, married to a TV-addict!

[janrok]

We have the same "problem" here in Holland, Martin.
No less than 7 commercial stations broadcasting all sorts of American sitcoms, series repeated over and over again. Believe it or not, some of them are in black and white!

A positive thing however is that we have subtitling in stead of dubbed voices.

Jan.