Travel

Lately I’ve been feeling a bit jaded with the cookie-cutter fashion found in high street retail stores and I have been craving unique pieces. Expensive but gorgeous pieces of the high fashion industry, however, are far beyond my budget. Not when you’re traveling through Asia though. A couple of months ago I wrote a post about the shopping heaven that Hoi An in Vietnam is. I had several pieces custom made but I haven’t had the chance to show you these yet. This pair of shorts is the first item on to appear on the blog and it is one of a kind. Not only because I had it custom made but also because this fabric is actually meant for traditional Laos skirts (known as a sinh). I picked it up on the mainland next to Don Det and was carrying it around until I arrived in Hoi An.

I spent most of my time in Bali surfing. For about a week, my time at Solid Surf House was divided between two yoga sessions and six hours of surfing every day. It felt great to be so physically active. The combination of surfing and yoga trained my entire body (more than I ever expected) and even though I enjoyed spending the entire day in the water, it was also pretty exhausting. I had to make sure I took good care of my body so I would have the energy to get up on my board. I got plenty of sleep, ate good food and always took a beach bag with me filled with my essentials.

Finally I can show the lower half of this gorgeous dress on the blog. This was my outfit for New Year’s Eve on the Maldives and has been my go-to outfit for any fancier occasion during my trip. But first I want to tell you the story about my New Year’s Eve experience on the Maldives because it’s a story worth telling, if only for the entertainment value. Next to being a stunning country with the most beautiful colors of water (upon arrival the first thought is: Does this really exist?!), kind people and the best dive sites in the world, the Maldives is also a Muslim state. This means that they do not serve alcohol, not a drop, nor are you allowed to bring it across the border, at least not onto the local islands. The country is divided between resort islands and local islands, which also has different laws in place. The resorts basically buy an entire island and run their hotel like any retreat worldwide. A local island is different in the sense that it abides by local muslim laws, which means no bikinis on the beach and no alcohol. A bit different from what you expect when you’re first planning a trip to the Maldives, right? The reason why you should visit only local islands anyway? It’s the only way to experience the local culture and also … budget. Resorts are not just pricey, they are very very expensive. But more on that in a different post.