Seat of Our Pants » shopping

How I’m Going to Stop My Wife from Spending All Our Money in Istanbul

S.O.O.P Crew — Fri, 28 May 2010 13:39:33 +0000

We’ve only got a little bit left of our travel budget now, a time in our lives that of course coincides with our visit to one of the world’s premier shopping capitals.

My current plan is to lock her in a cheap hotel room and throw away the key. I mean, seriously. This is heading for disaster! Anyone out there have any ideas on how to live on the cheap in Istanbul?

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It’s The Simple Things in Life

Jaime — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 19:32:33 +0000

Simple pleasures, such as eating fresh vegetables and unpeeled fruit, were a staple in my life before this trip. Granted, I didn’t usually give them much thought. Why bother being grateful about eating a freshly washed lettuce leaf or unpeeled carrot? It’s no big thing, right?

Well, no, actually it’s a privilege. You see, we haven’t been able to eat fresh vegetables for eight months, for fear of potential pathogens. Fruit is the same way. The old traveling adage goes: If you can’t peel it, boil it or cook it, you shouldn’t eat it.

So we didn’t, until now. Martin was able to catch me eating my first apple, as pictured above. I know it sounds lame, but I’d forgotten how great it feels to eat an unpeeled apple. I was like one of those babies that carries around their apple core for hours after they’ve finished eating it. I was in fresh produce heaven.

It doesn’t take much to make me happy these days – a welcome side effect of this trip. It’s the simple things, like the crunch of an apple, that bring a smile to my face.

Life is good.

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Martin Finally Gets His Wish

Jaime — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:48:02 +0000

Before leaving for this trip I asked Martin what souvenir he most wanted to bring home. Yes, I know it was an unfair question, since he had no idea what we would come across, but there was a method to the madness. I was trying to get him used to the idea of buying things because, well, I buy things.

His answer (without even thinking about it, I might add): a marble mortar and pestle.

What? No swords or beer logo shirts? No. A marble mortar and pestle would be all he wanted. (I guess it’s time to reveal that it is, in fact, Martin that does the cooking in this family). Well, it’s taken us almost eleven months to find one, but Jaipur provided us with exactly what he was looking for.

The real beauty of it was that we were able to custom design it as well. We gave the shop the dimensions we were looking for and were able to pick it up twenty four hours later. The boy pictured above most likely polished it for us (he’s a happy one, no?)

The cost for such a beauty? $10. I love India (sometimes).

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Not Buying a Hand Knotted Carpet – Regret No. 5,673

Jaime — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:25:48 +0000

Carpets are a weak point for me (as seen here and here). It’s not always been that way. Maybe it happened after I hit 30, maybe I just miss having a home to decorate. Either way, I can’t stop imagining our future home filled with beautiful carpets.

That being said, we stopped by the random Tibetan settlement just outside Miao to check out their handicrafts center. As usual, our timing was impeccable. It was a Sunday and everything within a 1,000 kilometer radius was closed. But we were there and figured we might just get lucky. And, lucky we were. A really nice guy let us into the carpet weaving section of the village.

Tibetan carpet factory in Miao, India

Wow, wow, wow: I was in nerdy carpet-weaving heaven. He lead us to a loom that was being worked on by three ladies. We watched them hand knot a carpet that was going to take a total of 15 days at 8 hours a day to complete.

Having been taught how to use a loom to weave rag carpets in Sweden, I was curious how a hand knotted carpet was constructed. And, well folks, I still don’t know. Check out the video below to see why: the hand was truly faster than the eye. How the heck are those knots made? I still can’t tell.

We left the shop regrettably empty handed. We’ve bought our fair share of carpets on this trip and, with no home to speak of, it really is just plain dumb to buy any more decorative items. But at $180 for all that knotting, I have to slot not buying one of their carpets as regret number 5,673 of my souvenir shopping.

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Our New Hairy Addition

Jaime — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:34:43 +0000

Is it a spider?

Is it a hairball we pulled from our shower?

No! Can you guess what its used for…

A hat! We haven’t quite figured out what the rasta dreads are good for, but these hats really are worn by local Monpa people in northern Arunachal Pradesh. We bought one and will proundly display it somewhere that won’t scare our house guests. That, or Martin will attempt to make it a fad.

I vote for the later.

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The Muum

Jaime — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:27:38 +0000

If I were to be completely honest, I’d have to say that wearing anything other than a Muumuu is impractical. The Muumuu, or Muum as I like to call it, is the world’s greatest outfit.

You name me one other piece of clothing that you can wear while sleeping, running errands, cooking, throwing a dinner party (with the aid of a belt, of course) or lounging around a pool? I say nay! You cannot.

I have a fine collection of Muums at home (insert Martin’s embarrassment here). Five, if memory serves. With any luck today (mostly if Martin takes a nap this afternoon) it will be six. It seems that women in northern India share my love of the Muum – I’ve seen some fine specimens for sale in the markets here.

So, the top thing on today’s agenda is lulling Martin to sleep while I dream of billowy shapeless dresses in awful patterns.

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Why My Husband Rocks

Jaime — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:39:42 +0000

This is me in my own personal heaven. If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know that I’m a sucker for picking up souvenirs (as shown here and here and here). They’re usually of the small furniture, machete, or unusable carpet variety – bulky and awkward but items I really can’t do without.

Well, yesterday I had a souvenir break-through. As a Manintines surprise, Martin walked me across Mandalay and down a small, unmarked side street. Our destination: a little antique collector’s dream shop. Amazing items were quite literally packed in from floor to ceiling – each thing more amazing than the next.

Anticipating that I would go buck-wild, Martin gave me a firm budget to work with. An hour later (after many laps around the shop, much debate and really making the poor dealer work for his money), we walked out carrying two of the coolest things we’ve ever bought.

Our new opium weights

The first is a set of metal weights that were used to measure opium. Each is of descending weight and decorated with smaller and smaller spiders. So cool!

Our new Ganesh medicine doll

The second item is a Ganesh medicine doll that the collector bought from a tribe in northern Myanmar. Sorry Martin, but it may be the new love of my life – at least for now.

It was a fantastic afternoon, one that couldn’t have been more fun for a Stuff collector like myself. Well done, Martin Manintines 2010 was a huge success. Now how to get these gems home (it’s apparently illegal to ship anything from Myanmar to the States)….

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Recycled and Good to Go

Martin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:44:01 +0000

When resources are scant, smart people step up and figure things out. Like here: this Katha shop sells metal ware made out of recycled tins. These funnels and oil dispensers have been hand made from cans of energy drinks and creamed corn.

I wish I had the space to buy a ton of it, but I don’t. Our basket is full of backpacks. (Jaime: How rude!) Next time, perhaps.

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My A-mazing New Basket

Jaime — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:31:00 +0000

You know that saying, “Everyone’s doing it.” It’s my new favorite souvenir buying tactic. Today’s Martin-convincing-session took place outside a rattan store. The desired item: a basket like all the other Burmese ladies are using.

“You know, Martin, I think I really need this basket. I’ll pack my day-pack away and use this. I think it’s going to be a-mazing – and everyone’s doing it.”

US $3 and one slightly frustrated husband later, I had the desired basket in hand.

Up next: trying not to complain when I realize that a backpack really is better for carrying things.

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That’s Right – Put That Finger Pointing Away

Jaime — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:05:51 +0000

Machetes are a must have, right? Before we leave Myitkyina tomorrow I wanted to pick up a few I saw for sale in the market. These things are the real deal. They weigh a ton, are awkward to carry and will come of little use when we get home. In short, they’re perfect for us.

We headed over to the central market this evening to shop for the machetes and were met with stare after stare after pointed finger. Being pretty far off the backpacker trail, we’ve counted exactly three foreigners in town today – and Martin and I count as two of them.

We negotiated our price (a whole $5 each), paid for them and walked back through the market. Stares had now turned to hushed whispers and fingers were no longer pointing.

It’s a special kind of feeling being the only foreign female walking down the street with a machete in each hand.

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