Dan, Audrey and Colleen pose with the artisan who created their beautiful scarves and hat in the town of Yauli near Huancavelica, Peru. Read more about microfinance at work in Huancavelica. © www.uncorneredmarket.com
While walking along the beach outside Turkmenbashi, we were invited by families to join them for food, drink and conversation. Dan joins this group consisting of several families taking their summer vacation together from Ashgabat to the Caspian Sea coast...This also served as our first encounter with Turkmen vodka. Very smooth. Read more about our visit to Turkmenistan.
B'Lan is a bit difficult to find without an exact address since the front of the shop looks like an art shop and there is not a big sign up like most other tailor shops. They had some nice fabrics and Dan ordered two shirts here. When we came back for a fitting, we talked with one of the daughters for a long time about her family's business, food, the different regions in Vietnam and the continued effects of the Vietnam war (her father worked with the Americans and the kids are still black listed from certain jobs and studies). The next day returned to pick up the shirts and talked with the mother for a long time about life, culture, and the effect of progress on Vietnam and its people. We had asked her for a recommendation for a barber, hence she's holding up Dan's hair to show he needs a cut. Now, the hair cut was another adventure....it turned into a shave and ear cleaning. One for the videos... Read more about tailoring in Hoi An.
