TubeNet

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) is a municipality of some six million people. When I was growing up near San Bernardino, California, my mother used to always tell me that living in a big city is better than a little place like San Bernardino because the stores have to please more people. They must have a larger selection.

OK, so here I am in the largest city in Vietnam. I need to buy underwear. My wife is at work, so I can do this in virtual privacy and get something similar to Hane's, BVDs, or Fruit of the Looms I like without an editorial comment on the style. So I go to the men's department at the Diamond Department Store, just a block away from the high school where I teach. There is no underwear in the men's department. So I ask a clerk, "Ma'am, where is the men's underwear?" She smiled and looked at me as if I were an idiot: "Right next to the bras and panties..."

YOWCH! I tried something as I went to the "underwear department:" I walked in slowly, as there were about seven young women looking at the bras. When I got to where I was going, the girls moved from the A cups to the C cups.

Underwear doesn't have numbers written on it. It has the letters S, M, L, XL, XXL, and XXXL. In America I wear a large (L). Here I wear an XXL.

Buying shirts... It took a while to figure it out but I wear a size 44 (XL). It might sound like my chest size but it isn't. It's just an arbitary number.

Shoes... I wear a 45. They use European sizes, so I understand this. The problem is that I have not seen one store in Saigon that carries anything decent in a larger size than 43. Some clerks have actually tried to squeeze my feet into a 42! (And I had a broken toe at the time!!!)

The only place I have found where I can buy clothes off the rack here and be satisfied is a duty-free shop on the Cambodian border which is not near anything or anyone. So much for big cities!

Maybe I could tell you about the fascinating world of mail order to Vietnam!

If I remember correctly, it's a 52.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1985, I wass stationed in Japan on a training camp on the 2,000 ft level of Mt. Fuji.
(Absolutely beatuifulaa0
anyway...

I brought my wife over. She stood 5'8", weighed about 130 lbs and had a 36D chest. There was no place less than a 90 minute drive for her to buy much of anything!
It was either too short....or too small (Bras/panties).

We really enjoyed how the bras and panties would be put on lighted mannequins so that you could see where the padding was (boobs and Butt )

Even more enjoyable was that if she did go and actually lok in an area, it would be swarmed by the local ladies as soon as she left, and every one would buy SOMETHING!

And don't even get me started on her shoes.

No internet then (Al hadn't invented it) so we actually tried to buy a years worth of underwear for her, and brought JC Penney and Sears catalogs with us.

I didn't have much problem as those were my skinny years and I was built like many of the Japanese men.

the elephant wrote:You want I should send you some underwear with that Miracle Whip?

My mom sent me my dad's when he died.

the elephant wrote:

LoyalTubist wrote:My mom sent me my dad's when he died.

Your father willed you his salad dressing? Gee . . . you think he would have eaten it.

No, just his good whip...

schlepporello wrote:I can only imagine the nightmare that could be.
In shoes, what would a US size 14 be in European sizes?

A 14 is about a 48 in European sizes. The European scale is close together in the average sizes but spreads out for those of us with big feet. I wear a 49 or a 50 in Euro sizes, and a 14 or 15 in U.S. sizes. Occasionally, a 13 will be shaped just right to work, but it's really the exception. In athletic shoes, I always end up with a 15.

I might as well live in Viet Nam as far as any ability to get shoes around here. Very few stores stock anything bigger than a 12, let alone bigger than 13. I never had a problem finding shows that fit when I lived in Texas.

Mr. Loyal, why don't you have your shirts made? I'll bet custom shirts are surprisingly cheap there, as they (reputedly) are in Hong Kong.

When you visit the U.S., stock up on shoes, and buy only the best quality. They'll be grossly expensive, but in my experience that's what lasts, and in your case durability is of prime importance. I'm mostly wearing Ecco casual shoes, and my dress shoes are Johnston and Murphy. Yes, both are pricey, though I occasionally find something in my size at the outlet store. But those brands last me years and can stand repeated reconstruction, while all the others I consider disposable.

Rick "who has learned that good shoes are the better value" Denney

I teach English and music at Le Quy Don High School in Saigon.

Shirts are surprisingly cheap but they are also polyester. Cotton doesn't fare too well in the rough handling washing machines used here. I like cotton but the locals think it looks cheap and old. After two washings, it does!