Sunday, December 14, 2008

Silk For The Princesses

Nothing is more beautiful than silk on a Vietnamese girl. Southeast Asia has been famous for the silk trade for thousands of years, so yep we had to have a go! We headed to the Old Quarter's silk district. Each street in this area of Ha Noi has a specialty. Hang Gai street is the street for silk and custom tailored silk clothing. The talk of the town is Thao Silk at 69 Hang Gai. A beautiful shop with very helpful women who give top shelf service. We fitted the girls for their first Ao Dai which is the traditional dress for Vietnamese women consisting of a tunic with long sleeves and panels front and back; the tunic is worn over trousers . They have tons of silk patterns and styles, so you pick out what you want, they measure and then in 2 days, your handmade clothes are ready. The fathers had custom silk shirts made $25 . We got Sophie two Ao Dai for $30 one for now and one a larger size for later on. Something she will hopefully cherish in her adult days as something Mom and Pop hade made just for her while in Ha Noi!


The store front of Thao Silk.

Taking Sophie's measurements for her Ao Dai

She loves when the ladies talk to her!


Inside of Thao Silk, anything you want, table runners, ties, lingerie, they will make it.


Mya Grace gets measured.
The moms want to hit the silver district this afternoon. Dads would love to find a nice sports bar to watch some NFL, but that chance is slim to none for the guys since there is nothing like that here, and its just 1am at home Sunday morning! Our girl is resting, taking that afternoon nap she missed yesterday. We are anxious to get things rolling here so we can come home. While we love Viet Nam and the experience, there is no place like home. We are to get her passport (she travels on a Vietnamese one) Wednesday, plus medical check. Thursday is her visa petition interview (I-600) at the US Embassy and Friday we go back to pick up the visa which clears us to leave on 12/20. We hope you all in the midwest and other places are enjoying the cold! :-) It is sunny and 73 here today!!!

4 comments:

Jessica Alvarez said...

Can't wait to see a pic of Sophie in her ao dai! She's going to look beautiful in it!

Anonymous said...

What a fun day and a special momento for Sophie from her country of birth.

Can't wait for next week :)

Enjoy the warmth while you can. Looks like winter will be in STL when you arrive back home.

XXXOOO

Anonymous said...

It looks like she is really starting to settle in with her Mom and Pop. Loved the videos - it is fun to see her walking and talking a little bit. They sure let you know when they are tired of doing something that you want them to do, don't they!
Olivia started crawling yesterday - not your typical crawl, but she gets around. Hopefully she will be able to keep up with Sophie! -Ann

P.S. Spicy is safe with your parents now. We had a fun time with her!

Cathy said...

Are you guys going to Halong Bay?