A Lao Skirt and a Big Market

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Well after a month of seeing all the wonderful variations of the Lao skirt or 'sin' and the beautiful women wearing them, I decided to have one made. This is no so easy because there is so much fabric to pick from and the lighting in the market can be dim so that overall it was mind boggling.
We set off for the market walking but pretty quickly decided on a ride so we arrived at the market in the side car of a motorcycle with a little umbrella over us. This market is the largest in Laos and probably the largest I've ever seen with the possible exception of Dalat, Vietnam. There is an overwhelming amount of choice but I finally settled on a fabric with the border already sewn on. Traditionally the band at the bottom would have been woven into the fabric but in recent times the band is separate and they are not hand woven. The lady was able to walk me to the tailor who would make the skirt but the challenging thing would prove to be getting back there in few hours.
We wandered through the market taking pictures in some of the food areas and then went on the hunt for the metal belt worn over the skirt. They are available in silver but although inexpensive for all that silver I decided I wouldn't get that much wear out of one and decided to go for the base metal one commonly worn. The day before while testing the waters to figure out the price I could have gotten one for $95,0000 kip but we couldn't find the vendor again so I had to settle for $110,000 kip. Right now we're getting approx 7,500 kip for a dollar CAD.
After a yummy yummy lunch in the restaurant area we made our way back to the tailor and with only a few false turns we managed to get there. Bear in mind that the overalll size of this market is about the size of the center of the town I live in so this was no easy feat!
After catching another ride home I tried on my gear and here are the pictures of me modeling it.
Those bags of peppers were the size of garbage bags at home and those green beans are called long beans here for obvious reasons, these ones were well over a foot long.
This morning in another market I couldn't resist taking a picture of ! and her wild outfit. The weird part here is that I don't think I've seen one Laos girl wearing a mini skirt period!