Around the World in 80 Dresses

  As to see beautiful sarong-kebaya combinations you will have to travel to Bali. This island so distinctly different from other parts of Indonesia is imbued with Buddhist traditions. I had the chance to attend a royal funeral in Ubud and to witness this important event where a gamelan orchestra played, ladies wore their finest and a sarong seller offered her ware stored in a bundle on her head.   In Malaysia the sarongs are called songkets .  The main techniques are batik (see also post  A New Take on Batik, March 18 ) and ikat . Ikat is the name of a long process of binding the yarn to resist colour and dying it several times to obtain the pattern. Sarongs are now mainly confined to dancing performances and museums.  I bought the batik cloth with the blue flowers from Tiga Serangkai Design in Eastern Malaysia and the black and brown one in Malaysian Borneo from Sarawak Design. In the olden days my red sarong with the golden threads would ha...

While Christopher Columbus failed to discover India and landed instead in the Caribbean I managed to find a trace of India on the island Marie-Galante, which Columbus had named after his caravelle Santa Maria la Galante. The idyllic spot in the blue, blue sea belongs to Guadeloupe and is still a part of France. Amazingly enough the French cling to this tiny archipelago as one of their overseas provinces. French is spoken, baguette is sold and one enjoys a delicious mixture of spiced seafood and French cuisine. I was there on a home exchange trip and had the most splendid view to the Laguna on the main island from my host's terrace. Fashion on the island is all about pareos for the beach and brightly coloured kaftans. On the main road of Marie-Galante I discovered a lovely boutique cum seafood restaurant owned by two elegantly French looking sisters specializing in ware from India. The charming sisters did their best to convince me that I could not do wi...