Hanging lanterns in a shop in Hoi An, Vietnam, 2006
Good old memories of Vietnam came flooding back as I was looking through my old photos tonight. On our last day at Hoi An just before we left the cute little artsy town, we did the rounds of local crafts market. And gee there is a lot of it for a small little village it is. If only Australian Customs were relaxed we’d have bought some back with us as these are hand-stitched, threaded and made out of thin bamboo frames right off the jungle. Almost! They look so pretty. Don’t you think?
I went to this little shop in Hoi An, remember it well! So pretty. I didn’t occur to me that they wouldn’t have allowed them through customs. I brought back a little traditional straw+bamboo hat and they didn’t blink. Mind you, my friend accidentally brought a half eaten apple which the customs dog sniffed out and they were so officious about it, you would have thought it was a narcotic!
Now now, you’ve just made me green with envy! In hindsight, should have got one too… oh well, next time, hopefully. I was so keen to get one of those pointy straw hats too
until I got told by our lady tour guide they are for women. Not that that matters much… we’re all girls here. 
ha ha. I can so relate to that story of the half eaten apple. It reminds me of the show: Border Control.
It was straight out of Border Control, Jean was in a wheel chair – at first thinking the dog was being friendly, making jokes about being a drug smuggler, all going down like a lead balloon with the customs guy.
If you would like the Vietnamese hat, it’s yours. I’ll bring it into the light of day now so that I don’t forget to give it to you.
Oh dear!! Poor Jean, Hope it didn’t take too long at customs. They can take their own sweet time.
I’ll become the Vietnamese lady tour guide in Sydney with my conical hat. No really its all good. Thanks for offering though.
Could you imagine wearing that in Sydney. I’ll have no friends left!