India – the thing with the right shoes
Dear travelettes,
finding the right pair of shoes when traveling in a country where most streets are mere dirt tracks is harder than finding mr. right. That is, if you don’t care to buy those massive tracking sandals, which are about as sexy as dandruff.
Finding the right pair therefore requires careful planning and close scrutiny of all aspects of your travel.
with india, I knew this much:
- indian customs leave little to no space for skirts or pumps
- western women will usually experience a lot of interest from people on the street (i.e. they get stared at a lot)
- due to the stares it’s not recommendable to attract even more attention by wearing attractive clothing
Boring, right? No skirts, no make-up, no heels–in my case this means a total 180 when it comes to style.
Maybe you think that it’s OK to look “basic” when on the road, but I’ve tried to conform with the usual “backpacker wear”, and I really don’t like it. I feel like I’m giving up a part of who I am, and that’s just not cool.
So back to my shoe problem. After unsuccessfully searching through at least 5 relevant stores, I found one today that had an OK selection of stuff for my purposes. It’s a branch of Deichmann, probably the biggest chain of discount-shoe-stores in germany. I usually come here whenever I need to find shoes that are not vintage pumps.
I was hoping to score one of those “gladiator sandals” that I’ve seen a lot of girls wear this summer but the only ones they had were made of fake leather and that is the one thing I will not compromise on. So after trying on a few pairs (including a couple with heels) I decided that I would have to be smart and got these ones:
Flat, comfy and reasonably cute. And in a color that will probably match 90% of my india-wardrobe. Plus they were on sale, so they only cost me 20 euros. And because they were having a “buy one pair, get another 50% off” special going on, I gave into convention and got these suckers too:
Bring on the mudd, india.
Happy travels,
Katja
Tags: shoes
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