Liz and Chris Take a Trip

As with any long term travel, there are certain unavoidable necessities that need to be figured out while on the road. Buying clothes is one such example. Buying underwear is a more specific example!

Unfortunately, I underestimated how many pairs of underwear I’d need to last me one week (which is about how often we want to do laundry).  I didn’t expect to shower 2-3 times a day, but in this heat, it’s a necessity if not a kind gesture for others. So it ended up that Chris and I spent a bit of Monday shopping for underwear. We found a stand in the Warorot market selling ladies underwear and bras. I skipped anything with lace or bows and zeroed in on the boring, comfy cotton pairs. When I had picked out five pairs in different colors, all size small, the Thai lady who was helping me gestured to another stack and said “eckarge.” I looked at her quizzically, smiled, then said, “what?”

“Eckarge,” she repeated, pulling out the tag from a panty to show me the ‘XL.’

“Oh, extra large,” I said, as if that was the size I was hunting for the whole time. (Chris had warned me there would be Thai sizes for clothes so I sort of expected I’d go up to a medium, maybe large.) I shifted my hands to the stack of size medium panties, and again, more fervently, my new truth-telling, ego-killing Thai friend said, “No. Eckarge,” showcasing with her hands, like Vanna White, the XL stack.

Of course, underwear is not a thing you can try on, especially not in an open market, so I went with “eckarge” size, despite a little bit of a wounded ego.  As soon as I got back to the guesthouse, I tried them on. Perfect fit. 🙂