My Vietnam Trip 2016

[mlroseplant]

Hello all, I have returned to the good ol' USA after spending three weeks in Vietnam visiting my wife's family. As I reported before I left, I bought some Nike Sky High hidden wedge sneakers to wear over there, since Vietnam is not yet ready for a guy in full blown heels (my foreign face gets enough attention as it is), and it makes my wife uncomfortable.

After setting you all up for something very exciting and groundbreaking, I now have to let you all down, and tell you that there is really nothing to report. Nobody really said anything. At all. Not even my wife. She must realize that they are heels, but nobody said a word, negative or positive, about my really cool sneaks. It makes me think I should have bought some bolder color than nondescript gray. Oh well, I got the reaction that I sought. Be careful what you wish for, right?

I can tell you about the comfort and fit. I wore them almost every day. I did not do any super long distance walking in them, but I did wear them to an amusement park where I did a fair amount of walking, and like I sort of figured, within a few dozen steps each day after putting them on, they feel just like normal sneakers to me. I read some reviews that criticized them for being uncomfortable, but I assume those are people who never wear heels. The effective rise on these, after subtracting out the thickness of the platform, is about 2 - 2 1/4 inches, so they're pretty much like wearing flats for me.

In the past, I've dressed a little less casually than I did this year, mainly because of my shoes. Because my flat shoe collection has dwindled to a couple of pairs of sneakers and my trusty super-formal men's oxfords, I found myself wearing dressier clothes more often to go with the oxfords. This year, with the new sneakers, I found myself wearing jeans and t-shirts/sweaters a lot more. I kind of fit in, fashion-wise, with the latest style for young men in Vietnam. With my own twist, of course. The first twist being that I'm about 20 years older than the boys who wear what I'm about to describe. I have to say that I am not really impressed with the latest "hotboy" style in Vietnam. The main feature of it is super slim jeans, which in and of itself is not a bad thing, but the latest iteration of the style has a super low rise waist. Actually, that's not quite true. The rise on the jeans is pretty normal, but they are designed to be worn really low on the waist, so that the back pockets end up on the backs of the wearer's legs, rather than on his butt. Just imagine a USA "gangsta" style, only really tight. And always worn with a belt. Always. They're not really into to showing underwear and buttcrack, thank goodness. Oh, and the pre-ripped/pre-shredded ones, with or without paint splatters, are extra-cool. And extra expensive. As you can imagine, this style actually looks good on about 2% of the general population, so my way-less-radical and way-more-flattering take on this style earned me extra compliments with the girls. No one ever suspected I was wearing women's jeans.

Anyway, it's good to be back home, wearing my own shoes again. Time to go back to work on Monday and become reacquainted with reality.

[Steve63130]

Good report! Glad it all worked out well, and at least you got in some heeling without upsetting your wife. Welcome back to reality! Now go out and have a great weekend.

Steve

[HappyinHeels]

mlroseplant,

Welcome back! Always good to spend time with the spouse's family. I'll be going to northwestern Mexico to see my wife's family in about one month. Like Vietnamese women Mexican women wear heels a lot as they tend to in much of Latin America. Good thing we're going in April and not July when the average high temperature (not heat index) reaches 110 F/ 42.6 C. 

I am curious about something though and that is do they use 220 ac in Vietnam or is some of it 110 ac?     HappyinHeels

[Rockpup]

Yea, I've been able to wear my nike wedges at jobsites and in front of my mother in law without issue. Might be a case of 'get what you wish for' that no one notices or cares

[mlroseplant]

13 hours ago, HappyinHeels said:

mlroseplant,

Welcome back! Always good to spend time with the spouse's family. I'll be going to northwestern Mexico to see my wife's family in about one month. Like Vietnamese women Mexican women wear heels a lot as they tend to in much of Latin America. Good thing we're going in April and not July when the average high temperature (not heat index) reaches 110 F/ 42.6 C. 

I am curious about something though and that is do they use 220 ac in Vietnam or is some of it 110 ac?     HappyinHeels

I feel the same way about visiting Vietnam in the summertime. It's quite uncomfortable pretty much anywhere in the country at that time of year.

 

Vietnam uses 220 VAC/50 Hz. It's a true 220 volts, and not 240, as it is here. At the residential level, 220 is the only voltage available--they do not split their single phase transformers in half as we do to achieve two different voltages. The main impediment to device compatibility is the 50 Hz frequency, compared with our 60 Hz. Luckily, pretty much any computer or phone charger in modern times doesn't care what voltage or frequency you put to it, it will still happily charge your device!

 

I wish you safe and happy travels in a month's time. Do you wear heels in Mexico?

[HappyinHeels]

mlroseplant,

I remember the 50 Hz in Europe and had to set my 60 Hz clock a certain amount of time ahead so it would be accurate at the moment I needed to get up.

Haven't worn them in Mexico yet, just the US, Canada, and Brazil.      HappyinHeels

[hhboots]

6 hours ago, HappyinHeels said:

I remember the 50 Hz in Europe and had to set my 60 Hz clock a certain amount of time ahead so it would be accurate at the moment I needed to get up.

I never thought of this before.  I traveled before to the UK and France on relatively short trips, but never knew about a clock being affected when running at different power frequency than what was intended, but I looked it up to confirm and I guess it does makes sense.  Even many modern clocks can be affected this.  Very interesting to learn that one.  Anyway, thanks for that little bit of info

[SF]

Imagine living in Japan where there are two different electrical systems.  Eastern Japan (including Tokyo, Kawasaki, Sapporo, Yokohama, and Sendai) runs at 50 Hz; Western Japan (including Okinawa, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nagoya, Hiroshima) runs at 60 Hz.  This originates from the first purchases of generators from AEG for Tokyo in 1895 and from General Electric for Osaka in 1896.  

 

And I realize this has NOTHING to do with high heels but I find it interesting nonetheless.  Now back to high heels !!!!!   ha ha   sf