What to wear in India

We've been visiting my parents over the past few days, and are starting to get a sense of what kind of clothing we need to take with us to India. Of course, there is a serious potential downside of taking fashion advice from one's parents, but better to be dressed too old than too immodest.

Firstly, only the pre-pubescent get to wear shorts (oblivious Westerners excepted) - everyone else wears at least mid-calf or longer. For women, this is generally either a sari (especially in the south), or salwar kameez (loose pants and a long loose tunic top), or increasingly for the younger set, jeans. Men generally wear trousers, or occasionally dhotis.

Secondly, while long skirts and long pants are both acceptable wear for women, pants are better, as they stop one's thighs chafing (the oh-so-delightful 'chub rub'). And long pants, like long sleeved shirts are also better at keeping out the mozzies.

Thirdly, laundry facilities are extremely limited, which means everything must be quick-drying. Clothes will be washed in hotel sinks and bathtubs, dried by hand-wringing then rolling up in a microfibre pack towel, and then hung up on elastic travel washing line.

Finally, while us womenfolk will probably be able to find and buy clothes over there, big burly blokes like Dad and JD will really struggle to find anything to fit. Therefore, they really need to take appropriate clothing with them.

Completely lacking in suitable clothing, JD and I left the boys with their cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents and drove down to Melbourne. There's a section of Little Bourke St, between Elizabeth St and Hardware Lane with a fair range of specialist adventure wear shops - Paddy Pallin, Snowgum, Bogong, Columbia, Mountain Designs and others, and there's a Kathmandu store around the corner.

The much-advertised 'Boxing Day Sales' actually means 'very limited sizes, styles and colours available'. Nevertheless, we managed to spend a largish amount of money on clothes that actually fit, are comfortable, and which meet the requirements stated above. I got a pair of grey 'hiking' pants (Mountain HardWear, v comfortable), a lovely fitted fuscia long-sleeve shirt (Columbia, with pockets!), and later, in Woodend, a pair of loose cotton elastic-waisted pants. JD got two pair of hiking pants and a pair of below-knee shorts, and two short-sleeved and one long-sleeved quick-dry shirts. And we also each picked up a couple of pairs of quick-dry undies each.

We'll get the kids kitted out on Friday when we get home - thankfully, they can both wear shorts. Finally, the upshot of taking a small number of very lightweight garments means we might yet meet the 5kg Malaysia Airlines cabin baggage weight restriction.