Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Bathing suits

I didn't pack a bathing suit in when we came to Bangalore. The city is nowhere near the ocean, and although there is a pool on the IISc campus (currently out of order), women don't tend to wear bathing suits in public in India, so I figured I wouldn't need one.

However, we're going to Kochi, in Kerala, in a couple of weeks. The hotel we're staying in has a pool, and I'm told that the pools in western hotel chains are totally bathing suit wearing territory. And I know the kids will want to swim, and since Robert will be busy with conference activities most pool duties will fall to me.

So to sum up: I needed a bathing suit.

First I checked the usual online shops- Flipkart, Snapdeal, Jabong, etc. They either didn't sell bathing suits or had only a couple of pretty awful options. So I googled and discovered that bathing suits (and lingerie) are definitely somewhat illicit. I mean there are shops that sell them, certainly, but they take pains to assure potential customers that they ship in discreet packaging, lest anyone know that you've just bought a bathing suit. Or a bra.

At any rate, I found a shop called Pretty Secrets (see?) that had bathing suit options that looked pretty good and I placed an order.

The package arrived today (instead of yesterday, as the tracking had indicated all day yesterday, sigh. But that's FedEx's fault), and I was rather shocked by its size. This is 2 bathing suits! Note the pencil and water bottle for scale.


True to their word, the outside package was indeed "discreet". Inside, however, I found this:


"It's like all wrapped up like a birthday present!", I squealed. I have to admit I was rather charmed. I wish all the things that I order came in pretty wrapping paper and with a bow! How cool would that be? And it got better-- there was a card, too!


Awwww. A Valentine's Day card in silver ink! Seriously, I know it's all marketing, but these guys have done a bang-up job. Wrapping paper? Ribbons?? Hand written cards??? Pure awesome.

(In case you're wondering, the bathing suits are just fine. I wish the one with boy shorts didn't squeeze my hip fat so much, but I don't suppose that can be avoided. Damn near everything squeezes my hip fat. And at two suits for Rs 1750 (after the sign up discount), I can't complain!)

2 comments:

FxMedChiro said...

Just a day in the life of an India-dwelling, bathing-suit-shopping mom; I guess.

Melany said...

What a wonderful way to receive a new bathing suit.