Shopping for Love in Vietnam’s Mountains
from Reuters
Once a year, with his wife’s blessing, Lau Minh Pao gets to have a guilt-free tryst(约会) with his ex(此指前任女友).
Their rendezvous(约会地点) have played out(履行,完成) more like strolls(漫步) down memory lane than salacious(淫秽的) flings(一时的放纵), but they are part of a treasured tradition in this mountainous corner of northern Vietnam that may challenge some more linear(直线的) concepts of love.
“In the past, we were lovers, but we couldn’t get married because we were far apart,” Pao said simply as he waited for his date on a dark night in the village of Khau Vai in Ha Giang province.
Now when they meet, he said, “we pour our hearts out about the time when we were in love.”
They are not alone.
For two days each year, on the 26th and 27th of the third month of the lunar calendar(阴历), the tiny village of Khau Vai, strung(延伸,成线状) along a saddle(山口,鞍形山) in the lush(青葱的,草木茂盛的) hills near China, is transformed into a “love market.”
Hundreds of members of Giay, Nung, Tay, Dzao, San Chi, Lo Lo and Hmong hill tribes, among others, trek in from across the mountainous districts nearby to attend. Some travel for days, even from neighboring provinces.
Pao’s wife was there, too, meeting her old flame(旧情人).
London Partygoers(社交聚会常客) Reliving Spirit of the Blitz(猛烈的空袭)
from Reuters
London’s party people are donning(穿上) grandmother’s floral dresses, World War Two uniforms and heading to the air raid shelters(防空洞) again for evenings of swing music, champagne cocktails and other Blitz nostalgia.
Held every four to five weeks at different venues around the capital, Blitz Party is billed(用海报宣传) as a 1940s evening with community spirit, where people have the chance to escape the drab(单调的) safety of the modern world for a time when Londoners defied(向…挑战,公然反抗) Hitler’s Luftwaffe(纳粹德国空军) bombers from behind the blackout curtains(受空袭时用于遮暗灯火的厚窗帘).
Blitz Party’s venues are specifically picked to give an authentic(可信的) wartime bunker(掩体,地堡) feel, and then kitted out(装备) with old fashioned memorabilia(纪念品) and artifacts(某一时代的典型产物)—such as sand bags, oil lamps, ration books(配给票证簿) and military bunk beds(双层床).
Swing bands, performers and DJs then bring the night alive with sounds from a bygone(过去的) era.
But the punters(顾客) don’t have it all their own way—entry into the event is restricted to those who make an effort and wear vintage(过时的) clothes from the Forties(此指1940s).
That means red lipstick, headscarves, floral dresses or penciled-on-tights(紧身衣) for the dames(女士), and allied military uniforms, fedora(一种浅顶软呢帽) hats or slacks(宽松的裤子) with suspenders(背带) for the gents(绅士).
