My traveling hats - Around the World in 98 Days

[Shanghailander]

On a related topic, when I was tramping through the countryside, I came across this strange scene. Dozens of moles, dead, strung up on a barbed wire fence. I was told this was the work of a molecatcher, who is also paid by the number of moles he catches.

 

[Shanghailander]

In York, there is an incredible railway museum. Anyone interested in the Golden Age of rail travel should visit. It will make you pine for the 1920s and 1930s. Even the third class carriages look better than today’s Amtrak. Here is a poster promoting the boat train from London to Europe. If this isn’t emblematic of the Golden Age, I don’t know what is!

And who from the Fedora Lounge wouldn’t want to travel on this sleeper?

Here’s a shot of the compartment inside

And one of the travelers

Not exactly Golden Age, but how about this 1958 Jowett Jupiter? [P1010024]

 

[Shanghailander]

After York, I took the train down to Birmingham, where I popped into the museum, home of the largest collection of Pre-Raphaelite art in the world. And finally, I came across an Englishman wearing a hat! He confirmed what I had already observed – virtually nobody wears hats in the UK. He is wearing what is called a Trilby, and it is vintage, from Sotheby’s in London. (I thought they were auctioneers only?)

Outside, I ran across this fellow from Northern Cameroon, wearing a traditional hat.

 

[Shanghailander]

From Birmingham, I made my way to Norwich, in Norfolk, or East Anglia, where there were hundreds of air bases during the war. I then caught an evening train to London, and waited in the first class lounge there (ah, such a civilized way to travel) before taking the sleeper train to Penzance. (This train, along with the London to Edinburgh train, re the only two sleeper routes in the UK.) We left at just before midnight, and arrived at 8AM
in Penzance, just ten miles from Land’s End (geographic point, not catalogue people). After seening those vintage carriages in the railway museum, the sleeper was a bit disappointing. And no dining car – just a snack/bar car.

 

[Shanghailander]

After Penzance, I took the train up to Bristol, site of a famous suspension bridge designed by the great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. You can be damn sure I fastened my wind cord when walking across this span!

 

[Shanghailander]

Have moved on to Bath, Brighton, Dover, and finally London.

Hats continue to be scarce here.

There is a museum of costume in Bath, England. Though women’s fashions are well represented, men’s clothing after 1850 is not. The reason is that the earlier clothing, made of silk, was preserved, while after 1850 wool was used mostly and it did not last as well. There were only two hats in the exhibit – this brown beaver skin top hat, and a classic English bowler.

A pair of spectators, as well as several examples of spats, are also on display.

 

[DOUGLAS]

Absolutely spectacular!!!! Thank you. I am thoroughly enjoying your traveloge.

 

[Shanghailander]

Well, I have spotted and honest to goodness hat on the Underground. This picture, taken on the Picadilly line, shows someone in my car wearing a Trilby.

 

[Shanghailander]

On my last day in the UK I decide to make a quick trip to the small village of Waltham-on-the-Wolds. To do so, I travel first class in Virgin Train Line's new Pendolino class of train.

This is the closest, I think, that anyone can come to Golden Age Train Travel in the present day. These trains rocket along at up to 125 mph (by contrast, most trains in the USA are limited by a 79 mph speed limit) and it is a common sight to go blasting past traffic on the highways. The carriage actually tilts as the train thunders around the curves, to make for a smoother ride.

Each wide, comfortable seat has a table, there are complimentary drinks (I had a London Pride lager on the trip back) as well as meals which are served to you by the stewards or stewardesses. You can fire up your laptop or listen to the onboard music programs, and wifi is supposed to be in the works. The ride is quiet and smooth as the English countryside whips by your window. This is the way to travel!

I have not traveled first class on Amtrak's Acela between DC and Boston, but it might be similar. Don't know about the free booze though.

 

[Shanghailander]

After navigating Heathrow (a disaster) and losing my contact lens solution to the security checkpoint (at 105 ml it was over the 100 ml limit) which aggravated me to no end, I boarded a 747 for the 12 hour flight to Hong Kong.

My hat? No shortage of places to put it! I could have put it in my own private overhead compartment, but the stewardess obligingly put it on the top shelf in the first class compartment, where it was the sole occupant.

In the Golden Age, passengers making this trip by air would have gone by flying boat, landing each night and staying at a hotel along the way, which hugged the coasts, before going on to Hong Kong, Singapore, or Australia. The type of trip, which took five days, is commemorated on the complimentary toiletries bag British Air gives out to its first class passengers.

As it is, current conditions are not too shabby. Gourmet meals, an extensive wine list, and an after dinner port get me ready for bed. The seat turns into a lay flat bed, with privacy walls around it. Two hours after I wake up, I am in Hong Kong.

Tomorrow I am taking the overnight sleeper train to Shanghai.

 

[Shanghailander]

Shanghai, the anti-hat capital of the world!

13 million people, one fedora - mine!

In one week in the city, walking dozens of miles, I see exactly zero hats being worn.

It's not as though the Chinese don't have a history of wearing dress hats. Look at any photo of 1930s crowds in Shanghai, and you'll see hundreds of them, wearing fedoras, or panamas in the summer, often with the long Manchu gown instead of western dress.

I was told there was a prestigious hat shop on Nanjing Road, but with the collapse of the market for hats, it was forced to move to less expensive digs.

The selection and quality were awful!

 

[Shanghailander]

Hong Kong, former bastion of British Imperialism in the Far East.

The hat situation is better than in Shanghai, but only barely.

It is November, though quite warm - in the low to mid 70s. In one day, I must see thousands of people and I spot two hats - a panama and a fedora.

This fellow is striding under the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, an enormous and stunning building with huge open spaces.

Later, I spot this guy wearing a fedora - the weather is a little too warm for it, I think, but I was wearing mine, too.

I am headed for Australia in a few days, to enjoy the Southern Hemisphere winter!

 

[Shanghailander]

While on the plane enroute to Sydney, I read the Sydney Morning Herald, and find two items of hat related interest.

The first is a book review about the very last Debutante Season in London, 1958. There is a photo of the Debs with their top hatted escorts, awaiting entrance outside the gates of Buckingham palace.

The second article is about the upcoming auction of a Victoria Cross awarded to a WW I soldier. (It ends up selling for about half a million dollars). The previous Australian VC which was auctioned sold for 2 million; it was the last of nine Australian VCs awarded at Gallipoli; purchased by Australian billionaire Kerry Stokes, it joined the other eight at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Photo accompanying the article showed WW I vets greeting the Queen on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the medal. Note that although one veteran is sporting a bowler, the others have opted for Trilbys.

 

[J. M. Stovall]

As for freighter travel, several agencies handle the bookings, though no one agency handles all the various lines.

Its a great way to travel if you like solitude or want to catch up on writing or reading.

Found this:
INTERNET GUIDE TO FREIGHTER TRAVEL

 

[Mr. Rover]

13 million people, one fedora - mine!

I know how you feel- I was the only fedora wearer during my whole trip there.

 

[canucklehead]

Wow.

Never in a million years would I have thought that one could buy passage on a freighter any more. Now that I know better, I might actually realize my dream of a transatlantic voyage by ship one day.

The only problem? I get seasick on wet pavement.

Well... I may be exaggerating a little, but boats and my belly don't have a great history together.

That being said, I wish you luck finding fedoras Down Under. This trip sounds like a blast.

-Mike

 

[Shanghailander]

Lots of hats down under! Sydney, Alice Springs, Ayers Rock, and Melbourne - many Panamas, and of course Akubras.

I visit the Strand hatters to buy a Panama, and walk out with a nice Italian Bali Buntal. You can see me wearing it on the Sydney Bridge (with a windcord!) here:http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=14208

The store is located in a very old shopping arcade in Sydney. I don't buy a Akubra but they give me a box to carry my new hat around in.

All sorts of hats available here.

A good selection of Panamas

And a whole flock of Akubras

And a few more:

You can even buy a fez here:

 

[Shanghailander]

I head out to Alice Springs - in the middle of the outback, or the Red Heart of the country.

Quite a few hats around. From the Alice I head out to Ayers Rock, 220 miles away through the desert. Here is a shot of my on top of Ayer's Rock - a strenuous climb in the heat.

The next day, I take the Greyhound bus back to Alice Springs. The bus driver wears an Akubra with his company issued uniform.

In Sydney, where I am scheduled to give a talk at the State Library of New South Wales, I discover that I have left my jacket and dress shirt in Hong Kong! (I hate it when that happens.) There is nothing for it but to head to downtown, pop into a department store, and get new ones. My shirt was a custom made one, but I pick up a nice replacement. After looking over the selection of sports jackets, I decide that for just a little more, I can get a nice, tropical weight wool suit - I pick out a dark pinstripe number. Add a blue tie, tastefully decorated with small kangaroos in the pattern, my new "panama" hat, and my spectator shoes, and - voila - I am looking good. Before the talk, the photographer asks me to pose for a few photos - and she reminds me to grab my hat, guessing that I am the type who is recognizable by his hat. I will see if she will send me copies I can post here.

Oddly enough, the kangaroo tie garners several compliments, while the hat gets two, and the shoes only one.

 

[RBH]

Thanks for the post!

Your pics of Strand Hatters hat make me think of an old country saying
'that could make you slobber on yourself 'lol lol lol
Love the pics and do try to post one of you in your suit and hat.

This is the hat that really caught my eye.
<a href="http://imageshack.us"><img src="http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/1368/strandlc6.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us" /></a>
Thanks for the photos.

 

[Shanghailander]

Melbourne! It is 95 degrees here, and the sky is filled with smoke from bush fires which are blazing away. Walk outside and it smells like a barbecue. City dwellers complain about the heat, but they don't know what heat really is - the humidity is only 10%, and I walk all over the city, sporting my new Panama.

This is Adam, who I spot in the Southern Cross Railway Station, wearing his stingy.

Adam says hats are coming back - he is noticing more and more people in Melbourne wearing them, though he admits for some it might be merely a fad. His stingy is actually Chinese - he picked it up in Shanghai, though Melbourne does have a great hat shop near the other main station, Flinders Street Station. We commiserate about the plethora of baseball caps (yes, even in Australia). Adam gives me directions to the hat store, and I tell him to check out the Fedora Lounge.

Unfortunately, by the time I make my way over there, it is closed. Here are a few shots.

As the late afternoon crowds thin out, I continue my exploration of the city.