Bechyal Village Beach, Yap, FSM

Leslie's brother's wife, Danka, has a business here in Yap. Part of our day trip was to get pictures of Stella in authentic Yapese dress. I got to join in on the photo shot. This is one of my better pictures of the shoot, when Stella was joined by her nephew. He is dresses in a Thu and she is dresses made with dyed hybiscus fibers, a coconut fiber lei.

Yapese women are traditionally topless. The locals here often wear t-shirts in town. The outer island women may not do that. They are topless and wear a Lavalava which is a colorful wrap-around skirt tied at the waist.

Both local and outer-island men are topless and wear thus. The h is silent in thu, so it sounds similar to the number two). The Yapese thu covers the front completely but shows the man's, shall we say, lower cheeks. The outer-island thu is worn a little different and covers the majority of the behind. In formal dress the Yapese men would wear three thus, a white, then blue, and then red. This is followed by a coconut fiber sash.