In our last trip, 'he' wore leather hikers, I tripped the light fantastic in my new gortex hikers.
If you are in any corner of the world where shoe shining is still on offer, beware leather shoes.
It was not unusual to be trailed by a mob (a happy one admittedly, consisting mostly of boys and their tools of trade), calling out their offers.
The problem came when occasionally he succumbed to a shine, fights can and did break out amongst the shiners and we had to walk away.