We
lucked out with the bus to Hoi An – it was quite a bit more modern
and seemed to have been designed with passengers in mind unlike its
previous incarnations. This time there was a space for your bag
rather than having to find a between the legs storage spot. It was
still, however impossible to sleep so when we arrived at bleary
o'clock in the morning we plumped for the suggested guest house so we
could put our heads down immediately.
Rested
and refreshed we rented some bikes to explore. Hoi An is yet another
UNESCO world heritage site and THE place to get clothes tailor made.
Cloth shops and bespoke tailors are literally everywhere and seem to
cater for every taste and bank balance. One boasts the Queen of Spain
as a regular customer while another will cut you a suit for $40 and
have it ready in less than a day.
The
town centre itself is very pretty and atmospheric and neon lights are
remarkably absent. One street is even pedestrianised, or at least
says that only primitive transport is allowed. I took this to mean
that cyclos and bikes are allowed but of course, like everywhere in
Vietnam, 2 wheels good 4 wheels bad so the mopeds weave in and out
too. There's also a very picturesque Japanese bridge over a tributary
of the river which runs through town. A pair of dogs, revered with
altars adorn one end with monkeys at the other indicating that the
bridge was started in the year of the dog and ended in that of the
monkey. Although it's known as the Japanese bridge, it was becoming
clear that Chinese influence was becoming more evident the further
north we travelled. As we cycled about it became apparent that our
guest house was not ideal – it was a bit out of town, more than a
bit tired and lacked internet so we booked the more centrally located
Thanh Van Hotel, which was HI affliated, had a pool, internet and a
free breakfast for just a few dollars more.
In
the evening after our cycle we sat down for a beer and a bite of the
tasty local delicacies Cao Lac, pork and veg with noodles and deep
fried wontons. We sat outside and opposite was a cloth shop, A Dong
Silk, which seemed to be one of the better ones. Well it looked nice
anyway so as were planning to get a few things made we decided to
give it a go the next day.
Once
checked into the new place we made for A Dong Silk. Neither of us
have ever had anything bespoke made for us so it was all a new
experience. We were sat down, given cold water and asked what we
wanted. The problem was we only had a vague idea. I wanted a suit or
two, maybe more and Claire wanted an oriental style dress.
The
pretty attendants dumped a few Next directories and Cosmos in front
of us and we flicked through. Not finding much in the magazines, we
described what we wanted and then the process began. We were
seperated to discuss style, fabric, cut, inners, outers, linings and
all sorts. After 2 hours we left with potential orders for 2 suits,
shirts and pairs of trousers for me, 2 dresses for Claire and a best
price of $490 – I had managed to haggle down to this from $515.
Either bad haggling or a bad discount but either way not great,
especially with P&P excluded.
We
weren't particularly impressed with the service and felt a bit ...
not rushed but somehow taken for a bit of a ride, although I must
point out that this was only a hunch. Claire chose about 10 types of
silk she liked for her dress but was told sorry not enough every time
before going for what felt like a second best option. I got the same
about suit fabrics – they only seemed to have the more expensive
fabrics in stock. Finally the bill was a lot more than I had been
expecting – we could have got some decent enough stuff at M&S
for less – even without my old employee discount! Then there was
the postage home – it seemed quite steep compared to Bolivia,
Argentina, New Zealand or Thailand.
We
decided to see if there were any recommendations on the Internet, a
few places kept coming up but one was consistently there for both
quality and price – Tony's Tailors. We rented some bikes (it's a
bit further out of town), grabbed some lunch and made for it. En
route we bumped into Nick, our
nearly-got-roped-into-busting-a-casino-friend. We joked about a
middle aged Japanese man with a suitcase asking for him at the hotel
in Nha Ttang and made arrangements to meet later on.
As
soon as we walked into Tony's it felt different. Yes we got water and
a load of magazines at the start but once we explained what we wanted
the attentive staff did what I assumed they were supposed to: guide
us through an unfamiliar process as experts and give us advice when
we needed it. Tony, the patriarch sat at the head of the table and
watched as we were whizzed around by his family choosing fabrics and
the rest. I was concerned about price again and wanted to get to
negotiations quickly so as not to waste anyone's time and ensure we
were in the right ballpark. Tony calmly sat me down at the table and
we chatted. The quote for the same items with the same if not better
quality fabrics (to my untrained eye) was considerably lower. Even
the price list for delivery to the UK was a good percentage less
expensive. We were in and out in about an hour and felt much more
comfortable with the whole experience. We would have a fitting the
next evening.
With
the tailoring thing out of the way we could get on with enjoying what
Hoi An had to offer. We met Nick at the Japanese bridge, A great man
for finding a cheap beer we went straight to a collection of open air
restaurants, somewhere in between street food and a cafe. The beers
were good and went down well and the food was excellent - we had
some great spring rolls and noodles and then Nick suggested a hot pot
– none of us had ever tried it before. They brought along a little
gas stove identical to the one which fed us all the way through our
camping trip in NZ and a plate of greens and raw beef and a dish of
noodles. A big pot was placed on the stove and we cooked the rest
ourselves. It was easily the tastiest thing we had had in Vietnam,
all added to by the novelty of cooking for ourselves.
Just
as we finished we heard the sickening thud of 2 mopeds colliding. It
was surprising that is was the first time we had seen a moped crash.
It looked bad – one rider wasn't moving. A crowd quickly gathered
but after a few minutes the drivers dusted themselves off and moved
on, laughing it off, No hassle or fuss, no police, no swapping of
insurance details and no blame – just one of those things. They do
things differently in Asia, no doubt and we were starting to admire
them for it,
Flyers
given to us over dinner lead the three of us to The Reggae Bar across
the river offering free drinks between 10 and 11. How could we
refuse? The bar was empty when we arrived but soon filled up with a
load of surly teenagers wearing beer lao singlets – so we left for
a competitor. This one was empty so we sat at the bar. The manager
was English and one of the most uninteresting people I have ever met.
He had ended up in Hoi An two years previously and had absolutely
nothing of consequence to say – strange for an ex-pat but there you
go. A Canadian and some Germans joined us at the bar and the free
drinks flowed (this bar had a happy hour too). A great night was had.
We ended back in The Reggae Bar for some reason towards the end where
they were serving rum and cokes to people without any rum. For an an
extra few thousand dong you could order a bacardi, prepared under the
bar of course to ensure the punter doesn't see it's Vietnam's finest
rather than Puerto Rico's. Nick pointed this out to the barman and
got kicked out, but only temporarily.
In
order to clear our heads the day afterwards, a scorcher, we rented
some bikes and met Nick to head to Cua Dai beach, about 5km away from
town. By the time we arrived we were sweltering. We jumped straight
into the warm water with the locals and they all joined in to our
game of frisbee. The Vietnamese just love practicing their English
with foreigners – the main question of the day focussed on whether
our respective countries were more beautiful than Vietnam. Well if
rain is beautiful, Ireland wins but my vote is for Vietnam. The
hawkers were out in force. We bought “lucky” bracelets from one
whose English was great and had such a wonderful sense of humour it
was impossible to turn her down.
On
the way home Claire disappeared. I thought puncture immediately –
it's happened enough times! I cycled back around a corner and spotted
her walking the bike along, dejectedly holding a pedal. We swapped
bikes and I finished off the trip in one-legged-push-jump-cycling
style which provoked a few mopeds-by to offer a shoulder to hang on
to. Enjoying the exercise, I declined, but was shattered by the time
we got back.
We
had another hotpot for lunch-dinner and then visited Tony's to make
sure the clothes actually fit. Claire's dresses came out first. One
was perfect but the Oriental style had an indecently long slit at the
side which needed to be fixed. My trousers were lovely but a little
tight and the one suit that was ready was fine, just a few
adjustments needed. The shirts looked and felt great so I ordered
another 3 and we arranged to come back the following evening to check
again. Amazing that Tony the Tailor was able to turn it all around in
less than a day with only a few adjustments needed. Tony had
recommended a place to get some shoes made down the road so we went
down to see what they said. half an hour later we had ordered a pair
of all leather brown shoes for me and a pair of heels for Claire to
match the fabric in her Chinese dress. It was time to get out of
there soon – the bespoke clothing bills were adding up (to not too
much admittedly).
We
knew the time for sending packages home was soon approaching so we
took the opportunity in the morning to walk around the markets and
stalls and buy some tat to put it in the box with the newly tailored
clothes. To it I added the heavy chess set which had been making by
rucksack all the more ungainly since it was bought in Laos. The
second fitting went well – all the shirts were fine and Claire's
dresses and new top also checked out. I had a few more problems with
the tightness of the trousers and suit but they were running out the
door to the factory with notes made before we even left the shop.
We
had an hour to kill before the adjusted clothes came back so we
visited the shoe shop to see how they were getting on. They were
getting on very well as it turns out – both our orders were
finished, fit perfectly and looked great (They're called The First
Shoes Shop if anyone's interested).
Back
to Tony's and all the final adjustments had been made and we were
happy with everything. Best of all they took all of the tat off our
hands, including the heave chess set. They would package everything
up for us and send it on. We didn't even need to deal with the post
office! All that was left was the issue of payment. It was
approaching $500 for the lot, including postage so I wanted to pay by
credit card. Tony's machine wasn't working. I jumped on the back of
his daughter's moped (mode of transport number 35, a while since we
had a new one and nice and unexpected!). We stopped at the shoe shop
but there's wasn't working either. We were running out of options –
I couldn't take that amount of cash out of the ATM in one day ....
that would mean 2 more days in Hoi An which wouldn't be the worst
thing in the world but not ideal. We found a third way by jumping
back on the bike and heading for another of the gazillion tailors in
town. Thankfully their's worked. We left all our stuff in Tony and
his family's care and booked the next open tour bus with seconds to
spare.
