Hoi An
We managed to get reasonable sleep on the sleeper bus despite the bone-shaking on some unsealed roads and the dangerous lurching as we ploughed through mud where construction was taking place. Just as well since had a busy day planned. We arrived at 7am and booked into the Nhi Nhi hotel that the bus dropped us at. The hotel seemed nice, though we later found it was quite damp with more than it's fair share of mosquitos but the hotel staff were really helpful and we set off after a shower into pretty Old Hoi An.
We started with a naughty breakfast at Cargo cafe on the river. As the rain was dashing down we had coffee and cointrou with Kahlua cake before setting off to the tailors the hotel had recommended.
Hoi An
Hoi An is famous for it's tailor-made clothes, and we both had budgeted for a number of new clothes to be made here. At Impressions tailors we flicked through catalogues to choose designs, then chose fabrics, agreed a price and was measured up. We thought this experience would be a dream come true, but already after choosing designs our heads were frazzled and choosing fabrics was more arduous than either of us would have guessed. Eventually after a couple of hours we had finalised all the details and deliberated over measurements for sleeves and hemlines, and we escaped, dizzy with the effort. I have bought 9 items; a coat, jeans, 3 dresses, 1 trouser suit, 1 pair of shorts and 2 shirts for US$325.
We stopped for lunch at Tam Tams; salad with lotus, shrimp, pork, mint and peanut, and pumpkin and coconut soup, and tried to stop our minds whirling. Both of us were fried with the exertion, and now second-guessing our decisions. Was that colour choice right? Should I have chosen a matching waistcoat? Will that style suit me? We couldn't seem to stop worrying, and decided that a stiff drink (and valium, which we didn't have) would help, so we agreed to set off to Treats bar whose happy hour started at 4pm.
2 hours later saw us still shopping. The 20 or so shops between Tam Tam's and the bar were all enticing and we barely escaped with our credit cards still in tact. After treating ourselves, we now wanted to buy presents and every shop tempted us. Zoe came undone when she practised her Vietnamese, asking '?' - 'How much is this?' and looked on in bafflement when the lady rattled back in Vietnamese. That kept us both smirking all evening, her a victim of her own cleverness! If anyone was in any doubt, shopping mecca is right here in Vietnam. The fashionistas have it all wrong - it's not Paris, Madrid, London - the centre of the shopping universe is Hoi An. And we LOVE it here. Plus it's charmingly beautiful, and now a World Heritage Site.
After a quick cocktail we headed back to the hotel, where we had recieved a call from the tailors to return for an amendment. They came to pick me up by motorcycle and I enjoyed another exhilarating zip down and back for a re-measure. We had been about to sort out laundry so I'd changed out of my trainers into my scrappy old flip flops that are falling apart. The wily lady spotted my splitting soles and rushed me into her shoe shop before bringing me back again. I may get new trainers....
Impressions Boutique - great tailor in a town of great tailors
We were directed to this large boutique (2 shops on opposite sides of the road and an additional shoe shop run by one lady’s sister) by our fantastic hotel and since they had been so kind we took their recommendation. The girls here are very sweet and very helpful, they are professional but they are also mischievous! In the 3 days we spent getting clothes made up we got to know them quite well and by the end they were extremely friendly! They are also excellent saleswomen so you will probably end up buying more than you intended, but the clothes were good quality and all those I have worn already have stood up well to initial wears – basically they haven’t fallen apart at the seams! Haggle as much as you can. I found the first batch I accepted the price without question, the second batch was following their wheedling and when I ummed and arrred about the price and told them I would have to knock items off to afford it, they came down significantly. Also if you post your clothes home, it’s good to know that your hotel will arrange for the post office staff to come to the hotel and package everything for you rather than you struggling down there yourself. It is quite costly to post from remote towns in Asia though, so if you can carry it to a city it might be cheaper. I would use this boutique again (in fact I probably well, since now they have my measurements you can use the website to choose fabric and choose any other designs mail order!)
Nhi Nhi Hotel, Hoi An
This a FANTASTIC hotel, well recommended. The rooms were comfortable, the ensuite/wet room was nice, the hotel itself was very pretty with a great swimming pool (though I would have felt quite exposed swimming in it owing to its location right beside the restaurant), the food was also good and so was the price at $6/night. Of particular note were the wonderful staff who were cheerful, friendly, polite and extremely helpful. They also recommended to us the Impressions boutique for all our tailoring and we found the girls there to be as sweet and as helpful. The ONLY problems with this hotel, or certainly with our ground floor rooms, were the moistness of the room and mosquitoes – the room was full of them, probably from the swimming pool right outside the window, and although we were provided with mosquito nets we still got bitten. Also the sheer dampness from the pool meant our sheets always felt ever-so-slightly damp and we got cold at night. Perhaps this wouldn’t be a problem in rooms on other floors. I would definitely stay here again though.
