Let's talk about Hoi An and what it's famous for. Picture yourself walking along a typical SE Asian street: 67 shops selling water, Oreos, train tickets and soap, 24 massage parlors, 7 motorbike repair shops and the occasional guest house. Now throw in 600 tailor shops and you have Hoi An!!! Of course the road is clogged with millions of scooters, cars, trucks and buses all mashing on their horns at the same time (can anyone say annoying?).
They're really are 600 plus tailor shops here in Hoi An. They all look the same (a smattering of men's suits, dresses, pants and shirts surrounded by stack after stack of fabric) and have very similar names. So how on earth do you select the tailor of your dreams out of this madness? We turned to some friendly advice, asked our hotel and snooped around before deciding on a place called Peace. The shop is nothing special and has the same selection as anywhere else but it was highly recommended so it was the winner.
We've ordered a few things so far and I suppose we're happy with everything but I can't help but use what I like to call the 'Old Navy Test' on the clothes here. It goes something like this: I look at a particular item to get tailored and them think to myself 'can I get this at Old Navy and for how much?' I use old navy because while the quality probably isn't runway model material, the clothes tend to last (for me anyway), look ok and are generally priced right. Tailored clothes on the other hand are supposedly top quality (this is doubtful since the sweatshop slaves making the clothes probably recently escaped the Vietnam branch of the Old Navy clothes factory), should fit perfectly (false, after multiple fittings we can both attest to this) and are a great deal (also false though this depends on where you go).
Anyway, using my Old Navy test was a bad idea since it resulted in me not wanting to get anything made and that's just not much fun. Part of the tailor thing is the experience. So I bit the bullet and had a few things made. Most dudes get a suit made here which probably is a great deal (think $100'ish for a full tailored suit) and some 'smart' clothes to go along with the suit. I'm a self described LL Bean man myself. This means I generally detest suits, anything called a 'slack' and those silk nooses called ties. My real middle name is 'Sweat' and for some reason anything you wear which most people call 'nice' or 'smart' tends to have an insulation rating which the US Dept of Energy normally gives out rebates for. So in other words I had a couple of linen shirts, a thin jacket and a pair of pants made. They're not amazing but the experience was cool so in the end its a win.
Carolyn on the other hand had a few more things made which all look AMAZING on her! A few missteps in the fittings and some misunderstandings with the tailors caused some issues but it's all working out and her clothes look great!
Today we had a couple fittings at Peace and a fitting for our shoes as well. I won't bore you about the shoes but suffice it to say getting clothes made is much better experience. However Carolyn may have finally found the holy grail: boots she actually likes :)
After our morning fittings we fiddled around our Italy guide book trying to get a handle on Italy (which is overwhelming and stressful!) and then grabbed a couple bicycles and headed for the beach. The beach is called Cau Dai and is only a 15 minute bike ride from our hotel. It was awfully beautiful but super windy. We saw loads and loads of locals sitting under trees, fully dressed complete with face mask. The beach itself was nice soft sand that stretched as far as you could see in either direction. The water was freezing though. Ok maybe not freezing, more like just below bath water which is freezing in SE Asia. So we braved the cold water and crashing waves, watched kite surfers and jet skiers and people watched the local Vietnamese swimming in full outfits (like jeans, button down shirts, face mask, dresses, etc).
Had dinner at a sweet little place in town and walked around the old quarter. Watched all the chaos of Vietnam and then made our way back to the hotel.
Tomorrow is probably going to be a pool day but we'll see.
Exciting note: we've been able to catch 3 (yes 3!!!!!) Yankees games so far this season. Our hotel gets ESPN which televised quite a few Yankees games .... WINNING!
Pics:
1) Carolyn's casual dress
2) Cau Dai beach
3) me with 16 million Dong! We're millionaires!!!!!
4) Carolyn's special dress.
I love the outfits!!
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