YES! After 4 long years of waiting I have finally returned to tailor shop paradise and have hit the shops with a vengeance - or at least for as much as my already heavy rucksack can take!
Hoi An - on the river near the coast in central Vietnam and a place where they'll draw round your feet on a piece of paper (a very large piece in both our cases!) and make you a pair of flipflops in a few hours! Bliss - anyone who has ever been shoe shopping with me will appreciate my excitement!
Much to Mik's exasperation I have also had just a couple of items of clothing made - it's very hard to resist when it costs you $7 for a pair of made to measure linen trousers. The funniest thing was that I managed to find the shop I went to the last time I was here (4 years ago), and they still had a photo of me and Julia dressed in the posh frocks we had made - very amusing. It also got them my business - because with more than 200 little tailor shops in this small town now competition is fierce. We probably say "No thank you" a hundred times a day with smiles on our faces so as not offend, and only occasionally do you get a "Why not?" thrown back at you.
Yesterday we took a break from shopping - Mik by the way has also succumbed - and cycled to the beach, which is only 5km away but when you don't get up early enough and end up cycling in the midday sun can prove a very sweaty experience. Even I was glowing slightly when we got there! Beautiful beach, and noddles for lunch and we both managed to get a bit of colour - what more can you ask for? There is such a lovely feel to Hoi An that it has been a place I have thoroughly enjoyed coming back to.
Everything is proving to be so cheap around here that we are still managing to mantain a good standard of living really and haven't succumed to skanky clothes, newly made tailored ones actually, or rooms without aircon. Mik continues to enjoy a few beers as they are the same price as a coke - 28p and you get a larger bottle! I obviously haven't been having too many of the 80p vodka tonics....! Only when we happen to bump into the same travellers doing the same route in each different place we visit - so not much then. Besides tonic water helps ward off mosquitoes (a doctor we met did actually point out you'd need to drink rather a lot of the stuff - sounds like a challenge to me!)
The money here is quite amusing. You walk around with great wads of cash in your pockets then work out you actually only have about 4 quid on you (that will however usually last the day!) the largest note you ca get is 100,000 dong - sounds a ot but it actually worth little over 3 quid! Smallest denomination we've seen has been a 200 dong note - not worth the paper it's printed on to be honest - even the locals don't seem to want then as we've seen a few lying aorund the streets!
Time to head back to the hotel now having for once stayed out of the midday sun - we quite frequently seem to be the only idiots walking arond the streets between 12 & 2pm! No wonder we are getting through about 6 litres of water a day - each! This evening we are going to be a bit cultural and go visit the Cham ruins for sunset - I'l let you know all about them next time!
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