Charming Hoi An (Feb. 3/09 - Hoi An, Vietnam)

The sun rose at 6am over the misty rice paddies out the window of the bus, and soon we slowed to a stop on a guiet street in Hoi An. It only took a couple tries to find a hotel with a reasonable rate, and they were nice enough to let us check in at 8am. After a much needed shower (thanks to the ocean spray at the beach yesterday) and some breakfast, we set out to explore the town.

Hoi An is described as "charming" in pretty much every description we've seen, and that turned out to be the perfect description. All the buildings in town are old, as Hoi An has been around as an international trading port since the 17th century. The streets are narrow and quiet, becoming busier toward the riverfront. The town is famous for its tailor-made clothing - of all descriptions - for very reasonable prices. As a result, the streets are full of clothing shops, each with mannequins sporting suits, dresses, skirts, coats, shirts, and even shoes. The idea is that you pick what style you like from a mannequin, catalogue, or photo you bring in, choose your fabric from the hundreds of choices, agree on a price, take some measurements, and come back later in the day to pick up your custom made clothes. Even when on a budget, a girl has to shop, so our first stop on the loop through town was at the tailor adjacent to our hotel, which is owned by the hotel owner's sister. Ken ended up getting some comfy silk pyjama pants made, while I got a black wrap dress for $25 and a pair of pinstripe cashmere dress pants for $20! I was very tempted by a ton of other clothes too (especially the cute hooded wool coats) but somehow I resisted.

We zigzagged all over town and probably passed over a hundred tailor shops. Other shops sold silk scarves and pillowcases, wood carvings, t-shirts, silk ties... the selection was huge! At one point, we ended up in the riverfront market, where locals were buying and selling all sorts of veggies and fruits, dried seafood, eggs, and live chickens and ducks. A pretty river runs though Hoi An, and it almost reminded me of Paris with little cafes along the riverfront promenade, ladies paddling wooden boats down the waterway, and people riding bikes down the streets. Colourful silk lanterns hung everywhere, leftovers from the New Year celebrations. We had a late lunch people-watching by the water, then made another pass through the busy market and worked our way back to the tailor shop to pick up our clothes. They turned out perfectly, and we certainly have nothing but great things to say about Hoi An. We dined on "con lau" (noodle soup with shrimp and bean sprouts) and "white rose" dumplings and then headed back to organize our gear for our morning trip to Hanoi tomorrow.