Some sweet tailoring

Trip Start May 08, 2008
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Trip End Ongoing


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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Our overnight bus journey from Nha Trang was about as good as any bus journey for a 6 ft man in a 5 ft 8 space can be. It would have been a whole lot better if the driver hadn't beeped so much, not sure why he needed to with so little traffic on the nighttime roads in the middle of the night. That was the downfall of the front row seats we got but we've been on worse bus journeys....Costa Rica to Panama last year? Ouch. This bus at least had fully reclining seats.

Anyway if Hoi An is famous for one thing its tailors, capable of turning out a suit in just a few hours. After finding a hotel following our 6.30am arrival we were immediately recommended one tailor by our hotel and several others recommended themselves as we passed on our way to breakfast. Peace was the operation recommended by the hotel and they turned out to be excellent, making us look very smart indeed in nice tailored suits and shirts. I can't remember the last time we looked even half way scrubbed up! Anyway the prices are incredibly reasonable and for the cost of just one (mid price) suit in Dublin we got plenty made (all in preparation for getting back in the office world in Oz). On our last day they told us about a good shoemaker down the road so I ordered a pair of shoes too and hey presto they were ready and fitting perfectly after 4 hours! Its all a little ridiculous and hard to resist ordering more. Add in the fact that the post office come to your hotel and wrap and send everything for you and its very tempting to splash out. We mostly resisted and just posted some clothes to Sydney (thanks Hogie) for any interviews we might have.

Hoi An probably turned out to be our favourite place so far. Its a really beautiful old town, fairly unspoiled by development and with a great atmosphere. There's lots of nice places down by the river where you can sip on some of the local bia hoi (fresh beer) for the equivalent of about 12c in euro and watch the world go by. They also have some excellent local specialities like wantons and spring rolls so we ate like horses. Add in a great beach situated a relaxing 6km cycle away and all the ingredients are there. The first day we reached the beach we took a right and stayed cycling until we reached a place where there were no other people except for a Vietnamese family who came down to watch fascinated as the two white folks threw a frisbee! Its good to be popular.

Anyway like I say this place was just great to spend some time in so we decided to scrap our plans to visit Hue and Danang and stay a couple of days more. Maybe our favourite town so far.
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