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Hoi An
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Hoi An is quite a small town, which has become a tourist destination due to a huge number of tailors who can make almost any garment you like simply from a picture in a catalogue, some measurements, and your choice of fabrics. The area has been badly affected by recent flooding in this part of the country and half the town and most of the surrounding countryside was underwater. This also meant that the river and the beach were out of action for the duration of our stay.
We arrived in Hoi An at around midday after about 17 hours on the bus. We were starting to get the hang of long buses by now, although sleep doesn't come easily, and the seats are most definitely not designed with a 6ft 3 plus passenger in mind! We managed to find a decent guest house pretty quickly, and spent the rest of the day looking around the town and enjoying the happy hour prices. Feeling a bit flash, we decided to splash out on what turned out to be one of the best meals we'd had so far on our travels. Vietnamese cuisine so far had been uninspiring, but the food in Hoi An was heavily influenced by the Chinese, who had quite a large presence in the town.
The next morning we took a stroll to the market, half of which was still under water, then set about getting involved in what Hoi An is all about, cheap suits! We asked in a few places, and eventually settled on one which quoted around US$55 for a suit jacket and trousers. We picked our suites (from the Next 2007 catalogue!) and the materials, and were told they would be ready by 8 o'clock that evening! With not much else to do in the town, we got back to enjoying the happy hour cocktails, and, after visiting the Japanese covered bridge, we returned to the tailors. To our surprise, both suites were finished and looked pretty good, with just a few further alterations required to get a tighter fit. Flis was so impressed she agreed to get a new dress as well!
The next day we took a minibus to the temple ruins at My Son, 40km out of Hoi An. Construction at this site dates back to the 4th century, and the standing temples are quite impressive. Unfortunately, as our guide was quick to point out, a large part of the temple complex which had stood for hundreds of years, was leveled by the Americans during the Vietnam war. We also saw some Cham dancers while we were there, but the bad weather put a bit of a dampener on things. We got back to Hoi An in the afternoon and went to get another suit fitting. Flis's suit was now perfect, and the dress required only minor alterations which were done on the spot. However, we soon noticed that Henry's suit had a pretty large flaw. The fabric was in a square pattern, and whilst the vertical lines all appeared straight, the horizontal lines on the back sloped off to one side - pretty shoddy work. Unfortunately this couldn't be fixed, and rather than spending an additional $30 on a suit he'd never wear, he decided to leave both it, and the deposit, behind. Pretty gutting but a lesson learnt.
In the afternoon we hired bikes and cycled to the beach, but quickly headed back when we got there due to the bad weather. It was then back on the bus for 12 hours to Nha Trang... More thumbnails ...
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