Hoi An Hustle and Hue Heatwave
Trip Start
Mar 10, 2005
1
8
24
Trip End
Aug 02, 2005
Hue,
Vietnam
Sunday, April 10, 2005
April 5 - 8
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After having thoroughly refreshed ourselves at the lovely and classy Hoi An Riverside Resort, we headed into town to check into the atmospheric Vuong Hung I Hotel. This was the hotel where Michael Caine stayed when he was filming "The Quiet American" (albeit in the nicest room which we did not have the luxury of securing). Hoi An is well known as THE place to go for custom tailoring. Alex was a bit unsure if he was going to have anything tailored, though Amy was ready to go. We went to two shops - one was "recommended" by our hotel and one was "recommended" by our Easy Rider guides (though one of them said that he though the place was too expensive as did our hotel, of course). Being thrifty, we settled on the hotel recommendation. After printing examples of clothes from our favorite US clothing shops, we proceed to try to get replicas produced
Boiling in Hue
. For Amy it wasn't a problem. The suit jacket, pants, and skirt turned out just fine in a khaki cotton material fully lined, as did a linen tunic and navy wool/cashmere blend sleeveless dress. There were some minor adjustments but everything was adequate and indistinguishable from our brand name models, but very inexpensive.Alex, on the other hand, had quite a different experience. He had gone from not getting anything made to getting an overcoat, tuxedo, and suit tailored. Unfortunately, from the outset there were problems with the "differences" in Asian/European and American styling and fashion perspectives. Alex is quite particular about what he wears and wanted to ensure what he had made did not automatically make the "B-team" in his closet. By the time we picked up our clothes after the third fitting, the staff was a little harried by Alex and Alex was a little harried by the staff. He was minimally satisfied with what he came away with, but would not recommend the tailor, Bao Khanh, to anyone. Amy had a satisfactory experience though seeing the hassle that Alex went through would also not recommend this tailor. In the end, as it turned out, the hotel wasn't just getting a commission for recommending this second rate tailor to its guests, but the tailor was actually owned by the brother of the hotel owner. Talk about a racket! Anyways, for the amount Alex is going to wear them, the overcoat and tux will do just fine
Hoi An -- Fish Market
. "B-team" for the suit.All in all, we learned a valuable lesson that has hit home -- you get what you pay for. We decided to go with the less expensive tailor and we received average clothing.
In addition to clothes, Amy had three pairs of shoes made which was fun -- they trace your feet and made sandals for you overnight. ($4-6/pair)
Other than clothing adventure, we enjoyed Hoi An. It is a small town on the Cai River. We followed a walking tour in our Lonely Planet and got a nose full of various smells at the local market. We had a lovely dinner at the Mermaid Restaurant and over a bottle of wine enjoyed the company of the Australian couple that were on the Easy Riders tour at the same time as we were (see the rooster in the curry batter incident from our Easy Riders update). They hailed from Melbourne and gave us some pointers on our upcoming month in Australia. They were smart and chose to go with the Easy Rider's recommendation, Thu Thuy and were quite satisfied, though they paid a bit more.
Hue
April 9 - 10
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Hue is a city that was the ancient capital of Vietnam during the Nguyen Dynasty and is located not far from the former DMZ
Incense Maker outside Hue
. For us, Hue was a quick stop-over before we caught the overnight train to Hanoi. The major sights in Hue consists of a Forbidden City, enclosed by a Citadel, that was largely destroyed by US bombing and their version of the Forbidden City. It seemed pretty third-rate compared to the Forbidden City in Beijing in terms of size, splendor, and age. We hired a couple of motorbike drivers to take us around the city and saw two royal tombs that were constructed on the banks of the Perfume River. They were Tu Duc and Minh Mang. Additionally, we stopped at a US bunker overlooking a bend in the Perfume River. The US apparently controlled the flow of boats down this river, recognizing that supplies and arms flowed down the river fresh from Russia and China on their way to tunnels that lead to the DMZ. Some 1,500 US soldiers were required to undertake this task.
Our motorbike drivers took us to a roadside stand where women were making incense and typically Vietnamese conical hats. Our last stop was the Thien My Pagoda, which was made famous by the monk named Thich Quang Duc, who drove to Saigon and lit him self on fire in 1963 to protest the suppression of the Buddhist majority by South Vietnamese President Diem. Soon after this event, Diem was deposed and shot.
Hue was boiling hot during our stay. The touts and the heat made us leave the hotel just to do some touring and then return to French pastries and air conditioning at the hotel.
Though not in Lonely Planet, we stayed in a hotel recommended by a friend called Hung Vuong Inn. It was both cheap and cheerful and had a French bakery operated by an NGO in the reception.
From Hue, we boarded the overnight train to Hanoi. This 12 hour train ride landed us in Hanoi just in time for us to see the city awaking. Elderly people performed shadow boxing and exercises around the lake and cafe owners swept the sidewalks with homemade brooms.
Next update...Hanoi and Halong Bay (including a harrowing kayak trip)...stay tuned...
