Confessions of a Tailor Shop Addict
Trip Start
Oct 12, 2005
1
18
48
Trip End
Mar 31, 2006
Hoi An,
Vietnam
Friday, November 18, 2005
Hoi An is probably most well-known for its tailor shops and gourmet restaurants, which are situated in a very picturesque old quarter. Due to the plentiful shopping and good prices, it's a well-worn path on the Western tourist route. In fact, I think we've seen the majority of the travelers we met on the trip in this town at one point or another. Matt says it feels like college again. If that doesn't sound like a positive thing to you, don't worry it's pretty easy to get away from it all. We've discovered the beauty of renting bicycles to get around town. It's also a quick way to get to our tailor shop appointments and as an added bonus, the speed of the bike shields us from the many merchants who call out "Hello, hello, you come look my shop" or "Where you from? You buy from me!" Competition for western business is pretty fierce
01 On the Bus
. For example, we were carrying a new bottle of water to our hotel, the 40+ woman next door who also sells water saw us carrying the bottle water and said, "Why you not buy water from me?" She proceeded to pout like a 5 year old and say that she give us "good price, good price." Her dramatic reaction to a single bottle of water made us laugh so hard that she was able to extract a promise that she would be our exclusive water seller going forward. I have to hand it to the Vietnamese -- they know what they want and 9 times out of 10 they get it without making you feel too ripped off. The art shop on the other side of the hotel is a perfect case in point -- the owner's very friendly sister targeted us on our first day here at the hotel. We were walking on the sidewalk past her shop when the cutest little children (2 and 5) came bounding out of the shop saying "Hello, hello" (one hello is never enough) and wanting to play with us. We should have been instantly suspicious as the owner's sister, joining in on the fun, started flattering us and telling us how great we were with the kids. Then she said, "I think you like to take a look at my shop now." Matt and I started laughing and playfully accused her of using the kids to lure us into the store. She agreed and we said fair is fair, we'll come to your store tomorrow. Of course, every time we left the hotel from then on the kids were strategically placed in our path
02 Moto
. By the next day we were so hooked on the kids that we had to buy something! Thankfully, we got off easy with just a few postcards for $2 (an exorbitant price for postcards here in Vietnam)."Ken and Tailor Mania"
Before we left our on journey, we had the opportunity to meet one of Matt's mom's colleagues, Ken, who travels to Hoi An every summer. Little did we know that not only does Ken travel here every summer, he's also the most popular guy in town!
After settling into the hotel we began to visit some of the spots Ken recommended. First, we headed to Ken's favorite restaurant (Vinh Hung 1 Restaurant). We brought a photo of Ken taken with us to help communication. A few moments after showing our waitress the photo we had a large group of the restaurant staff gathered around excitedly saying, "It's Mr. Ken, Mr. Ken!" This photo has been the key to opening many doors in this town. We ate a delicious lunch and hung around the restaurant a while chatting and taking photos to send to Ken. After lunch, we went to find Ken's friend, Nhat, who he said we had to meet. We wandered past her house and started asking people if they knew her or where we could find her. We again bridged the communication gap with a photo of Ken
03 Tan Tan
. It didn't take long before Nhat's sister motored by on her scooter and offered to take us to Nhat's sister's tailor shop where Nhat worked. So the three of us piled on to one scooter and we were off. Nhat warmly welcomed us at the tailor shop and said that Ken had told her we would be coming. We chatted for about an hour and had a great time. Then we decided to get down to business and get some clothes. Five exhausting hours later, we had placed a huge order with Nhat's shop (Tan Tan - 73 Nguyen Duy Hieu St, Hoi An 0540.864421)). Who ever knew that choosing fabrics and clothing styles could be so tiring! Our order included a suit; four shirts; three pairs of pants and a dress for Kristy, a sport coat, four shirts and three pairs of pants for Matt. With the exception of one pair of pants for Kristy, we will be shipping all of these clothes home. Nhat and her family showed incredible patience with us as we fretted over fabrics and painstakingly reviewed potential clothes styles in magazines. We stayed so long they even fed us dinner! In the end we went back to the shop for a total of about three hours more for fittings and visiting. Tan Tan gave us an awesome price, had great customer service and everything fit great. Plus they had a cute baby that we could play with as we hung around. Our measurements are on file, so in the future, we can even call them and have them make up clothes and ship them to us in NY (as long as we don't get fat). The whole process was a lot of fun and is quite addictive. Today, Matt and I were walking home from Vinh Hung restaurant and caught a glimpse of a blazer that he really liked. We went into the shop and soon enough we bought the blazer and were being measured and picking fabrics for a few more shirts we'll bring with us on our travels. Thankfully getting clothes here is really inexpensive compared to the US. Otherwise, we would probably have to head home tomorrow due to lack of funds. You can even have shoes custom made for your foot for less than you'd pay for a pair at Payless
04 Tan Tan Two
.Lest you think we've become vacuous shopaholics, we're also proud to say that Nhat took us to visit the children Hoi An Orphanage that Ken works with in the summers. The orphanage has about 60 girls and boys ranging from babies to 18 year olds. There are about 20 children with severe disabilities. Before arriving at the orphanage we purchased school supplies (notebooks, paper, pens, etc...) as well as the first six books in the Harry Potter series (in Vietnamese) from local shops. We gave the supplies to the director to use wherever she felt it was appropriate. We really enjoyed the kids and especially enjoyed seeing the room that Ken built for the kids this past summer. Nhat was especially kind to chaperone us and introduce us to the staff. We now have an open invitation to come visit again unchaperoned.
"We love the smell of bug spray in the morning"
Another Hoi An activity was arranged by our British friends, Ruth and Doug (if you read the last entry you will remember we met them on the overnight train from Hanoi). They hired a car and headed out to explore the My Son Cham ruins dating from the fourth century. We left Hoi An at 5:00 am to catch the sunrise. Unfortunately it started to rain so no sunrise but we did manage to beat the rest of the tourists and have the place to ourselves
05 The Bait
. It was a very "Apocalypse Now" experience. We rode an old Marines jeep up to the ruins and explore bombed out ancient ruins covered in bullet holes (it had be used by the VC as a base during the war). Best of all, we were back in Hoi An by 9:00 am. The next day, Doug and Ruth moved on to Saigon, and the place ain't the same without them."Vietnam Meets Mexico"
The food in Hoi An is some of the best we've had in Vietnam. We highly recommend a visit to "The Mango Room" which is owned by a Vietnamese guy named Duc who was fostered by a Mexican-American family in Texas. He was one of the famous boat people who escaped Vietnam after the war. He went to Texas A&M; bummed around the world for a while and returned to Vietnam two years ago. He's a captivating guy and an amazing chef! The menu was a delicious blend of Vietnamese and Latin flavors. Ultra-hip and cool in a very non-annoying way, Duc works the restaurant like a mini celebrity; chatting up patrons with his Vietnamese / Southern / Mexican accent. Matt and I felt like we were running with the in crowd when he invited us after our meal to have a drink or two with him. Duc said the restaurant is doing great and that he regularly works 16 - 17 hour days; managing the restaurant and shopping in the local markets for ingredients. Long work days aren't really that uncommon for people here. Our friend Nhat, works at the tailor shop until 7:00 every day then attends English classes until ten, three nights a week.
Nhat and Ken's other friends here in Hoi An have been incredibly welcoming and have been a critical reason that we love it here so much. It's nice to feel like you're part of a community, if even for just a few days, while you're on the road. I think if we had a few more weeks here, we'd probably even be able to walk down the street without someone asking us to come in their shop!
