The night bus, custom clothes, and a cooking class

Trip Start May 06, 2007

151

166

Trip End Jul 24, 2008

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Where I stayed

Thanh Binh III Hotel Hoi An

(Hoi An hotels)

Flag of Vietnam Hoi An, Vietnam
Thursday, May 29, 2008

Ah, the joys of a night bus. Upon boarding the bus I discovered that not only was my sleeper-seat in the very back of the bus on the bottom row, but that the very back of the bus contained two sets of five seats right next to each other with no space in between. Lovely. I was by the window so I would only have one person next to me. A little apprehensive, I got in my seat and waited to see who would be next to me. Unfortunately my seat mate turned out to be a really creepy Vietnamese man. When he sat down, he got a big smile on his face and sort of nestled his head near my shoulder. I scrambled out of the seat and grabbed my stuff, announcing to the bus that I would sit in the aisle, but would not sit next to that man. I brought my stuff over to the floor of the aisle next to a Dutch girl I had spent some time hanging out with and prepared to spend the night on the floor of the bus.

When the bus attendant was walking through the bus checking to see if everyone was on, he told me I wasn't allowed to sit in the aisle. At that same time, an American guy who was supposed to be in the top row of the back discovered that when he got up to use the bathroom, a Vietnamese mother and child had taken over his seat. He and I went up to the front of the bus and plopped ourselves into two seats that appeared empty. We were sitting there for all of about ten seconds before the bus attendant came over and insisted that I go back to my original seat. I made a huge stink about how that seat was not safe. I flat-out refused to sit in it since I would not risk being groped by the creepy man. I'm pretty sure the bus attendant didn't understand exactly what I was saying, but he must have understood the tone and volume of my voice. He ended up getting one of the office workers who spoke much better English to come on to the bus and insist I sit in my original seat. I once again refused and demanded that they put me in a different seat or at least allow me to sit in the aisle. Finally the American guy, who they strangely didn't seem to be pushing to sit in his original seat, said he would sit next to the creepy man if they found me a different seat. That seemed to be an acceptable compromise and I ended up sitting in the upper row right behind the driver.

Despite my new, non-creepy sleeper-seat, I still didn't sleep more than a couple of hours out of the 11-hour ride. When we arrived in Hoi An just after 6am, I was very happy to find a place to stay and get into bed for a few hours of actual sleep. Still not enough to keep me from being a walking zombie all day, but better than nothing.

Hoi An is a nice town that feels very different from everywhere else in Vietnam. The Old Town area has retained a lot of the French feel from back in the day. Within the Old Town, just about every other storefront is a tailor shop - there are supposedly over 500 of them in Hoi An. They're all relatively cheap, but not dirt cheap, and are of variable quality. Since I hadn't met anyone who loved anything they had made, I decided to start out with a few items that I could use during the rest of my trip, like a linen skirt for $8, a pair of capris for $10, and a bikini for $15, all from different shops, and then if I liked them I'd have more made at the shop I liked best. When all was said and done, I spent $139 on the above items plus a pair of pants, ballet flats, and two fall-weight coats - one long and one short.

Overall the quality isn't great and most of them fit good enough but aren't perfect. The coats are by and far the best quality and fit, but were also the most expensive - $38 a piece. All of the items required multiple fittings and fixings, which most of the shop-workers didn't like. I even got in an argument with the woman who was making my bikini since even though she took all my measurements, it kept coming back with the bottom not completely covering my butt - unacceptable by my standards. She even had the gall to tell me it was because I had such a big butt that it wasn't fitting. I merely retorted that my butt was just as big two days ago when she measured it, so she should have made the bottom big enough to fit it. Finally after threatening to sit in her shop all day telling other customers about how terrible she was, she agreed to remake it so it actually fit me. In contrast, the woman at the shop where I had the coats and capris made was absolutely wonderful. When the tailor she works with didn't want to do the detailing on the pocket that I had asked for on the short coat, she told her that I threatened not to pay for the jacket if it didn't have that detailing (I had done no such thing - and instead even thought up a couple of other ways to add different detailing that wouldn't take as much time).

From everyone I've talked to it sounds like the tailor shops in general are all hit or miss. No one was 100% happy with everything they had made. Basically, when you pay Old Navy prices, you get Old Navy quality. If you want Armani quality, you have to pay Armani prices. And even though the clothes are all custom-made I've met very few people who have felt that they fit like a glove. Oh well. I've already shipped the coats to Boston (along with a couple of silk scarves I bought in the market for just over $3 a piece), so I'll find out how good their quality is come September or October when they arrive and I start wearing them.

In addition to buying clothes, I spent a lot of time in Hoi An focused on food. I had some really good meals, found a cafe with excellent chocolate mousse cake, and took another cooking class. I'd rank this one about tied with the one in China, but below the one in Thailand. They did a great job of accommodating for my vegetarianism, but I felt the class as a whole was really rushed. The chef raced through his explanations and then tried to push everyone to go faster during the hands-on portion. The class would have been much better if they just added an extra half-hour and slowed everything down a bit. But the market-tour was really good (I learned that you should not say yum in regards to food in Vietnam since it means horny in Vietnamese). And the class was held at a beautiful restaurant about 20 minutes down the river by boat. It made for a nice day.

I also ate an amazing dinner at Cafe de Amis, a Vietnamese restaurant on the river right in the center of the Old Town. The only food they serve is three set menus - vegetarian, meat, or seafood. I went to dinner with a Dutch couple and all three of us loved the food. It's relatively expensive by Vietnamese standards - 100,000 dong or about $5.50 - for a five course meal. But it was well worth the money.

I kept planning on going to China beach, about a 20-30 minute bike ride from town, but instead ended up spending my time at the pool at my guest house. I decided to splurge and stay at the really nice $18 a night guest house that had a great pool, air conditioning, cable tv, and a breakfast buffet all included. It seemed like a good time for me to have a vacation from my typical budget lifestyle and I very much enjoyed it. Plus the pool was a great place to meet other people and hang out.

After 4 nights in Hoi An I decided to leave as soon as my second jacket was finished. I didn't really want to get anything else made, but had a feeling I'd end up buying something else if I stayed another night, so the best way to ensure that didn't happen was to keep on moving up the coast.