Hoi An - Tailor Capital of Vietnam

Hoi An is known for its architecture and the old streets.  However, there just happens to be LOTS of tailors who can replace your whole wardrobe in a day including new shoes made just for you!  If shopping is not your gig, you can go to Cua Dai beach to chill out!

pretty valley along the way

On our first night, we did a "bad" thing (not really but we would not want to do this all the time)...the hotel had a DVD player we could rent for $3 a day.  So, we watched the rest of our Prison Break Season 1.  Yes, we watched about 8 episodes, ordered pizza in our room and had a few Biere Larues. (Side note, Jana LOVES Biere Larue and would rank it as the 3rd best beer of the trip after Speight's and Tui from New Zealand).  While we missed time with our group, we were so thrilled to just have a night of us!

local girl makes herself at home in our bus

Yes, we had a few things made for us...tried to catch up on email and blogs too.  This place has more than enough options for shopping.  Every shop you pass by has a sales woman saying "you come in my shop" or "you buy something" and if you say no, they reply with "why"?...so interesting to see the sales approach in all the countries.

Layton had a couple shirts made.  Jana had some pants, shorts and bags made.  We learned the best way to have something made was to take them a piece of clothing you loved and have them replicate it!  Easy enough.  That is what Jana did with all of her goods and ended up loving them.  However, the linen pants needed to be soaked in fabric softener to make them a bit more comfortable.  So, one of the wonderful ladies at the hotel wrote it in Vietnamese for me to show at the market.  Guess what!  They had Downy at the first place we tried. So helpful to have the name written out so they could help me find it quicker.  It was a bit watered down but it was still the same stuff we use at home!

local women selling crap on beach

We rented bikes to ride to the beach which was about a 25 minute bike ride.  The beach was really nice and clean too.  Yes, there were plenty of women there to sell you bracelets, pineapple, cigarettes, sunglasses and just about anything else you wanted/needed.  We saw some fisherman out in the ocean in their circular basket boats.  You will see a picture of one with Jana taking a seat in a vacant boat to show you how small these are.  Unbelievable.  Jana had a hard time just sitting in it, much less trying to fish out of the darn thing. 

We had some great food while we were here.  Jana finally found some fresh spring rolls that met her expectations as well as some peanut sauce.  It seems we have "westernized" this treat quite excessively because these were not that easy to come by.  We went to one restaurant called Morning Glory that served great crab wontons and rice pancakes.  Jana also had Cao Lau which is rice noodles with bean sprouts, pork bits and a light sauce...very yummy.  We did have cheap beer here too.  We had 4,000 dong beers (about 25 cents) before heading to Mango Room which was the nicest restaurant we went to on the entire tour.  They had very fun drinks and wonderful food.  While it was MUCH more expensive, it was still only about 30 dollars for some very gourmet type eating.  The best part was we got to meet the chef and come to find out he was an AGGIE!  Class of 1996!  He was a civil engineer major and had lived in Austin, San Antonio and Dallas....before coming back home and opening a GREAT restaurant! 

bathroom on the back of boat

Dean had arranged for the post office to come to our hotel so people could ship items home.  We thought it would be fun for you to know just how much some people took advantage of the cheap clothes and shoes!  We air shipped about 1.5kg home for about $23. Our friends spent anywhere from $125 - 200 to ship items home.  One girl had so much that she ended up having to ship it by ocean because it was just too much to go air.  It was fun to see all the items people created and the stories that went with them. 

We made friends with a vendor lady just outside the hotel too.  Her name was Mong.  She would always greet us coming and going.  We got our bikes from her as well as bottled water and a few snacks too! 

Jana getting in a fishing basket

Cheese

this is not easy

easy Grace

REALL big flip flops

Vietnamese fisherman

Old woman selling goods on beach

Mango's kitchen

Mango's prep station