Hoi An

  Hoi An, Vietnam
Saturday, May 17, 2008

We arrived at our hotel just before lunch and were taken on a whistle stop tour of the tailors by our guide Nicki who introduced us to the various owners who would offer us a 10% discount that had been agreed by Intrepid.  After a bite to eat in another excellent charity run restaurant it was time to hit the shops.  Maud already had a hit list of items she wanted making as did I, so to start off we headed to the high end tailors for a suit for me and a dress for Maud.  All the shops will make anything you like and you can take your own design or pick something from the 100s of pictures and catalogues they have - they even have the latest Next Directory.  An hour later we emerged having had every part of us measured and having ordered 3 suits for myself, plus a shirt and tie and a suit, dress and shirt for Maud all made to measure by the next afternoon.  We then hit the market for some cheaper stuff.  Being a shortie Maud always struggles to get jeans to fit so was pleased to find that she could get a made to measure pair for $18 - so ordered two pairs plus a few more shirts.  As I was in the process of ordering mine Maud was accosted by a lady wanting to make her some shoes and when I caught her she'd picked a design material and heel for the shoes that would be ready the next day for $16. Allegedly "heading straight back to the hotel" she left me to order myself a handmade pair of leather shoes.  All the tailors have pre-made examples of clothes hanging outside on mannequins so I can't say it was that unexpected to find that on her way back she's managed to order another dress (with matching shoes) , a coat and a top.  The justification being that she still hadn't spent as much as she would on a posh dress from the UK store Coast....
 
That evening we went to a fusion restaurant and then on to a bar for a few drinks.  As we were finally at the beach it seemed only fit that we should head to a beach party.

Hannah & Helen at the Beach Party

In the end we rolled in at 4am with the most hardcore appearing at 7am having seen the sunrise.  Thankfully we had timed our fittings for late afternoon.  Most things needed tweaking slightly so we did what we had to do and then headed off for an early night.
 
On our third day we had final fittings later in the day so decided to get back to our Bermuda roots and hire a scooter for the day to see a bit of the area.  We went to the beach but the weather wasn't too nice so decided to head north up the coast.  About 10km out of Hoi An we found the development called the Nam Hai that one of my clients had invested in.  Maud being quite nosy and wanting to know what more than a million dollars will get you in Vietnam we went in and asked to see a similar style villa.  The place blew us away...  We were shown around by a Dutch guy who was the head of sales.  It was so different to the Vietnam outside but somehow had still retained a lot of the local feel.  The designers had built the complex around an existing Bhuddist shrine and the staff and locals still used it regularly.  There are triple the number of staff to guests and it is one of the few places that still has the grass cut with scissors.  The 3 bed villa was the most amazing suite of rooms that we have seen anywhere - I won't rant on about big tvs and floating beds so if you're interested you can see it in the pictures- though they don't quite convey the size of the villa. 

The Nam Hai

Unfortunately our budget didn't run to $2,600 a night so we thanked the staff for our tour and walked past the fleet of resort Lexuses back to our scooter - not so sleek ! It had been good to see what my investment management skills had been used for seeing the property in the flesh, it was so much better than I had seen on the internet.
 
On the way back to Hoi An we managed to get a puncture but luckily about 500m along the road there was a bike workshop.  The lad said he'd fix it straight away so while we were given some rottenly strong coffee from his mum we discussed how much it would cost.  Having suffered Bermuda's silly high prices for a few years and Maud having paid about $80 for a similar repair in the past we were gob smacked to find that all he wanted was just over a dollar.  We gave him 30,000 Dong (about $1.80) and he was even honest enough to tell us we had paid too much but delighted when we said it was for him.  It is so nice to find  in this part of the world where people are literally living from dollar to dollar that no-one really tries to seriously rip you off and will always help you if they can.
 
We collected all our clothes that now fitted perfectly and headed back to box it all up to be shipped back to the UK.
 
After a nice relaxing few days on the coast its back to chaos and Ho Chi Minh City