Shopping Spree in Hoi An

Vietnam Trip - Days Nine, Ten and Eleven

Sorry for not keeping this travel blog up to date over the past few days. It's not that it's been difficult to find an Internet connection or anything... We've just been too busy shopping. Seriously. In fact, I think it's safe to say that We have no idea what Hoi An actually looks like. I accidently stumbled into the Old City today, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the old buildings were quite beautiful. What can I say: T and I take our shopping *very* seriously.

The past three days have been a whirlwind of stores, catalogues, measurements, looking at fabrics, fittings, more fittings and whipping out our credit cards. And we're not talking just a few hours a day either, but eight to ten hours per day. Who knew that getting your clothes tailored was a full-time job! It has been an overwhelming and exhausting experience, but I am pleased to report that I ended up with several very nice and unique pieces.

Most of my clothes were made at Yaly Couture, which has a reputation for being the best tailor shop in Hoi An (The Land of Tailors"). Yaly tailored me three pairs of thai silk pants (red, white and brown), a blue thai silk jacket, a black and red chinese brocade dress jacket, a long black thai silk dress jacket (with red buttons to match a pair of the pants), a burgundy chinese brocade kimono, and a fushia/yellow Vietnames top (called "au-zai" but I don't know how to spell it).

There are two different Yaly Couture locations in town and we had articles made at both. At the original Yaly (we refer to it as the busy Yaly) I was helped by a very sweet woman named Lotus. She made the experience of having clothes made a lot of fun and did a really great job of helping me get the right fit. At the other Yaly (we call it the second or quiet Yaly) I was helped by a woman named Sylvia. She was a bit less fun, but she did a fantastic job -- some of my items were perfect on the first try and it usually takes at least 2-3 fittings to get things just right! I love everything I had made at Yaly. I also had a red/black/gold "au-zai" top made at a random tailor (which turned out okay and were really cheap), and a pair of black satin pajama bottoms and purple/blue silk capri pants made at the Hoi An Cloth Market (also turned out okay and were really cheap).

Yes -- we are totally spoiling ourselves and we know it. In fact, we might even be proud of it. But what if I told you that all of those items -- which you can't buy off the rack in Canada -- cost under $380? And hey -- it's not every day that you get to have clothes made for you.

I should mention that Tianne has also been getting lots of clothing made, but the "Tailor Gods" have not always been on her side. She is out right now for (fingers crossed) the last round of alterations on a few pieces that are still at Yaly. Everyone has a different helper when you go into a tailor shop, and there are an army of helpers standing by. Tianne has unfortunately not drawn the cream of the crop. I'm pretty sure that everything will look great when the alterations are done though.

It has been very interesting to travel and shop with Tianne, and we're definitely getting to know each other a lot better. I was surprised to learn that she's not overly adventurous with colors, and she was surprised to learn that I am. I have been completely amazed at her creative ideas and design sense, and her determination to have her own designs made (which has been very successful). Tianne has discovered that I have a pretty good eye for finding unique fabrics and colors.

We are also very good at convincing each other to buy things when we probably shouldn't -- particularly in bulk. One additional suitcase has been purchased, and it's likely that we'll have one more as there are still ten more days to go!

It is May 10th today and this will be our final night in Hoi An. We've enjoyed spending time with Lindsay from Toronto who has been sharing a room with. She's reconnected with her travelmates and we'll be parting ways tomorrow. Lindsay is a couple months into a trip through Southeast Asia and China. Tianne and I were unfortunately a very bad influence on Lindsay, who also had several things tailored over the past three days. We wonder how much Lindsay is going to have to cut back her trip based on our shopping spree :-)

We've already stayed one night longer than originally planned, and it's time for us to move on. We're now at the halfway point in the trip. We're going to hire a car to drive us to Danang at around noon tomorrow (one hour north) and then we'll catch a 2:20pm plane from Danang to Hanoi (which takes about an hour).

Based on what we've read and heard from other travellers, we don't think there is much to see in Hanoi. The current plan is to spend just one night there. We're using Hanoi as a launching point to reach Halong Bay as we can't get any closer from here. Oh well, Hanoi is only about two hours from Halong Bay. We'll probably be in Halong Bay for a couple of days, but we'll make our final arrangements tomorrow night.

We are thinking about flying from Hai Phong (near Halong Bay) to Saigon (HCMC), and then continuing from Saigon to Phu Quoc Island in the Indian Ocean (look below Laos on the map - it's still in Vietnam though). The main reason for going is to put in some more beach time -- it has been more than a week since we've been at the beach after all!!! It is also supposed to be a really beautiful area. When we've we'll return to Saigon through the Mekong Delta... It takes 2.5 hours by hydrophoyle to travel from Phu Quoc to Rach Gia in the delta. We'll post more trip details when we figure them out.