Hoi An

We arrived in Hoi An by sleeper train and were very efficiently met at the station by the hotel taxi. The hotel was recommended to us by our Ching Mai trek friends Ethan & Rachel and it was superb. The best banana pancakes in the whole of S.E. Asia and fabulously helpfull staff. Hoi An is a beautiful town full of character with wonderful coffee shops mixed in with local restaurants nestling in amongst wonderfully rustic and ageing French colonial buildings. The streets are full of artists galleries, weaving and embroidery shops.. and tailors. Tailors, tailors tailors. You cannot walk more than 5 metres without passing one. We somehow got caught up in it all and managed to spend the next 4 days in tailors shops, choosing fabrics and having clothes fitted, altered and refitted. There's a lot of differences in the standards between some of the shops, but you really can't complain about the prices anywhere. Especially when a tailored suit can cost as little as $70.
On the first day we bumped into Sophie & Simon, some lovelies that we met though our Brighton friends Marc & Sorcha. From then on the four of us staggered from tailors to tailors pausing only for a cheeky beer, (or in Simon's case - a cheeky chocolate mouse), or a quick fish in banana leaf.
Our shopping became more & more frenzied as we egged each other on, "Go On Simon. Buy another thirty shirts.", and, "Wow! That pink dress looks great on you Sophie. Why not get another thirty in every colour of the rainbow?", and helped persuade one another that buying more and more clothes was in our interests as they were so cheap compared to home, better made and nicer than 'Hennes' and we'd not have any spare cash when we got home anyway. Simon eventually won the top prize and managed to buy 39 tailor made shirts in what felt like under an hour. Very useful for work especially when you have one for every day of the month and a few spare for those unforseen moments.
All of our plans of updating the blog and arranging the rest of our travels went out of the window as we desperately tried to squeeze in fittings at Yalay at 11am, 'Funky Fabrics' at 2pm and Number 27 at 5. Beth & I lashed ut on a few essentials too such as linen summer trousers, skirts and kimonos. Yes, you heard right. Kimonos. We also had a suit or two made.



On our last day we managed to get a moto to the beach for a couple of hours, which was blissful, but difficult to relax... Surely we had a fitting to be at?

Evenings passed wonderfully drinking a lot more than we should in great company and marvelling at how much food Simon can eat. He also did a truly amazing job trying new things he'd never dared to eat before. Fish being the main one. We were more than happy to find out that, as their millions of fittings had overrun, Sophie & Simon had decided to postpone their flights to Hanoi so that we could all head that way together.