Hoi An, "Why Not?"

Hoi An is both a sleepy and charmingly romantic town and a shopper’s paradise with over 200 tailor shops.  On the coast of the South China Sea in South Central Vietnam this picturesque village is inhabited by approximately 120,000 natives and highly trafficked by tourist and backpackers alike.  Todd and I first heard about this location from Emily, a friend we had met on our Halong Bay trip.  She raved about her “made to measure” clothing and what a fun, glamorous experience it had been.  I quickly added Hoi An to our travel destinations and pegged the clothing I would have made as my upcoming birthday giftJ

After a head spinning morning of scouting, we finally decided to go with Number One Design on Tran Hung Dau Street.  The shop didn’t offer anything that the others couldn’t have equally produced.  However, the two young ladies who ran it had such an energetic personality we knew they would provide us with a memorable first time tailoring extravaganza.  I started off shyly ordering only one Chinese style dress.  When Todd and I went back the following day for my fitting, I upped the ante to another sleek cocktail dress and two simple summer garments that could easily be worn while we travel.  Todd must have gotten either bored or jealous of my new duds and before I had return from the changing room his chest was wrapped in measuring tape.  He had chosen to have two blazers and two pair of pants done.

In the afternoons we rode bikes to the beach which resided twenty minutes away.  Being the first ocean we had encountered on our trip our skin was not use to the exposure of the harsh sun.  Needless to say the rays got the best of us.  We fried like pieces of bacon!  It created quite a painful couple of days and reminded me yet again about the seriousness of multiple applications of sunscreenL  Nevertheless, we did enjoy the warmer weather and the roar of the ocean.

The third day of fittings only lead to more hemorrhaging in our budget as we pursued into the persuasion of the “why nots” which were the ladies responses every time we considered another item.  The finally count was four dress, one button up shirt and a beautiful hand embroidered blazer for me and two blazers, two pair of pants and three button up shirts for Todd.  Hoi An was quick to break the travel budget but how many times can you say you had clothes custom made in Vietnam?  

While not shopping for new clothes or soaking up sun, we managed to enjoy several delicious meals on the riverfront.  The lantern lit streets were a virtual eating arcade with French Colonial style restaurants serving high end Western food and traditional Vietnamese cuisine like fried wontons and street vendors portioning out cao lau on the corner for fifty cents.  Shopping, sun and scrumptious food have got me asking "Hoi An..... why not?"