Japanese Covered Bridge… with all the other tourists
As we drove through Danang from the airport towards Hoi An, we were pretty amazed to see a lot of development, especially along the beach. There are a startling number of new resorts in varying stages of completion along there, and the Danang airport also has a brand new international terminal since we were last here in 2014. Wow!
Da Nang isn’t the only place to be developing – as we drove in, we saw Hoi An is growing quickly too, and the sleepy town we’d visited is now much bigger too. One night we walked along Cua Dai where we’d stayed last time, and we were shocked to see that almost all the places we’d eaten at (and the cheap beer places, too) had been replaced by more new hotels and electronics shops. The little Pho place next to that hotel was still there, but it looked like only just!
Relaxing by the pool
We stayed at The Golden Bell Boutique Villa, a newish place about 15 mins walk from the Old Town. We’d balanced distance vs price, as the hotels get exponentially more expensive the closer you get to the old town and the river. The Golden Bell is nice – quiet, clean, free brekky, has a pool, and the staff are friendly and helpful. They made a big fuss over me for my birthday, organising me a birthday cake and strewing rose petals over the bed in our room. Very nice!
We enjoyed visiting Hoi An again and we ended up walking a lot. The street of lanterns is gorgeous, and watching floating lanterns on the river was lovely too (if not very ecologically sound…). We also floated down the river in a canoe, and had quite a few massages.
The food was great – a lot of rice used here, in rice flour pancakes, rice paper dumplings, and rice noodles in soups etc. I’m a little over rice noodles by now, but it made GF eating much easier than in other parts of the world. Among the restaurants we visited was STREETS International, a training provider which helps disadvantaged youth gain hospitality training. They do modern Vietnamese food, and we had delicious salads for lunch, followed by dessert. Well it’s all in the name of training, right?
Dessert at STREETS
Our main agenda for Hoi An was having some clothes made at the tailors. Since we’d been to Hoi An before we didn’t need to do the touristy sights, so we got stuck in on our first day. Be aware, if you haven’t done it before, that it will take 2-4 days and 2-3 fittings to make something really nice. We visited a bunch of tailors and ended up placing orders at four. Here’s a few thoughts in case anyone is looking for recommendations:
Thanh Tu on Le Loi was our first order. I’d had these guys recommended, so I started with them. I was wanting to have a dancing skirt made, the big tiered ones with the 45m hem, and so I got down to discussions. The ladies were pretty shocked and amazed at the idea of a 45m hem (“But that’s halfway to my house!”) but they said they’d give it a try. I also ordered a cute flared coat I’d seen online. These both turned out well – I had two fittings to make sure everything worked well, and the Thanh Tu ladies were so proud that they’d managed to organise my huge skirt. My jacket was pretty awesome as well.
We also went to Bebe, which had also been recommended, and R picked out some fabrics to make a fabulous dinner jacket, some pants and a few shirts. These people are pretty high end, and they did two fittings over three days (in airconditioning!) and then sent the finished products to the hotel. High end, professional prices, but you get what you pay for.
I went back to Yaly, who had been pretty good in the past. They are pretty much the top end of the tailors, and their prices are high to match that. I had a couple of shirt dresses made for work — one in cotton and one in linen, and had three fittings to make sure everything was perfect, including a very last-minute addition of pockets which I’d forgotten to mention. Yaly gave me a small discount for being a repeat customer, which was nice (possibly it was that they didn’t need to give anyone a kickback for the recommendation…) Like Bebe, with Yaly you get what you pay for in service.
I ordered with one last tailor, Phuong Nga, a bit of a wildcard as I hadn’t researched them, but they had the bold fruit print fabric that I’d seen around but not in the other tailors. I ordered two shirtdresses from them as well, from the same inspiration photo as I’d given Yaly. The owner initially asked for most of the payment as a deposit, but I said I’d deposit half, since that’s what all the other tailors asked for. We came back for a fitting, but were told to come back in an hour… which gave us time for a massage at least. The tailor was a bit skimpy on the fabric (the skirts were quite narrow in comparison to the photo), the dresses looked a bit dumpy because the waist sat too low, and the sleeves didn’t fit properly. I asked for alterations to the waistband and the arms, and was supposed to be back the next day. We walked down at our appointed time, and the shop was closed! We walked past the shop again that afternoon to check, and it still wasn’t open, so I asked our hotel reception ladies to call them for me to see what was going on. She ended up bringing the dresses to the hotel for me and to pick up the final payment, but I didn’t have a final fitting. The dresses are okay, but not as nicely finished as the ones from Yaly. They were the cheapest though. Now that I’ve researched them I’m happy that I received anything (check the Tripadvisor link above for some horror stories!)
The final tailor we tried was Blue Eye, near Yaly. I liked the prints they had, but the service we had was terrible. It took about 15 mins to get the attention of one of the assistants, and then when I was trying to show her the style of dress I wanted, she walked off and helped someone else. I waited… and waited… and waited… and in the end, after another 15 mins, we walked out. Nobody noticed. Probably for the best, as I’d already spent more on tailoring than I had budgeted for!
Luckily all our shopping fit into our cases, and we’re on our way home. Lovely to be away, but it’s lovely to be going home again too.
Two Weeks Away 