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Hoi An, once known as Faifo, was a major international port in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the foreign influences are discernible to this day. While the serious shipping business has long since moved to Da Nang, the heart of the city is still the Old Town, full of winding lanes and Chinese-styled shophouses, which is particularly atmospheric in the evening as the sun goes down. While almost all shops now cater to the tourist trade, the area has been largely preserved as is, which is unusual in Vietnam, and renovation has proceeded slowly and carefully - it's mercifully absent of towering concrete blocks and karaoke parlors.
Hoi An is also famous for custom made clothing - Made-to-measure shirts, blouses, dresses, suits etc. are on offer from the renowned tailors of Hoi An. When last counted in 2002, there were 140 shops in the city, and the number is now well over 400.
Tuesday 8th November
We had a bit of a lie in this morning as we could hear it was still raining - when it eventually stopped we headed down to reception asking the directions into town, the reply was you can't go its flooded to which 2 other tourists told us to go as it was quite fun wading through the water - so we did! The road our hotel was on was flooded but it wasn't too deep, we waded through and found our way to the town and market areas. This really was flooded, at least waist high! All the locals had their boats out and were hassling tourists to take boat trips! We bumped into Cat and Sarah again too - they were supposed to of been doing a cooking course but the restaurant that it was in was waist high in water! So we arranged to meet for dinner. We explored what we could of the town but always seemed to get to a point where we could go no further because of the water. We found a nice little café for lunch and had a few beers, then headed back to the hotel. The water had gone down a lot but more rain was starting to come. Cat and Sarah met us at our hotel and we only made it as far as the restaurant across the road (again!) as the rain had returned. After dinner we ran a little further down the road for a few more drinks!
Wednesday 9th November
Today we woke up to sunshine! A lot of the flooding had gone but there were still some main roads near the river that were still inaccessible.We ventured out and explored what we couldn't reach the day before. Joe had a haircut and shave and it was awful! She had no clue how to use clippers (which looked about 50 years old!) she was using a comb and clippers?!She also gave him a shave which resulted in a to the side goatee! I wasn't actually there while he was having this done and when he walked into the hotel I couldn't help laugh! He got my nail scissors out and asked me to fix it but it was impossible! He bhad paid about £6 - the girl defiantly saw him coming!! So after we'd got showered etc on our way to meet Cat and Sarah we stopped at another 'hairdresser' again the girl here didn't seem to have a clue what she was doing - using a comb with the clippers. Joe was showing her just to go straight over his head with the clippers but she didn't listen! He did have a cut and it looked a million times better and only paid $1! I don't think he'll be moaning again when I miss a couple of strands!!
We headed into town with Cat and Sarah as we'd been told there was some sort of lantern festival as it was a full moon, but as we ventured around nothing seemed to be happening. We had read that you buy a floating candle and let it float down the river, we think that it wasn't happening because of the flooding. Instead we went for dinner and a few drinks.
Thursday 10th November
Today we decided to hire a bicycle. We rode down to the beach but it wasn't the nicest and was so windy that we only stayed for 10 mins. Then we rode back into town. As most of the flooding had gone we could explore all of the town. The streets beside the river were still very muddy and the locals were all working hard clearing the mud from the streets and from their shops and restaurants. After riding around we decided as we were in the town of tailoring we should have something made. So we pulled up and Mr Xe's. We went inside and were sat down and I was given catalogues and magazines to look through. I chose a dress I liked that they said they could copy. I also asked them to make me a black vest to replace the one I lost tubing but decided against it when they wanted $25 (I paid £3!). Joe was being measured up for a suit and had chosen his fabric. It was black oinstriped and was gonna cost $115 to custom make the suit. I went through to choose my material but couldn't find one I liked so I decided to go for a one shoulder chiffon maxi dress with a silk lining. I was measured up and we were told to return the next day at midday. We had lunch then spent the afternoon riding around on our bikes.
That night we went out for dinner and ended up bumping into a lad we'd met on the slow boat in Laos. So we joined him and his friends for a few drinks and Joe played a pool tournament.
Friday 11th November
We packed our bags and checked out as tonight we were on a night bus to Nha Trang. We still had the bikes so we rode straight to Mr Xe's. My dress was made! I was taken into a back room where the girls started taking my clothes off and putting the dress on (bit weird!) It was almost a perfect fit, it needed some adjusting around the bust and needed to be taken up. Mr Xe was very good and pointed out the adjustments himself where some tailors will let the customer do this.
Joe's suit trousers were a great fit - they just needed to be turned up slightly. His jacket was not sitting right on the arms- which again Mr Xe pointed out as we probably wouldn't of noticed! Joe was then taken (riding his bike in a suit!) to the tailors. We were told to come back at 4pm and the clothes would be ready. The girls in the shop were loving Joe's body and Mr Xe kept slapping his bum!
We rode to find somewhere for lunch - after looking at the menu in the first place and seeing a soft drink was $2 we walked out! We found a lovely little (cheap) restaurant beside the river and had lunch. We rode around trying to waste some time and happened to pass Mr Xe's around 3pm - we were called in as our clothes were ready! My dress was a perfect fit as was Joe's suit. We paid up ($50 for my dress and $115 for Joe's suit) and had a photo with Mr Xe - he was hilarious and reminded us a bit of the Thai guy from the hangover! We headed straight to the post office to post our clothes back as there was no way we'd be able to carry them. We went back to the hotel to wait to be collected for our night bus. We got on the bus around 7pm. The bus was an experience - it was a sleeping bus - 3 rows of bunk beds down the middle of the bus. (hard to describe but you'll see a pic!) Luckily we were at the bottom and next to the window as I imagine trying to sleep in the middle would be hard! They were very thin with not very much leg room - if you're tall you'd be stuffed! The journey was about 11 hours, we both slept on and off as it really wasn't very comfy!
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