Holy cow Hoi An! A tailor's curse and best fortunes in one place all wrapped around the obsession Westerners have with tailor-made clothing. Did I mention we could get ANYTHING tailored to us? ANYTHING. Coats of any kind, pants, jeans, shoes, dresses, 3-piece suits, shirts, shorts....ANYTHING. It was madness!! But, before I get into all of the craziness that is Hoi An tailoring, my bus ride down must be told considering it almost never happened.
We started our morning in Hue ready to leave since there had been so little to see. So Neil, Eden and I were all ready to go when the bus didn't arrive on time at 8:30am. No worries--nothing in Asia ever runs on time.. The bus finally did arrive at about 9:15am, and when 11 of us crossed the street to get on, for some reason the driver only let on 3 girls who all had different bus tickets than the rest of us. We stood around trying to figure out what was going on, while the hostel workers tried to figure out how to get us on the bus by talking to the driver, but he wouldn't let the rest of us on. The best part about this was that the bus was only half full anyway. The group of us could have easily fit on the bus with seats to spare. Whatever. The moment the Vietnamese hostel worker stepped inside to figure something out, the bus driver drove off leaving 8 of us standing on the side of the road with all of our stuff wondering if we were going to leave Hue at all. After sending a scooter to track down the bus, it came back but this time it was completely full. Only 5 seats were open now and since there were 8 of us we decided to do an 'all or none' stance on who got on the bus. I wasn't actually a fan of that plan since we were already spots #3-5 on line for the bus, so technically the seats should have been ours anyway. And, I didn't know any of the girls behind me in line, and I didn't owe them anything. It sounds mean, I know. But when the driver kept insisting only 5 get on and the rest of us wait until 1:30pm for the next bus, my friends and I remained adamant about everyone getting on while the 3 girls on line behind us totally started to throw their bags on the bus to get on. Umm, really? Here we are trying to help each other out, and you girls want to snake our seats on the bus?? NO BUENO. In the end, all 8 of us got onto the bus, but Neil, Eden and I were forced to share 2 seats between the 3 of us in the back of the bus for the first 5 1/2 hours of the trip. By the time we moved up to normal seats, we only had about 30 minutes in them when we reached Hoi An. Lesson learned though: DO NOT try to be nice to fellow backpackers. They are cut throat and will definitely steal your seat if given the opportunity.
Right, so after settling in, we set off to explore Hoi An. We went to our first tailor shop, recommended by our hotel, and we looked back. haha. The moment we arrived we were greeted with water bottles and massive books containing clips and pictures and magazine cut outs of clothes from EVERYWHERE. It was like walking into a dream. All we had to do was point and say that one and it was like magic! haha. No, I mean it wasn't really THAT simple--it was actually incredibly overwhelming! To have literally a million choices in front of you, not just in terms of style, but then to select color and materials and trim colors and buttons...holy cow was all I could think!
We spent 3 days in Hoi An between 2 tailor shops which were making our clothes for us. Neil had two 3-piece suits made and some dress shirts for less than $300! I got a winter coat made for myself and some dresses for Nina, and Eden got a coat and a really cute skirt she designed made along with dress pants and a blazer. I wish I could have had more made, but really, it was way too much. The cost was cheap, but we spent our days and nights just wandering through the town in the heat in between going to the 2 stores for our fittings for our clothes. There is a sweat shop somewhere underground in that town. There has to be. I ordered 4 custom dresses to be made and they were all ready for my first fitting within 5 hours of my measurements being taken. Neil ordered a 3 piece suit at almost 10pm at night and it was entirely finished by 9am the next day! And this is the low season! I can't imagine how crazy busy this place must be during high season. And the amount of money these shop owners must make is incredible! Man, I definitely need to go back to this place. I need to take a completely empty suitcase though. haha. If I had had space in my backpack to fit more I definitely would have; but I think the lack of space was good for my wallet. I definitely spent more than was necessary.
Next stop for me is the beach!! FINALLY. I haven't seen a real beach this entire trip! Can't wait!
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