Worries in the Tailor Town of Hoi An

Worries in the Tailor Town of Hoi An

Leaving Hanoi

Our last day in Hanoi was pretty dull so I won’t waste too much time with it. We spent our time trying to replenish our corn starch supply and get some more books to keep us busy in down times. The books were fairly simple with a plethora of book exchanges in the city, but the corn starch turned out to be a little more difficult.

We were in walking distance of the largest supermarket in Hanoi so we figured it would be a simple ten minute walk and we’d be successful. We were close to correct. We got to the market and perused the store. We’ve become very good at finding corn starch in every language but this time proved more difficult. After walking around the store twice we converged for the third time in the area that contains wheat flour. Kel’s eagle eye found the only bag of corn starch in the store…it contained 150g which is less than a day’s worth. We decided not to worry because we now had confirmation that it existed in Vietnam which meant we’d probably be able to find it at our next stop.

Later that day we were on our flight to Da Nang, the third largest city in Vietnam, directly behind Ho Chi Min City (Saigon) and Hanoi. After a thirty minute drive from Danang we finally reached our destination of Hoi An. Both cities are on the eastern shore of Vietnam with beaches and rivers running through.

Our Worries Finally Get the Best of Us

After a late breakfast this morning we figured our first order of business was corn starch. We planned to start with the front desk to get some advice before setting out. With a bag of corn starch in Vietnamese (the one we bought in Hanoi) we went to ask for help. We were sorely disappointed to find that no one at the front desk had ever seen or heard of corn starch. This was bad…very bad!

We spent the next 15 minutes or so impressing upon our new front desk friends the importance of corn starch to everyone’s favorite Kelley T. After using words like “coma” and “die” they figured out that we weren’t joking. Up until this point our hosts had been very accommodating but now they were fervent converts to the “Save Kelley T Foundation.” Their first step was to call the biggest grocery store in Danang. No Luck. Due to Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, the grocery store was closed.

At this point we had only a few options left to us. Option Number 1 : Wait for the grocery store to open and hope that they have corn starch. Since this option would burn an extra day it could put us in jeopardy, Kel only had four more days of corn starch at this point. Option Number 2 : Have Jack and Diane (our family members in Bangkok) ship corn starch to us. We decided this was a bad idea from the very beginning due to previous shipping issues in SE Asia (delays, tariffs) and because it would cause Jack and Diane to have to do a bunch of work on their end without being sure it make it to us on time. Option Number 3 : Find a way to get to Bangkok ourselves in the next 4 days.

After much deliberation we chose option number 3. We were worried that getting out of Vietnam would be difficult due to Tet. We had already been told that all flights to Na Trang and Ho Chi Mihn City (Saigon) were fully booked through the end of the month, thus, we were more than a little concerned. Thankfully we were able to get 2 tickets on a flight directly to Bangkok on the last day Kel would have cornstarch and the day we were supposed to check out of our hotel in Hoi An.

With everything finally squared away we could rest easy again. Despite the fact that it was only 10:15am we were both exhausted due to the worry and mental strain of trying to figure out how to handle the situation. With that behind us we decided to head into town and see a bit of Hoi An.

Tailors, Tailors, Tailors

We took a quick taxi into town to scope out what Hoi An had to offer which turned out to be very little due to the fact that it was the first day of the Tet celebration. For those of you who have only heard of Tet due to the 1968 “Tet Offensive” during the Vietnam War let me take a quick aside to explain what little I know about Tet.

Tet is very similar to Chinese New Year which speaks volumes about the deep history between China and Vietnam. The Tet New Year Festival is the most important holiday for Vietnamese people. It is a chance for the whole family to get together and celebrate the past year and make plans for the coming year. One day is dedicated to celebrating the family, one day is dedicated to relatives gone by and one day is dedicated to friends. The Vietnamese all travel home and have big family meals. Much like Christmas for Christians there are decorations, trees (kumquat trees for future wealth and cherry blossom trees for good health), and big family get togethers. The events of actual New Years day are very important because they mark what will happen in the New Year. If fortune comes your way then you will have a fortunate New Year. Thus, Tet is an incredibly important holiday to the Vietnamese.

So, since this marked the first of the three pinnacle days of Tet much of the town was closed. We walked around and saw the river running through town and got a chance to peek at some of the bigger temples in town. Despite all of the sight seeing we were really interested in one important facet of Hoi An: the tailors.

Hoi An is well known as a clothing town. The whole town seems to have been created around one important industry, tailoring. As you walk through the streets you immediately notice that two shops out of every three display clothing and cloth and proclaim that they make cloths to specific measurements. The hotel we were staying in had recommended a couple of tailors in town which happened to still be open despite Tet.

We found the shop in question called Thuy Thy located in the heart of town on Le Loi Street. When we first saw the shop we were a little disappointed as there seemed to be few actual styles of clothing shown just tons of bolts of cloth. Kel looked uninterested but I suggested we enter just to see what the people would say.

After walking into the shop one of the ladies working inside and asked if she could help. Kel asked if they had any samples she could look at or books she could peruse. The lady ushered us back through what looked like a back door and into a huge courtyard with a giant sitting area, and the equivalent of 7 shops worth of space, samples and bolts of cloth. The lady immediately brought us four huge books full of pictures of clothing taken straight from western clothing catalogues.

At this point we were like kids in a candy store. We each immediately found a few things we were interested in having made. But first a few questions had to be answered. Would the clothes be ready by time we left three days from now? Answer: yes. Can you ship to the US? Answer: yes. Are the clothes expensive? Answer: No.

I picked out two suits, two dress shirts and a couple of pairs of shorts to be made. Kel picked out some tops, some pants to replace the worn out ones she brought on the trip and some work clothes. The total cost for 2 suits, 2 dress shirts, 2 pairs of shorts, 2 casual pants, four tops, 1 skirt and 8 pairs of dress pants came to a fraction of what they would have cost in the US and all of them would be made to our measurements. Buying clothing in Vietnam could sound crazy to some of you but to have a suit tailor made out of the cloth I picked would have cost almost as much as the whole order costs us for everything.

My lady, Mee, and Kel’s lady, Van, were incredibly helpful and nice. Van helped Kel pick out good fabrics that would look good for Kel’s coloring and style while Mee worked to get my measurements. If you’ve never had anyone measure your whole body, it’s very strange. You get touched a lot which can be uncomfortable but it’s very reassuring to see how thorough everything is.

After all the fabric selection and measurements were completed we were done. We agreed to return in two days time to have our final fitting and then took a cab back to the hotel. The rest of our afternoon was spent sitting by the pool reading books. A much more relaxing ending to our day than the beginning was…for sure!!

Hope you are all well back home!

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