The Beautiful Little City of 'Hoi An'

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Hoi-An really is a beautiful little city and well worth the visit one day. For me it was actually the best little town I have stayed in to date on my travels so far. I was there for about a week but I could easily have stayed longer if I had the time.

Hoi-An was built in the 17th century, originally as an international trading port and it has very strong influences from the Chinese, Japanese and Europeans. Walking down the little narrow streets at night its not hard to imagine you’re in some little Italian village with all its cafes, restaurants and one million and one tailor shops (and I'm not joking by the way there everywhere!).

Set on a river not far from the ocean, Hoi An is also surround on all four sides by rice fields and farmers adding to its colonial like charm. There’s lots of other things to do in the local area too including a trip to Marble Mountain which as the name suggest is pretty much a mountain made from marble! It has a lot of temples and pagodas up on top and ne can easily spend an afternoon noon exploring all it has to offer. Good luck trying to get out of there with some little marble nick knack too... It your interested it’s about 10km north out of town along the beach.

Now the beach is also good too, although when I was there the waves were quite rough and strong so I didn't spend much time in the water. Week days are a great time to visit it as its only tourists there but beware on the weekends as the beach gets really busy. All the locals tend to come down late afternoon and it doesn't take long to fill up. You can see what I mean in one of the photos I have included.

Now as a foreigner and like all other tourists heading through Vietnam, you'll soon work out Hoi An is best known for its suit shops and tailors. And if you didn't know that before you got to Vietnam you soon will as everyone talks about it along the way. Seriously they are everywhere. If I had to guess I would say there is at least 300 of them in town. You can get anything you can imagine made here as long as you can tell them or show them what to do.

Most shops appear to make their own clothes but I'm sure a few also sub the work out to the other place around the corner etc as I saw a lot of them riding round of motor bikes with a half made suit on hand. You can literally walk into a shop on Monday, get measured up, choose a fabric and come back the next day and its ready.. less than 24hrs, custom made a ready to go, its great. And the best bit is its cheap.. real cheap. To give you an idea suits are around AUD$100, shirts $20, dresses $50 ( and before anyone decides to be a smartarse, no I didn't buy one!) shoes $50 and so on. The other cool thing they do is keep your measurements on file after you have bought something so you can simply email them from back home, select a colour and fabric and they make it then mail it too you back home whenever you want... how cool is that.

Its amazing you literally see people walking out of shops with bags and bags of clothes. You can tell there in town for just one thing and then there going straight home after that. Of course I didn't want to be the only one left out so I bought a few things just to blend in, you know... not suits though... as a backpacker it doesn’t' really work. Instead I got a couple of nice casual jackets made up, 2 pairs of jeans and 2 nice shirts made. The best bit was it all only cost me AUD$250 which was great value considered its fits perfectly and was hand made. I'll be sure to take a few pics one day when I get a chance and show you all.

The other thing I did that was good fun was hire a couple of scooters again with a new friend of mine I met along the way back in Laos called Mick. Its funny, everyone reads the same guide books, goes to the same towns and typically stays in the same types of places. If you’re heading the same way your bound to bump into people you've met before along the way again just like I did with Mick. Anyway we went exploring out of town ion these scooters n some very rural villages. Its was great and totally unspoilt. In fact I don't think some of the kids (or Adults) had seen many foreigners before in a few of the towns we went through.. we were quite the highlight I think. It was a fun afternoon and we basically just went cruising in and around the rice paddies... once again i highly recommend it if you get the chance.

Anyway time to go again. I actually have written this blog twice now (grrrr). I somehow managed to loose the first version when I went to upload it... very frustrating to say the least. Talk soon..

Travel Dog.

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