We woke up early this morning and by 7:30 we were taking a long walk along the beach...we must have done a mile or so...the weather was overcast with the occasional drizzle, but it was not too hot and most of the humidity was gone.
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| Where we had breakfast |
At 9 AM, our driver and guide had arrived and we were off to see the town of Hoi An, a world heritage UNESCO centre. We took a walking tour thru the old city which at various times was under the influence of the Japanese, Chinese, and French and therefore you can see the architectural influences of each culture.
We visited the Japanese bridge, the 300 year old Chinese residence which is now inhabited by the 7th generation (we met the father, the 6th generation), the cultural centre, where we were entertained with a Vietnamese singing, and dancing troupe, the outside of a temple, a silk factory where they do the most amazing hand embroidery which is used to create the most amazing scenes and portraits. And all the time, we were snapping photos of locals and the scenes.
Many of the local people who you want to photograph will do so for you as long as you pay them a few dongs. And so we were able to get some great shots, especially of elderly people and very young children. And along the river, we get some great shots of the fishing boats.
As well, we saw many women wearing the conical straw hats and many old women carrying two very heavy baskets of fruit, vegetables, live chickens, and fish, each basket hanging from the end of a long bamboo pole. Both Nachum and I tried carrying these contraptions and could not believe just how heavy these were....and yet this small thin elderly Vietnamese woman was hoisting it over her shoulders with quite a bit of ease.
Hoi An is a very busy city. There are thousands of tourists who come here to visit the village. As a result, the village is lined with shops selling local handicrafts, silks, lacquerware, t shirts, jewellery etc. Hoi An is especially known for tailor shops or cloth shops. Supposedly, you can get made to measure great quality for very reasonable pricing in record time. And so we decided that we would like to see just how good and how fast they could be.
At about 1 pm, our guide informed us that his aunt had died and that he had to leave early (we were supposed to have him till about 3), so we took a cab back to our hotel for lunch. And we decided that we would return in the early afternoon and visit some tailor shops.
Before we returned to the city, we decided to have our laundry done. Across the road from our hotel there were about 6 tiny stores that were all selling soft drinks and snacks. But in front of each store was a sign that said LAUNDRY.
As soon as we approached the line of stores, women from each of the stores came out and pleaded with me and Nachum to please come to their shop. We chose one and negotiated a price; my bill for 1 and a half kg. was $3.00. We prayed that we would get them back at 10 pm as they had promised, and left for our shopping trip to Hoi An.
We had a recommendation from Trip Advisor that there was a particular shop in the cloth market that was good and reasonable. The name of the shop was Forget Me Not, run by two sisters, Miss Forget Me Not and Miss Do Not Forget Me. We found them in stall number 20 in the cloth market, a very small stall measuring not more than 50 square feet, stacked with hundreds of bolts of cloth.
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| Vietnamese Women in their traditional Ao Dai Dresses They are made of long pants, with a long dress to cover, usually in silk Fran's has a skirt beneath her dress |
The two sisters both had great senses of humour and impressed us with their sense of style and the quality of the materials that they had in their tiny shop. We had brought pictures of a number of styles that Fran liked and showed them to the sisters. They suggested materials and some changes and within minutes we had ordered a number of items; three dresses and a skirt for Fran, and an Ao Dai, a long traditional Vietnamese dress for Fran, a suit for David, and a suit for Sandy. We finished the choosing of the material and the measuring at about 5 pm, we were to return the next day at 10:30 for fitting and final alteration and the finished items would be delivered to our hotel by 1 pm.
There was no change room in the stall, so when we had to try anything on, they strung up a makeshift curtain.
Absolutely amazing...and at an absolutely amazing price as well.
When we returned to the hotel, we had dinner...we had Meal Mart Amazing Meals of Eggplant Rollatini....which comes in a pouch and which we heated in the kettle and which tasted delicious.
The hotel grounds were magnificent with lush vegetation and many beautiful flowers.
We went to bed early because I was scheduled to go on a photographic tour of the area early the next morning.
More tomorrow
All the best
Fran and David
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