Hoi An - tailorville

This place is really nice. You can easily spend some time here if you're sick of the traffic in other busy towns/cities. There is a new breed of hassle here - Tailors! Every second shop seems to be one - and they can make anything for you it seems?/seams?
Because you aren't constantly busy sight seeing, you tend to wander into these shops and temptation takes hold.

I didn't really plan on much - but when I sat down and had a flick through their catalogue I decided some new hightop kickers were for me. seeing their craftmanship is not really a confidence booster with wonky nike logos and stitching that looks like a crazy 'B' road. I thought about it and waivered the risk by strict modifying. It goes like this;
1) Choose your favourite sweat shop... I mean shoe brand in the book
2) What leather would you like sir? I'll have black, black stitching, no logos, metal eye holes, snakeskin detailing please, and black soles.. oh and phat laces
3) Pay more for leather.. then when you receive them realise that they are made of vinyl no matter what,
4) come back in 24 hours and bingo - new nike.. hightops.

they actually aren't all that bad.. but they weigh about 40grams and may rip apart if you were to accidentally stand in gum.


Ladesha has had 3 skirts made - and is now getting her favourite dress replicated along with some sandals from a magazine picture she brought with her.

We get asked so much "hullo, you come in, you buy, moto bike, bicycle, what you like" that we decided to adopt a family technique started by Cousin Andy Gardner for little Hannah's listening skills. Basically if you think they don't understand you but pestering you anyway ..and you are a bit sick of the questioning you just say "RHINOSAURUS" and they smile and turn away.

This is a really pretty town and is built around French and Chinese architectural influences.. so the places are pleasing to look at and even better to go into with loads of timber and exposed beams. They are currently raising money to restore the oldtown.. I think we're actually sposed to be contributing by buying tickets to wander through.. but no hassle, no sale sorry.
Along the front of the town is a canal system full of boats taking you for 1 hour tours and the such.. a few pics.




Another attractive part of this city is the culinary delights. Around the oldtown are fantastic restaurants offering great local food and western food also. They are really into Lassi drinks and so are we (fruit with yoghurt - traditionally Indian).
This is a pic of yesterdays lunch;
Lemon shredded chicken with rice crackers and a strawberry lassi.. Mmmmm


We love the dogs here also.. they are total mongrels - but adorable lil creatures nonetheless. Here's a Chihuahua crossed with Street dog modeling a faux pearl necklace.. Paris Hilton would love her.


Next is an example of the female role here. Before this shot she was being used as a human towbar on this motorcycle for her husband. Very effective - just hook her up and drive with maximum load.


I thought I would include a shot of our hotel. It's really sweet - nice large room with quiet A/C.. we do have a loud Hoicker next door - but he just removes the lung butter in the mornings. French styled shutters and Vietnamese tea and clay pot for refreshments. There is a lil restaurant balcony on our floor for breaky too.


One last story - our post office saga today. The mission was simple. Walk in with a coffee mug each, ask for a parcel and then send to NZ. We had one each.. after 20 minutes in a line that made no sense at all we were given 3 customs forms to fill. After filling them we returned to the line, only to get snaked 3 times by the locals and their damn language.. after finally getting there, she took my tiny cup and laughed - then tapped the worker next door and joined her in on the joke. She then proceeded to spend 20 minutes building a bespoke box for the mug and creating a cellotape ball over it until it had soft corners and could be used for footy practice.
They weighed it in and it came to $7 to send - that's fine. Poor Ladesha had the same parcel as me - but got snaked even more - so she was 15 minutes behind.. when it came to her turn for a box they applied double tape - and her bill came to $9. We tried to dispute - but apparently hers had a customs charge on it and mine didn't need one. The logic blew our minds so we left confused and scared.. very scared indeed.