The Tailor of Hoi An

Day 1 - 16/1/2005

After a nice sleep in we had a lazy day around Hoi An. We wentback to the tailor we visited last night and picked out some clothes to be made. Kel ordered a 3 piece suit (silk lined cashmere), 2 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, cotton hoodie, a pair of shoes and 7 handbags. Nige ordered 2 pairs of pants and 2 shirts. We then walked around the streets of Hoi An, which is a small riverside/beach side town of about 76,000 people and what seemed to be 100,000 white tourists. Every second shop is a tailor (or 'cloth shop') where you can get anything made in any style in any fabric. For lunch we had some good sandwiches on a balcony overlooking the river and Nige went back to the hotel for a nap. Kel went and had a cocktail and tried to catch up on her diary but was interupted by the Dutch, Pom, and German guys. At about 6pm we went back to our personal tailor for our first fitting. Yes, 90% of the clothes were done by the end of the day. Incredible. We tried to believe that there was no child slave labour invlolved. At dinner we tried a few local specialties which were fried wontons and Cau Lau which is doughy flat noodles mixed with bean sprouts, croutons and lettuce. It surprisingly had some flavour for a Vietnamese dish. Thanks to the french we had some excellent crepes for dessert with coconut and vanilla ice cream. Now in Vietnam nowhere is safe from touts. Even whilst having dinner the touts approach you and try to sell you postcards, necklaces, candy, sunglasses, zippos, and books to name the most common items. Kel was suckered in by a particularly enthusiastic young boy of about 10. He was very happy with a big smile and had a good sense of humour. Needless to say Kel got ripped off buying 6 postcards. It did go to a good cause though as he said it was for his 'school'. (even as I type we are being pestered to buy cigarettes and mentos)

Day 2 17/1/2005

Today we went on a tour to My Son which is an ancient ruin from the Kingdom of Champa (2nd-15th centuries). It is a smaller version of ruins like Angkor Wat (Cambodia) and Ayuthaya (Thailand). Half of the site was damaged badly during the American war. The brick and stone structures were built first and then carvings were made. No one knows how the bricks were stuck together, but some think it was by a paste made from botanical oil indiginous to central Vietnam. Unfortunately we made thew mistake of being on a large group tour. We arrived at the site with 3 other bus loads of people. This really ruins the experience of the ruins. We managed to run off early ahead of the crowd after catching the first American Jeep shuttle up the hill. We thought this was the true 'Nam' experience. Because we ditched our group we managed to get about 20 minutes to ourselves amongst the ruins before the hoards arrived. Again we were amazed at how old things can be. The buildings were in a jungle setting which made it all the more beautiful but we are glad we went before we have seen Angkor Wat as we may have been disappointed.

We had a boat ride back on the river to Hoi An. We had lunch on the boat, which was sticky rice (complete with weavel) and springrolls. The boat made 2 stops, one at a pottery village, Thanh Ha, but we didn't get off as we were sick of souveniers. The second was at a woodworking village on Cam Kim Island. This was more interesting as they were building boats, carving small pigs all the way up to intricate furniture and artistic carvings.

We had another quick fitting at our tailor and went out for an Indian dinner at Omars 2nd restaurant (the first was in Hue).

Day 3 18/1/2005

Today we booked a taxi to go to My Lai (pronounced Me Lie) which is a hamlet in Son My. This is the site of the My Lai massacre that occured in 1968. Three companies of the US Army had entered the area thinking that it was a Viet Cong stronghold. They raided the village killing most of the inhabitants (men, women and children) and completely destroying the village. An attempt to cover up the massacre was made by bombing and bulldozing the site. One helicopter pilot and his crewman attempted to stop the massacre and managed to save only a handful of people. One soldier on the ground shot himself in the foot so that he didn't have to be invlolved. A memorial has been built on the site where we watched a video, saw some shocking photos in the museumm and walked around the village that is in the process of being recreated. Looking out from the museum and feeling pretty depressed we saw a grandmother and her grandchildren farming and playing. It was kind of surreal to see such happy people in the same place that such horrific things occured. It is hard to conceive how something like this could happen to innocent people.

Back in Hoi An we rented some bikes and picked up our perfectly tailored clothes setting us back a whole $230 US, and then rode a few kilometres to the beach. We sat and had a beer and an average meal whilst we watched 3 geckos challenge their territory on the wall.

Day 4 19/1/2005 Hoi An - Nha Trang

We packed up our gear and rented a Motorbike for the morning. Our first solo trip on the Moto we had to balance a huge box between us with a bag of handbags up front. Slowly we made our way to the post office just like the locals. After filling out the novel of required paperwork and offloading our tailored clothes we rode off for some lunch. Riding sans box and bag was a lot better. After a quick lunch we went for a ride through the country side, honking the horn the whole way just like the locals. It was great to get away from the tourist area and see the real Hoi An. There were funerals, weddings, farmers, mechanics, sleeping dogs (until we honked at them and woke them up) and kids playing in their yard, boat builders, and fishermen. These are our favourite times watching the locals do what they do away from the tourist industry.

We returned the bike and headed to the train station in Danang for a 9 hour ride to Nha Trang. It was our first train in Vietnam and it was nice to be in a clean carriage. There was no smoking, loogies, sunflower seed shells, or chicken feet to be seen. The whole 9 hours was through rice paddies and coconut plantations stretching from the ocean to the mountains. We arrived at about 10pm, checked into the Hotel and went straight to bed.