Can I Kick It?

It was good to wake up in a nice hotel room again. And especially one that had a balcony, let alone an actual window! There was a little noise drifting in from the construction of a house outside, but nothing that was massively annoying. Breakfast was pleasant, although it looked like we would need to be down before 9:00am to beat the rush. We didn’t have a huge amount of plans for the day so we tooled up and set out to wander round the Old Town area on Hoi An and see what the markets had to offer us.

As we walked along the uncongested streets of Hoi An we were pleased of the change of pace from that of Ho Chi Minh city where everything was just a mad rush to get anywhere. It was actually possible to cross the roads at your own pace and without fear that a careering motorbike was going to run you down from round the next corner. As we arrived in the Old Town we marvelled at the quaint shops and tailors that make up 95% of the buildings there. After watching the Vietnam episode of Top Gear I was half thinking about getting a suit tailor-made for me as it seemed like it was cheap and this was clearly the place to do so as there was tailor after tailor after tailor.

Beautiful Hoi An

On our arrival into Hoi An I had had a brief discussion with a man called Sun who had advised me to find his place in the indoor market and I would get a great suit at a great price. I was sceptical, but we had a look around anyway, but couldn’t find the place. From his business card that he had given me it should have been on the corner, but it absolutely wasn’t there. We walked by about 3 times and still couldn’t find it. After James had (finally) bought some apples and almost been hustled out of them by the sweet old lady seller we headed across the river onto the Hoi An islet. There wasn’t really much there to tell you about, apart from a few more shops, tailors, hotels and a dog poking its head out of a set of doors. So without much to keep us amused we headed back across the bridge and wandered round the market some more. We had been a bit trigger-happy in Thailand and Cambodia, due to the combination of cheap local beer and night markets, so we were keeping the wallet in the pocket unless we really wanted something.

"Apples and pears, 5 for a pound!"

A little further down the line we found a deserted area down by the river to have another gave of “licky-kicky” with the kicky-thing. We seemed to be getting a little better at it, but it would take a long time before we were as good as the guys in Saigon park.

Licky-kicky shuttelcock 

As we wandered past a tailor I poked my head inside and asked what kind of price I would be looking at for the cheapest suit plus shipping to the UK. I tried a couple more to get a vague ball-park figure in mind for when we (of if we) found Sun’s place in the market. Eventually we did find it, and it was a great little place, with lots and lots of tailors all under one roof and suit material as far as the eye could see in all shades and colours. She seemed to think I was definitely going to get a suit from her, so her happiness seemed to nose-dive slightly when I said I was looking at the cheapest of the cheap and quoted the price I had been given from the first place. She came down to $50 for the cheap suit, but it didn’t sit well with me so I made my excuses to mull it over. On the way back to the first place where I wanted to check the quality of the material I popped my head into another place nearby. It seemed nice inside and the girl showing me round was enthusiastic and gave good banter. On discussing prices she also didn’t like the idea of the cheap suit, so I managed to get a quality one done for only a little more than the cheap stuff. It took some doing, as it should have been well over $100 but I managed to get her down to $60. When we went to “the measuring area” she mumbled something to the owner, and I assumed she said how much we had agreed on as the owner screwed her face up in disgust. I think I got a good deal out of them.

"My what strong shoulders you have,sir."

Once the measurements had been taken, with James giggling away in the background, we set off back to the hotel to prepare for the evening meal and beers. As James went back to the Sunshine Hotel I made a slight diversion and headed into a local barber. Through the language barrier I accepted the 15,000 Dong price and settled into the cutting chair and handed them a photocopy of my passport to show what I usually had done. I was a little concerned when he took the clippers to the back of my head with just a comb as a guide – obviously my insistence that a Number 3 back and sides with a Number 5 on top hadn’t got through to him. But he carried on and did a good job, one that should see me through to my return to good ol’ Blighty. And then when I gave him a 20,000 Dong note he didn’t go to get me change, he just stood there, waiting to more. He said “50,000 Dong” and I suggested that he had said “15,000” instead. Reluctantly I handed over a 50,000 VND note and stormed off back to the hotel, cursing that I had been diddled just because I was a foreigner. It was only after about 5 minutes that I realised I had got my maths wrong. I had confused 30,000 VND to the pound with 3,000 VND to the pound, so actually it only cost me about £1.40, and I could live with that, no problem.

Wikitravel has been a good friend to us on our trip and it had pointed out a place called Café 43 as a reputable place to go and eat. It was just round the corner and we had checked it out on one of our forays into town and it looked good to us. We arrived and were greeted by the owner, who turned out to be a Manchester United fan (surprise surprise), who beamed at us and showed us to some seats. It was a small place, run out of their house basically, but all the reviews we had read about it said it was amazing food. 

Reviews from customers under the glass table-top

They weren’t wrong! The special chicken curry was delicious, and both food and drink were very cheap too, mainly as it was quite far from the river/tourists. One of the main reasons we had chosen to go there was to sample the “fresh beer” that they were offering. Fresh beer, as they call it, is basically a local beer that is produced somewhere nearby and they have a huge vat of it sitting in the courtyard. One draught fresh beer was coming in at 3,000 Dong……9p. So we just had to sample it. It was……interesting. James swears he had a bit of solid in his one, and the taste was kind of “grassy”, but at 9p it was OK by us! A couple of these before we left and we were happily walking back to the hotel for a night cap, hoping that the fresh beer we just had wouldn’t give us excruciating gut-rot.

Not bad for 9p a go!