For our 3rd trip to Vietnam we had to make a stop here to fill up on our favourite Vietnamese foods and wander the now familiar Ancient town. One of us seems to really like Hoi An…. and understandably so. It’s a lovely place with really great food, where you can have fun designing your own clothes.
We stayed at the same Tea Garden Homestay as last year and as soon as we got out of the car, the owner, Than, immediately recognized Jen. "Jennnnyyyy!!", she squealed out, and ran to give Jen a big hug. It was super cute. Than's family treats us like family while we're there... they invite us to join them for family dinner and make special trips to bring us the best Pho in the city for breakfast. They even gave us gifts when we departed (a tie for Dom and silk scarf for Jen), and refused to charge us for the last night even though we stayed in the room until 1AM waiting for our overnight train (we still insisted on paying, and managed to settle at half). Things like this are what keep us coming back even though Hoi An isn't exactly an "easy stopover" on the way to Mui Ne.
We were planning to give our favourite foodie tour guide, Neville, a shout to see what great new foods/restaurants he'd discovered since last year, but he was on vacation in Australia at the time. Instead, we frequented our usual stops... the Banh Mi Queen and the Laugh Cafe (because White Sail is now gone :(( ).
During our past visits, we discovered that when getting tailored clothes made, it’s really hard to get good results when trying to explain any new or custom designs that you want. This trip, we went with the flow and made the best of the tailoring culture here. They are awesome at making copies, so we brought clothes that we like (that we can't buy anymore) and had them successfully copied!
Our experiment from last year also worked out well, so we continued with our line of designer, convertible dress-pants :) Being our third year making clothes here, you'd think we'd be able to get some real bargains, but they are really tough bargainers!! Fortunately, they're also super nice and a lot of fun...
After a gruelling negotiation, Dom finally managed to settle his dress-pants for $25.. plus 2 ice-creams! :)