Nancy and Doug Trips

Doug met Nancy back at the hotel as we had a final fitting at Tuong's tailor shop. We had decided that we would look into having a suit made here in preparation for Laura and Chris's wedding and ended up making four trips so it was one of the more significant 'sights ' of Hoi An, which is widely known for its tailors. On arrival, we were quickly whisked off by e-taxi and thus began the somewhat stressful task of ordering the suit. This particular business was amazingly busy and efficient. We are unsure of the business practice behind hotels sending referrals: we were told that the manager owner of our hotel is cousin to the business owner there and that we would get 30% off. It seemed though once there we actually were given 5% off? However, compared to having such a suit made in Canada it was reasonable to go ahead, along with a lot of other clientele from what we could see. Doug got a linen suit and navy blue cashmere pants, Nancy a dress and one pair of dressy black pants; each fitting happening at the appointed time in and out and you are done. No time for lollygagging!

MUSINGS ON HOI AN

Hoi An was a welcome relief from the traffic of our other destinations to date. It is an interesting mix of authentic, touristy, historical and (unlike Venice) alive with present residents. Its current residents likely are mostly employed in the tourism or tailoring sector. The Square Villa hotel was very well maintained and managed and of excellent value. Excellent service and attention to detail and our host even checked 3 competitive shipping costs for us to send our tailoring back to Toronto ($108 USD for 5 kg). We would recommend visiting here and there are interesting out trips that could be done...to the beach, fishing and rural villages that would give a good feel for the country of Vietnam if one wished to avoid the chaotic larger cities. However, as Hoi An runs largely on tourism, one needs to be alert for possible ways a tourist's wallet is emptied here. We were unsure if the hotel had received some financing back from the tailor for the referral as Tuongs was filled with Westerners and in retrospect they seemed to rush a bit through things. You need to bargain and know your reasonable price for the vendors (way overpaid for a hat!), and it was one time in Vietnam that we were really scammed (Nancy used a credit card for the first time to pay 500,000 dong. She asked for the receipt and the pleasant con artist pointed out the $500,000 but an additional VDN8 ($400 CDN) proceeded that and due to the spacing she missed it (see photo). Moral of story...insist on seeing the machine and look at the receipt very closely. Take any recommendations from your hotel be it for a tailor or a restaurant with a grain of salt, especially if you see it is extremely busy with "Westerners"...in that case, something is likely going on between your hotel and that business to increase both their profits.Read more