Fashion parade, Hoi An, Vietnam

Fashion and coffee in Hoi An, Vietnam

The charm and ancient beauty of Hoi An were not immediately apparent to us. Walking from the far end of town, feeling slightly worn out from another hot bus trip, we only noticed the endless succession of identical tailors, all looking like us : slightly worn out. For those not aware of it, Hoi An is famous for it's incredible concentration of tailors who can whip up anything from suits to evening gowns in a matter of hours. The quality can go from average to very good depending on how much one wants to spend and, in any case, it would always compare very favourably with western prices.

After a quick bowl of noodles, we found a cheap guesthouse where we dropped off our bags and set off exploring the town in search of a good tailor. We walked around for quite a few hours trying to get an idea of quality vs price. Even the most expensive places are quite reasonnable when comparing with Aussie price tags but it is worth looking for the medium range : good quality at a reasonnable price. In the evening, we had a pretty good dinner at "Miss Ly" restaurant (we were thinking of our own Miss Lee when we were there!) and enjoyed the winding streets, the old chinese wooden houses lit with colourful paper lanterns and a lovely breeze we have learned to appreciate.

The next 3 days consisted of a series of appointments at the tailoring shop we picked to get a few things made. The place was run by 3 very sweet Vietnamese girls who knew what they were doing while still listening to what we wanted. Chris had some very classic pieces in mind and picked some lovely materials for all of them. His perfect model figure meant that mostly everything came back looking very elegant and perfectly fitted. My pieces were a little bit out of their usual repertoire but with a few changes here and there, ended up looking great.

In between all of our fashionnable commitments, we managed to create a very nice life for ourselves consisting of lenghty coffees with delicious pastries at the Cargo club, baguette lunches from the market and dinners at our favourite restaurant on the riverfront where we enjoyed all the local specialties : Cao Lao, white rose and my favourite, friend wontons with vegetable and shrimp while drinking 25cents beer on tap.

At night, we watched re-runs of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows on our satellite TV which gave us a lot of inspiration for the photo shoot we had on our balcony before a post office worker came and packed up all of our beautiful new clothes. They are now on a long journey to Nice where they will arrive after travelling the high seas for 3 months. They should get there just before us.

Hue, Vietnam

Once the bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere (nothing unusual with that), we had a quick ride on the back of scooters into the centre of town. Judging by the frantic traffic, we knew we weren't in Laos anymore Todo and Hue isn't even a big city... A young man haggled us really hard to come and visit his hotel which turned out to be great, cheap and right accross from the best cafe/bar in town.

Hue is an old aristocratic city wich is organised around a fortified citadel of small colonial buildings, lakes and canals. Within the citadel is the "Purple city" which contained all the royal and ceremonial buildings. Unfortunately, the war destroyed most of it and even despite heavy restauration undertakings, it is hard to really grasp the grandiose density of it. The remaining temples and monuments reminded us of the Japanese shrines we visited, sharing a similar kind of serenity and harmony very different to the psychedelic exhuberance of Thai temples.

We also spent some time exploring the rest of the citadel, having coffee overlooking the river "Perfume" and walking around the market which we found to have more diversity than most others we have seen and generally enjoyed the cooler weather.

On one of the days we were there, we went on a tour of the DMZ or the Demilitarised zone which divided North and South Vietnam. Despite the impression of spending most of the time on the bus and the fact that the sites were not as interesting as the stories they possess, it was still good to just be there if only to see that life does go on, the trees have grown back, the no-man's land is now covered in rice fields and people live their lives. The past is still perceivable though. One area we drove through, although covered in forest, couldn't hide the huge craters making the ground undulate like waves. In one town, once a week, on fridays, land mine specialists come and detonate them all day long. The highlight of the tour was to visit a network of tunnels built and lived in by a whole village when the bombing got too bad to live above ground. As we walked through, slightly bent over not to hit our heads, it was extremely disturbing to imagine the kind of desperation that would lead anyone to adopt such living conditions. But life prevails and the 17 children born in the tunnels have all grown up and are still alive now.

First impressions of Vietnam

We were told many things about Vietnam and especially the Vietnamese in the weeks preceding our arrival here. They came from many sources, all well informed and based on experience which gave us reason to believe them.

Overwhelmingly, we heard that the Vietnamese are greedy, grouchy, sometimes deceiving and often dishonest. We were also warned that we might suffer from malnourishment and frequent harrassment. After hearing all that, it's a wonder we didn't pack up our bags and fly straight to Nice. Luckily, we did hear some great things about the freshness of the food, the wonderful scenery and the incredible cheapness which extends to everything.

So far, all of our experiences have been incredibly positive. Maybe, it is lucky we arrived in Hue rather than Saigon or Hanoi or maybe when one expects the worse, the only way is up. It's true that we have to haggle harder and be a bit more aware of how much things should cost and learn to tune out from the constant solicitations for taxis, cyclos, clothes, food etc... But at this point, Vietnam is looking like it could become our favourite destination in South East Asia. Most people we have come accross have been very helpful and charming, the food has been splendid and so affordable and we have really enjoyed walking around the streets, bustling with scooters and rambling colonial architecture. It was even a bit chilly in Hue which was such a relief from the constant heat.

So, so far so good and let's hope it lasts. We are not dellusional though, we know we will experience some setbacks but good first impressions do wonders and when someone snatches money out of our hands or refuses to give change back, we will try and hold on to them.