We Hate Shopping!!! (Or 5 Days at Hoi An)
Hoi An is a wonderful little town in the middle of Vietnam. It is best known as a Seamstress Town. People come primarily from Europe to have their clothes custom made there.
We arrived to town in the middle of the day on 11/26 after a long bus ride from Hue. The bus stopped in front of a large hotel and we were particularly lazy to walk around the town with our heavy bags looking for something else. So we chose a room that we liked, and that fit the budget in this hotel (An Phu) and stayed there.
The plan:
The plan for this town was to accomplish the most hated task for both of us - aka shopping! Anyone who had met us, may have guessed that our sizes are not standard by any means. So we were going to get a few essential things custom made.
The execution:
On the day that we arrived we went walking to town and right away were completely overwhelmed by the number of places. Literally hundreds of shops that will make anything for you from suits to shoes and all can be done based on an existing piece of clothing or based on a picture. We walked into a few places and asked about prices, materials and turnaround times. Then we stumbled upon Kimmy's Tailors. This was a bigger shop than all the rest of them and had professional staff. That same night we checked out the reviews and found that Kimmys was one of the top 3 rated shops so we decided to go with them.
The first day was most grueling when we had to pick materials, styles, negotiate prices, figure out the number of pieces, and get measured. All in all it took 5 hours to get out of the store. After that we were exhausted and happy to start drinking the moment we left the shop.
By day 2, we figured out that it is even better if we drink before and after the visit to the shop. For the other 4 days we kept this strict regiment of alcohol intake :)
The result:
A couple of suits, some blazers, shirts and pants for Levka, Igor and myself. All of which was mailed home right from the store.
You might've guessed the last picture is of Igor's suit.
Lessons learned:
1. Its really worth it to go with a slightly more expensive place with a great reputation. We made a pair of shorts in another cheap place and the quality was nowhere close to what was done at Kimmys.
2. If you do this, make sure to bring enough dollars to pay the entire amount. The prices are quoted in dollars and if you pay in Dong the conversion rate is awful. Plus we pay ATM fees to withdraw that money. Between the two, we ended up paying an extra 5%.
3. Alcohol makes everything better!