Day 19: Hoi An then a step to the right

A quiet start to the day, some lounging and relaxing as all our clothes fittings were scheduled for the afternoon. Again it was a stroll into the old town for lunch, where we found a place that had french fries so L could have a carb fix that wasn’t rice, as gluten free bread is nowhere to be found here.

I went for the white rose, one of those local specialty dishes that is a must try yadda yadda, but I’m somewhat underwhelmed by. Basically it’s about a cubic centimetre of prawn filling in the centre of a rice flour wonton wrapper that is scrunched decoratively, sprinkled with fried garlic that is supposed to be crunchy. It’s okay, nothing too special, the little amount of filling barely makes an impression as it’s swamped by the mostly bland rice wrapper. And I tried these at two places today, and both serves had quite uncrunchy garlic garnish. L had the fresh spring rolls and french fries, which were both pretty good.

Then we headed off for what should have been our first fitting, but they were running late so we went for a massage instead. We decided to be persuaded by the woman spruiking out the front, offering a 20% discount. I haven’t noticed it elsewhere, but at this place the pricing was based on strength of massage: L went for the soft massage, and it was VND50k more for my medium massage. Weird. The massages were good, but quite oily, so we won’t be going back there.

Back for the fitting, they were ready, so L did the fitting dance, trying everything on, getting alterations marked where things were too tight, too loose, too high or two low. Then on to the next fitting, which was same same. We had about 30 minutes to kill between that and my fitting, so we found a cafe, and I went for the drip filter coffee with icecream, for something different. I’ve seen the coffee drip filters here in shops, but this is the first time I’d seen one in action: they do a surprisingly good filtering job, though do take a long time to fill a cup. And on the subject of something different, we’ve now heard Asian reggae cover versions of “Beds Are Burning” and “Rock the Kasbah”

We were running a little late for my fitting (call it Vietnam time) but it meant that the first draft of my clothes were all ready for me to try. My yet-to-be-revealed masterpiece, roundly mocked by skeptical Ms L, actually looks pretty awesome. I’m looking forward to the final reveal. While we were there, I also found a couple of fabrics that will make awesome shirts, so put a couple more on my list (L is also quite skeptical of one of my fabric choices, but I’ll show here muahahahahahaha!). Also the shirts and pants I’m getting fit pretty well, and have good colours.

L had one more fitting, but they were running late so we crossed the bridge to the islet, a strip where Hoi An’s “nightlife” takes place. This is where Hoi An’s bia hoi is to be found, and found it was. Cool, crisp, not too strong, and 30 cents a glass, what is there to dislike? We found a family-run restaurant/bar with not too many tourists, and ate and drank on the balcony overlooking the river.

Before I get to the food I guess I should talk about Hoi An old town at night, and the riverside. One street back from the river is Nguyen Thai Hoc, which roughly translates to “the street with all the colourful lanterns and idiot tourists”, or something like that. I almost stepped on a dickhead who was sitting in the middle of the street, his gear all around him, as he was trying to take a photo. I deliberately stepped over him, which is a big Buddhist taboo, a major insult, and I figured this knucklehead deserved it. Along the river itself are hawkers selling 20 minute boat rides who have to be told no multiple times, and women selling paper “boats” with tealights inside for tourists to place on the river and watch them float away, because the rivers of the world don’t have enough shit in them already. It reminded us of Venice, at its most obscene tourist trappiness, crowded and tacky, with rampant consumerism trashing whatever beauty is otherwise to be found. Or something like that, either way we were glad to get through the hawking and gawking throng and into some food.

We went for a bite-sized dinner, more white roses (a little chewier and more flavourful than lunch, but still underwhelming), more rice pancakes (almost as good as yesterday’s, but let down by the absence of the awesome peanut dipping sauce), and some deep fried pork and prawn spring rolls that were sublime. I’m not sure what they were coated in, but it made a wonderful crispy outside, with a rich and tasty filling. We met mama-san on the way out, and complimented her on these specifically.

Then the final fitting of the day. While I patted the dog, L tried what they’d made so far (this is the place where L is getting the skirt with 60,000km of hem, so it’s not quite ready for fitting yet). So far, so good. Then L brought out the material she’d been lugging around all day, and discussed with them turning this into some bellydance tops. There was much umming and considering and measuring, and some more measuring, and things were heading in the right direction until L asked for a price. “Hmmm, very difficult job, difficult fabric,” they said. “I’ve made these before in this fabric,” L said. They named a price, which was about 20% more than L can get these made in Australia (without having to supply the fabric), so L countered. “Hmmm, very difficult fabric,” they said, not budging on the price. So it was a no sale.

This seems to be a fairly typical example of how things work (or don’t) here. Anything can be done for a price, but the focus is on solid churn on the big ticket items, suits, dresses, formal wear. Anything departing too far from the norm, outside they comfort zone, costs extra. It’s easier to take a standard item and then add some tweaks, than to get something up from scratch. The focus is squarely on production, not creation.

At least that’s my current take on things. It may just have been they boosted the price to make up for missing out on any fabric markup.

So tomorrow we have some fittings in the morning, and nothing else planned, so it may be a relaxing one tomorrow.