Hoi An, Coastal Vietnam
April 8-9, 2010
Hoi An was a nice little town nestled along the shore of the famed China Beach where we spent 2 days and one night relaxing and exploring. Day 1 found us checking into our hotel (complete with small lap pool) and heading out to explore the Old Town. On our way we were awed by the amount of clothing/shoe stores—Hoi An is famed for its custom tailoring and these people can whip up anything you want in basically 24 hours.
The old town was a quaint area with brick roads winding about antique architecture and templage. Old ladies with the conical rice paddy hats cooked up some local cuisine as men hocked their wares (we may have bought a few t-shirts along the way.) We found our way through the fish market (gagging and plugging our noses) until we reached the river that separated the older part of town from the new. On our way back to get some dinner the 4 of us stopped in a shoe store and got sized
up for some new custom kicks. It was quite the process as you literally walk around this store trying to pick out the style of shoe you want (they have everything) and then they sit you down and give you all these fabric swatches and just let you run free. The shoes I got have a lot of different colors on them, so it took a long time for all of us to sort through and find the best combination. It was hard work, because you can't really visualize how the shoes are going to work just by holding up little squares of fabric up to the shoe (think of going to Home Depot and picking out paint, except in this case Home Depot is a small shop in the middle of Vietnam and the paint is leather and suede samples.) They guaranteed us they would be ready the next evening before we had to leave, so we gave them the $$ and headed out for some food and some people watching.
The next day we rented bicycles for about $1 and rode our way along the river to China Beach. It turned out to be kind of cloudy, but that didn’t stop us from hopping into the Bay of Tonkin or wandering along the endless stretches of sand. It’s crazy to think we were hanging out where the soldiers used to take their R&R back in the day! After swimming we tried our hand at some 2 vs. 2 beach volleyball and, while we were no Misty May-Treanor/Walsh duo, I think Emily and I held our own. We stopped at the shoe store to see how everything was going to find that they still needed some time on the shoes (even though they guaranteed us they’d be ready at 4) and that they had put black soles on my sneakers i
nstead of white causing them to look like a cross between bowling shoes and mat shoes for wrestling. I wasn’t a really happy camper as we had to leave that evening to catch a flight to Hanoi—I told them it was okay, but I wanted my money back and they plead and plead that they would have the shoes fixed, with new soles, by the time we had to leave. Seeing as we had a little bit of time I told them we would see what happened and headed back to the hotel to shower and pack up. I went back when they told me the shoes would be ready and lo and behold: no shoes. They kept saying ‘wait wait, almost finished, don’t worry!’ Well at about 6:58 (we had to leave 7:00) I got a little peeved and demanded my money back, showing them the receipt they gave us saying our shoes would be ready at 4:00, etc. As I’m finally getting through that they didn’t live up to their end of the deal (about a 10 minute process) the lady flies up on her motorbike with my shoes (smelling strongly of bonding glue) and apologizing like crazy. I slipped them on, said they fit, actually liked the way they looked now, said Thank You and BOLTED to the hotel where our car was picking us up. Thankfully we are in SE Asia and the car was late, so, in the end, it all worked out and we made the flight to the next leg of our journey: Hanoi.
April 8-9, 2010
Hoi An was a nice little town nestled along the shore of the famed China Beach where we spent 2 days and one night relaxing and exploring. Day 1 found us checking into our hotel (complete with small lap pool) and heading out to explore the Old Town. On our way we were awed by the amount of clothing/shoe stores—Hoi An is famed for its custom tailoring and these people can whip up anything you want in basically 24 hours.
The old town was a quaint area with brick roads winding about antique architecture and templage. Old ladies with the conical rice paddy hats cooked up some local cuisine as men hocked their wares (we may have bought a few t-shirts along the way.) We found our way through the fish market (gagging and plugging our noses) until we reached the river that separated the older part of town from the new. On our way back to get some dinner the 4 of us stopped in a shoe store and got sized
up for some new custom kicks. It was quite the process as you literally walk around this store trying to pick out the style of shoe you want (they have everything) and then they sit you down and give you all these fabric swatches and just let you run free. The shoes I got have a lot of different colors on them, so it took a long time for all of us to sort through and find the best combination. It was hard work, because you can't really visualize how the shoes are going to work just by holding up little squares of fabric up to the shoe (think of going to Home Depot and picking out paint, except in this case Home Depot is a small shop in the middle of Vietnam and the paint is leather and suede samples.) They guaranteed us they would be ready the next evening before we had to leave, so we gave them the $$ and headed out for some food and some people watching.
The next day we rented bicycles for about $1 and rode our way along the river to China Beach. It turned out to be kind of cloudy, but that didn’t stop us from hopping into the Bay of Tonkin or wandering along the endless stretches of sand. It’s crazy to think we were hanging out where the soldiers used to take their R&R back in the day! After swimming we tried our hand at some 2 vs. 2 beach volleyball and, while we were no Misty May-Treanor/Walsh duo, I think Emily and I held our own. We stopped at the shoe store to see how everything was going to find that they still needed some time on the shoes (even though they guaranteed us they’d be ready at 4) and that they had put black soles on my sneakers i
nstead of white causing them to look like a cross between bowling shoes and mat shoes for wrestling. I wasn’t a really happy camper as we had to leave that evening to catch a flight to Hanoi—I told them it was okay, but I wanted my money back and they plead and plead that they would have the shoes fixed, with new soles, by the time we had to leave. Seeing as we had a little bit of time I told them we would see what happened and headed back to the hotel to shower and pack up. I went back when they told me the shoes would be ready and lo and behold: no shoes. They kept saying ‘wait wait, almost finished, don’t worry!’ Well at about 6:58 (we had to leave 7:00) I got a little peeved and demanded my money back, showing them the receipt they gave us saying our shoes would be ready at 4:00, etc. As I’m finally getting through that they didn’t live up to their end of the deal (about a 10 minute process) the lady flies up on her motorbike with my shoes (smelling strongly of bonding glue) and apologizing like crazy. I slipped them on, said they fit, actually liked the way they looked now, said Thank You and BOLTED to the hotel where our car was picking us up. Thankfully we are in SE Asia and the car was late, so, in the end, it all worked out and we made the flight to the next leg of our journey: Hanoi. 
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