Hoi An - A shopper's paradise

Each of the places we have visited have had their own particular charm, but Hoi An is fabulous – the shopping, the people and the food.

After coming back from My Son on Sunday, it was time for the serious shopping to start. This is the place we had all been hanging out to reach – the place to get shoes and clothes made. When we arrived on Saturday, Van our local guide had taken us on an orientation walk through the Ancient Town and shown us some of the most reputable shops to buy from. Diane and I headed in to the town on the hotel shuttle bus, and the driver got talking to us on the way in. He asked if we had special shops we wanted to go, we said yes, Van had shown us. He said he would drop us at a very good tailor, but we weren’t to tell anyone he dropped us there. (it turns out he was only supposed to take us as far as the bus stop, and not to anywhere in particular). Anyway, the wee girl in the shop that took a shine to me, Dom, she got busy showing me designs and fabric and I decided on getting a suit made. So very quickly she had me measured and we had the fabric chosen. It turned out to be a bit more expensive than the place Van had shown us yesterday, but I was happy with both the fabric and the wee girl who was serving me, so I agreed on a price, paid my money and was most content. I ordered a suit, a blouse and a dress. Meanwhile Diane was feeling very uncomfortable with the whole deal, she felt she could get a suit made at home for less than that, so decided against buying there. But, I was happy and went ahead with my purchase.

From there it was on to the next place Van had showed us to get some shoes made. I had my evening slides with me, and I chose to get another pair of those made, but in blue leather. And I had also chosen a picture from a catalogue yesterday and the young girl had remembered and very quickly had me measured up for them. I asked for a slightly lower heel, and a more rounded toe, and she said no problem!! With all that shopping under our belts, it was time to meet the others at Morning Glory – for our cooking class.

What an amazing experience – Miss Vy the owner of the shop was an amazing woman – she spoke with such passion about food and ingredients and the reason why they use certain ingredients and every ingredient had a use. She spoke of the harmony of food – the ying and yang and balance and showed us how to make spring rolls, crispy pancakes, grilled chicken and the most delicious mango salad. It was to die for. She has written the most informative cook book, and it only cost $39.95, but it is very heavy and I just haven’t got room for it in my suitcase. However we did get a copy of the recipes we cooked tonight so I will just have to be content with that. We ate the spring rolls and the pancake at our cooking stations, but after the chicken was grilled, we took that and our salads into the restaurant and ate them there. She then sent out some kind of curry soup, but I was content with what I had already eaten so didn’t try that, and we finished off with a crème caramel dessert. What a fantastic night, and the food (and considering that we had cooked it our ourselves) was delicious. And to top off a fantastic evening, we were all given a mango slicer as a gift. What a bonus.