Vietnam: Hoi An’s Never Ending Shopping

Hoi An has the most and best shopping from any other trip I have ever been on. The biggest attraction of Hoi An is the shopping, but not just any shopping, it’s custom shopping. They have a clothes district and a shoe district and a leather district. In a matter of 24 hours you can have dresses, shirts, ties, purses, shoes, you name it, made to fit perfect in the color or design of your choice.

The first thing we did was head over to the clothes district to have some clothes made. We wanted to make sure there was enough time to get measured and then fit before we left. When we got to the clothes district, we were immediately seized upon by the shop owner piranhas. I felt like a large piece of meat that was being fought over. We were followed and pretty much told where and what we had to do. We needed to exchange money, so one lady took us to someone who could exchange money, then she sat and waited for us to change our money.

I had done my research before coming and had already picked out someone that I wanted to make my clothes, Sewing Bee. While Heather, Holly and Cori got swept into the first tent, I walked around looking for Sewing Bee. I found her easy enough and then she and I went about choosing material and a design for some dresses and shirts I wanted made. I brought my absolute favorite Micheal Kohls shirt with me and had her copy the exact design for three new shirts. I also had three tunics made and two dresses. Holly and Corianne also had dresses made, and Heather got some dresses made for her girls.

After getting everything situated with our custom clothes, we found ourselves being swept into the shoe district. The sister of the piranha then grabbed the other girls swooped in and brought us to her shoe shop. Corianne had some super cute shoes made there. It was neat seeing all the designs and color possibilities. I remembered that Big Sis needs some church shoes, so I took pictures and tried to figure out how to get her some shoes. It took a day to get Cori’s shoes back, and I was just in love. We ended up stopping at another leather shoe place where I got two sandals made for me and some church sandals made for Big Sis. It was really neat watching them work. They trace your foot, then take measurements of your foot in three different places, around your big toe, around your ankle. I called Big Sis on FaceTime and we did the measurements over the phone while the lady wrote down the measurements. After measurements we then got to pick the leather color. There were about a million choices. I ended up getting one black sandal and one red sandal made. Big Sis chose this gorgeous silver-ish gold color leather. Holly also got some shoes and boots made, and we all love love love our shoes!

I wasn’t planning on getting a purse, but while in the leather shop, Holly found this adorable purse, and got it. Then Heather had a purse made for her mom and then a super cute turquoise made for her. I found a purse design that I just fell in love with and had them make it in the same red leather as my sandals. Red is my most favorite color, and let me tell you what, the red sandals and the red purse make me very happy.

But the shopping didn’t end there, every single day we found ourselves shopping and shopping some more. We would pick up the clothes we had made, then decide to have something else made while there. I ended up getting some ties made for Kevin and Little Monster. Holly and Cori had dresses made for their girls after seeing the dresses Heather picked up for her girls. Each time we went back. We saw the cutest things.

One of my favorite places to go was the night market. The night market was a crazy crowded pedestrian street filled with vendors with souvenirs, trinkets, street food and Hoi An lanterns all lit up. I loved the lanterns. So Much! Lanterns were hung from every building and every store. Every restaurant had a string of lanterns out in front of their store with the store name painted on each lantern. Ever single lantern was lit up filling the streets with vibrant bright colors. It was gorgeous.

I just couldn’t get enough of the lanterns. We found out that we could do a lantern making class, so we excitedly made an appointment and made our very own lanterns. Poor Corianne was feeling super awful sick (come to find out after we got home that she had a bad case of strep throat the entire time, and was an amazing trouper) so she ended up going back to the villas during the lantern making class. We felt so bad that she missed it.

We found Phuoc Dong Handicrafts and were able to make our lanterns sitting at a small table with tiny chairs on the side of the shop. We were given the bamboo skeleton of the lantern and learned that the shop keeper has been doing this her entire life and her family has been lantern makers for generations. Her father and husband are the ones who had make the skeletons.

After picking out our shape and size, we then got to pick our fabric. We all choose different solid silk fabrics. The fabric is then glued to the skeleton in small sections using what smelled just like rubber cement. I was taken back to my schools days by the smell of the glue and we all reminisced about rubber cement and peeling it off our hands.

The sections has to be pulled super tight to fit just right on the skeleton bamboo, and the shop keeper made sure they were all perfect.

Once the lanterns were done, we were able to pick the color of strings and bead that hung from the bottom. I ended up doing a silver lantern with black string and a black bead. When we were all done we got pictures with our beautiful hand made lanterns and the shop keeper. It took about an hour and a half to make the lanterns from start to finish. The work involved in making these lanterns made me appreciate their beauty even more.

So back to the Night Market! These amazing lanterns were everywhere in the night market and I was in love. I kept buying lanterns, and going back and buying more. They were about $3.00-$6.00 a lantern depending on the size and material. Holly, Cori and Heather couldn’t believe it when I kept going back to the lantern shops and returning with another lantern. They kept teasing that I wouldn’t be able to fit them in my luggage with all the other shopping we did. I didn’t mind, because I knew I would never find anything like these lanterns anywhere in the world but here.

We continued walking around the Night Market and had some amazing street food. They had these Nutella Banana Rotis, Paper Pizza, and ice cream rolls that were simple delicious. I just couldn’t get enough of the Rotis. It was like a crepe filled with bananas and Nutella, except it tastes more like waffle batter, and much more greasy. They were super flat and just delicious.

The street food had crazy stuff like fried frogs, octopus, lobsters and crazy seafood on a stick. It was fun to see it all lined on the street. It was bonus if we saw someone buy one and eat it.

Another “shopping” thing we did almost everyday was find a massage place and get feet massages. There were ladies everywhere trying to get clients for massages, and we took full advantage of that. We got massages pretty much every day. The best part was that it cost less then $8.00 for an hour foot massage. It was heavenly! They would do this crazy toe popping thing that felt so weird. After walking all day, it was definitely something we got very spoiled in doing, and it was so nice to get a massage for so cheap, but done so well.

I almost forgot about the fruit! Oh the glorious and mouth watering fruit! Delicious and crazy good fruit was everywhere. One of the first things we did on the first day was stop at a fruit stand and buy fruit, all kinds of fruit to taste and try, some we hadn’t ever seen before. But everyone’s favorite was the mangos. We had the store keeper cut them right there, and just ate them as we walked. They were so good I was licking the inside of the peel to get every last drop. I couldn’t get enough of the mangos or the pineapple, it was picked to perfection and each one tasted tantalizing. Oh blessed fruit, how I miss you in Korea!