Hoi an is a town of fashion, it all about the colour, the fabric and the fit, because you see Hoi an is really famous or at least renowned in travelers circuits for one thing, its tailors! Now I think I can speak on behalf of many girls when I say that to go to a town where there are over 200 tailors all excitedly waiting to make just about any form of clothing for you within 24 hours is a dream.

Me and my new Canadian friends arrived into Hoi an after a short 5 hour bus ride from Hue, we were all excited for the following day when we could start designing some outfits, Hannah and Amber would be buying clothes such as big coats and fancy dresses which would be sent home along with some extra bits and bobs for travelling which was more what I was there for. We had a decent nights sleep in the hostel and then woke up early, ate breakfast and then after moving hostels because we didn't want to pay 7 dollars to sleep in the attic with the ants we hit the beautiful town centre and within minutes were completely lost and over whelmed by the whole tailoring process - I mean you might think, ok I know I want a simple dress but then you have to pick a fabric that works and is in your budget, decide what sleeves you want, do you want pockets? what neck line and length would suit you? do you want any detail such as a belt on it? as well as deciding how loose or tight you think it should be?! Oh I was completely out of my depth when we first began and after 9 hours in tailors I had ordered …. 1 dress! That's right Hannah and Amber had ordered blazers, skirts and dresses and I had managed to sit there baffled for hours before snapping out of it and basically asking the tailor to make a copy of the dress I was already wearing just in a different fabric which took me a painfully long time to pick and I ended up with the exact same as my original dress just in blue?!

Day 2 and I got into the swing of things, this was the beginning of the end for me as I became a woman possessed and ended up doubling my budget so that I could have a playsuit, 2 dresses, a skirt, 2 cardigans, a pair of trousers and some little gold flip flops made …. Oops! The way it works is you order what you want and get measured which can get a little bit intimate when they are measuring how long the crotch on your trousers should be and then the next day you pop back, try it on and change anything which requires altering. I quickly came to realize that out of all of the tailors we went to for different things one stood out as the best, the store named "HI" is run by Tan a beautiful Vietnamese woman who never stops smiling and will go to the ends of the earth to make sure you get exactly what you want, literally you could order some trousers and then when you put them on decide they are horrid and have them changed within 2 hours into a skirt or a dress or something. I came to be so fond of Tan, she was just 100% genuinely lovely and as we left she was actually in tears that we had to go!!
The clothes I had made are beautiful, I didn't get anything too fancy just staple clothes that I will wear travelling but they fit me perfectly and were so much cheaper than buying them in England premade in a shop. Ok ok so you might not class a floral play suit (which the Canadians delightfully call a "Romper") and a high waisted puff ball skirt essential travel gear but everyone needs to treat themselves sometimes don't they?

In between dress fittings I got to go for a little wonder around Hoian its self trying the pho at the street vendors, seeing the beautiful river which has a very European canal essence to it and wondering around the little backstreets which are packed with tailors and artists and best of all, cakes! That's right Hoian has some of the finest restaurants in town which obviously I definitely cant afford to eat in but I can afford dessert and what amazing desserts they have. From the chocolate mouse cake to the caramel tarts a restaurant called Cargo had it all and was extremely well known for it. A typical day in the life of me and my friends whilst in Hoian almost revolved around these two indulgences, clothes and cake, appointments at the tailors in the morning followed by afternoon coffee and cake at cargos - a girl can live the dream for half the price if not less than back home, an elegant setting, beautiful food and well made clothes …. Need I say more?

Hoian offers more than just a girls day dream, it has a little bit of night life too and it wasn't just me and the girls going for a drink, we were actually joined by two old friends of mine, Paul and Allan from my Laos crew! I was thrilled when they emailed to say that they had arrived in Hoian and would be meeting us for dinner later that night, I couldn't wait to introduce my Vietnam friends to my Laos ones but more than that I couldn't wait to see them myself and have a catch up, hearing their funny stories and reminiscing about old times (4 weeks ago haha). We decided the best drinking whole in town came in the form of a bar called some thing like "Why me why now?" or "Here and there" or something like that, I don't really remember because the name on the front door outside was in stupidly squiggly writing which I stood squinting like a granny at a bus time table for 5 mins and still couldn't figure it out. The bar was great fun, always busy with travelers and had a free pool table which the boys made the most of, our group never stayed small for long as we always had random people met by one of us in a different town before joining us for a couple of bevies and some cheeky banter. One night we all went out in our brand new clothes looking all spiffy, we obvioiusly headed to our fave bar which for arguments sake I will just call Why? Because that's the only word im sure was in the name in the first place and got down to some drinking. The beers flowed as did the chat at one point I was talking to an English lad named Lewis who was telling me about how his best mate when he was 9's dad was a famous photographer and due to his connections got Lewis and his mate back stage passes to Party in The Park where he met the boy band 5 among other celebs, just one more random conversation to add to the list.
Anyway soon it was getting on and we had to make a move or the bar would shut before we had decided where our next stop would be, the beach bar was quickly settled on and so we hopped in the free shuttle mini bus along with 10 too many people - it was literally like a challenge of how many people can you fit into a mini but this time a mini van, im pretty sure we might have broken a Guinness world record or at least given a good go at it. The beach bar was erm well it was basically crap, but due to my new group of 10 friends we made it fun, I remember a rather tipsy Amber dancing with her eyes closed in the middle of the dance floor flipping between a pout and a smile and when she eventually opened her eyes she saw me she shouted "oh my god Laura, I just soooo love to dance!" at which point the grin reappeared, her eyes closed and she gladly skipped back into dance mode. Apart from the Irish boys leaving early to go watch a footy match, which was disappointing, the night was a flying success everyone danced their feet off to the exhausted drunk point that was home time.

Surprisingly one of my favorite experiences in Hoi an wasn't the partying, clothes or cake, nope none of these topped the list, instead it was an event I witnessed one night at the river. Now I have never heard of or experienced it before but I know other nationalities do it to, it happens on the last Saturday of every month in Hoi an and presumably most of Vietnam, its Earth Hour. So on the last Saturday of every month at 8.30pm all across the world there are billions of people celebrating earth hour and Hoi an is no different, basically its in support of the prevention of global warming and what happens is every bit of electricity in the city gets switched off all at once and isn't switched back on until an hour has passed.

Me and the girls headed to the river where we ate noodles sat on little plastic chairs near the bridge (when I say little I mean knees around your ears, preschool little), as we were ordering hundreds of people were flocking to the river bringing with them candles and a sense of excitement, it reminded me of the run up to a fireworks display, everyone anticipating the moment where something out of the ordinary will happen. As I sipped my beer and dug into my noodles I was startled by the sound of an air raid siren sounding, which is nerve wracking anywhere but particularly in Vietnam, as the siren wooed the crowds I looked around to see street lamps, restaurant lights and anything else electrically powered being switched off until the city was black, completely black apart from the millions of candles. It was a crazy experience as along with the sound of the siren came screaming, cheering and clapping, people applauding each other and themselves for being part of an event which is attempting to make a difference not only to their country but the world.

Excitement was in the air as I finished my noodles, bought a candle and strolled with the girls around the river, every where I turned their were candles, in shop windows, held by children as well as floating along in the river, Hoi an has never looked so beautiful. On our stroll we bought popcorn which we ate whilst joining a circle of people who were singing around a guy playing guitar, now apart from the fact most of the songs were in Vietnamese ignoring the odd West life classic thrown in there for good measure it was kind of cool, I felt so hippy giving mother nature a hand whilst sitting cross legged in a circle singing along to an acoustic guitar but it was also a great experience. At 9.30 after an hour of hippy earth darkness the siren sounded the end and lights were quickly switched back on so that daily life can resume, all of a sudden it was as if someone had pressed play on a paused DVD, after an hour of dim lit and relaxed life things were moving at real speed again, waiters were serving dinner, families were going home and we were back into our natural routine and heading to the Why bar to meet our mates.

I enjoyed Hoian as it was indulgent, it covered all the bases, good food, cheap shopping, amazing company and fab experiences, I got back to nature at Earth hour, went to chocolate heaven at cargos, lived the fashion dream with Tan at Hi and gave drunk Jones time to appear at the why bar - what a great couple of days. But of course living the life of luxuries doesn't last long, its time for me to go back to budget mode and get back onto the road as I head down the coast further south to a new town- fare well Hoi an you delicious little town you, hello the open pot holed road and Vietnamese sleeper bus number 3.