Is Liz a Magician?

"I'll fit it in my bag, don't worry". These were the words of my darling wife as we visited the tailors in Hoi An.

We had made a decision, as our money was drying up that what we bought in Hoi An would be clothes we would NOT buy at home. I needed some shirts for work and Liz wanted (having spoken to a girl in Laos who had already been to Hoi An) a winter coat. We walked in to the "recommended" tailors and before we knew it I had order 5 shirts and a pair of trousers and Liz had ordered a wallet crunching 2 winter coats and 2 dresses - one with quite intricate detail! We walked out having been measured as if for a coffin and felt pretty happy with the decisions we had made on the material and style.

They told us we needed to go back for fittings the next day (we were fine with this as they gave us free bottles of water each time we went back) so we returned only for me to order another pair of trousers and Liz an extra dress. At this point they were grinning from ear to ear - understandable why - for them it was like Christmas!

To cut a long story short we visited about 106 times over the next 2 days for fittings and tweaks and we walked away with bags filled with: for Liz, 2 winter coats, 3 dresses and 1 pair of trousers and Sam, 5 shirts and 2 pairs of trousers.

The rain on the second day we were there was relentless so silently we were both very pleased as we have been sightseeing since Chiang Mai so an excuse to chill out in our pretty nice hotel room was good to have.

The next day slightly brighter saw us venture out and have a good wander around the old town which turned out to be a photographers heaven. Hoi An is a very beautiful place, the buildings were incredible, the French influence and the ladies in their traditional hats made for such a charateristic setting - not forgetting that the food was delicious. Two Hoi An specialities we now rather like are Cao Lao (noodles and pork) and White Rose (shrimp in a fresh flour wrap) which we dined on repeatedly over our time here.

To help wash this great food down we had a few local beers labeled either as "fresh beer" or "draught beer" in the entrance of the restaurants. We certainly tried this out as will be testiment to Liz's family as they watched us knock back a few whilst on Skype! At just 16p per glass it really is rude not to and it is cheaper than water!

On collection of our clothes we headed back to the hotel and I saw Liz struggle with the plastic bag her new clothes were in so instantly had concern of her fitting anything more in her backpack. Having said that, the title of the blog is heart felt. How Liz did it is quite remarkable. A bag, already bulging, now filled with 2 winter coats, 3 dresses (yes she ordered another one) and a pair of trousers (yep another last minute order) all snugly in the bag!

A very successful trip to Hoi An. Now looking forward to some beach time in Nha Trang.

Sam