The Fairy Town

[smokingboot]

Here, here is the place!



Hoi An, where I would rent my artist's studio and then promptly ignore my work for months due to spending all my time sipping iced lattes/coconut water in cafes and watching the world go by. Hoi An has a famous lantern festival but there seem to be lights on the water every night, lights everywhere, tourists everywhere, great shrines, great everything, plus an unforgettable night market. If I could only pick one place in Vietnam for a holiday, it would be Hoi An. I'm crazy about it.

Among our adventures there, we did the Top Gear thing and went to one of the tailors the place is famous for. The oldest is Yaly. You go in, get measured up, choose what you want made and the fabric you want it made in, and they can knock it up in a day or so. I ended up with a dark green (bottle green? racing green? sludge green?) linen blouse shirt that fits beautifully and suits my hair. I also ended up with an ao dai. R insisted. Ao dais are very elegant pieces of clothing with one particularly lovely feature about them; they waft air around you in the formidable heat. Mine has a peacock print tunic with purple pants beneath, colours chosen by the hubby. I was rather worried about getting it in the first place, cultural appropriation and all that, and spoke to our guide regarding this.

'Cultural what?' he said in a puzzled tone. I explained. He looked bemused. 'That isn't anything,' he said, 'if you want to wear an ao dai they will be happy to make it for you.'
I persisted' 'but will anyone mind if I wear it?'
He laughed. 'Nobody will mind at all.'

Sure enough I got nothing but pleasant looks and compliments about it. Yaly keep ones measurements for about 10 years, so I may book online with them, Personally, I am thinking of some kind of winter opera coat/jacket style thing in cerise and purple, but I'm not good enough with fabrics to know what would work and what wouldn't.

Doesn't matter. Clothes are just clothes. Hoi An is just fabulous.