~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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Clothes encounters : Shoppers and Hoi An, Vietnam make a perfect fit

H0I AN - Want to know where to go for tailor-made clothes at outrageously low prices ? There's a shopper's paradise within easy bicycling distance to beautiful beaches - in Vietnam. But before you start drooling, be aware if you come here you'll have to be able to stand tourists and shoppers. Lots of them. In the past 10 years, this town along the central coast of Vietnam, has gone from impoverished, sleepy fishing village to one of the nation's top tourist venues. One reason is you can be fitted for a suit or dress in the afternoon and have it delivered to your hotel the next morning.

In a rush ? OK, you can pick it up in four hours. The cost ? Twenty to 30 bucks, depending on the material you choose. The town is an Asian Filene's Basement, set among ancient streets, some cobbled. Tour buses park on the outskirts of old Hoi An, with its shops, squatting sidewalk vendors, galleries and cafes. From there, shoppers proceed on foot, ride in a cyclo (pedicab) or pedal a bike, if they dare.

These streets are busy with bikes and motor scooters, many loaded with local families, vegetables, woven baskets, wood, metal pipes. They're also lined with more ``cloth shops'' than you can possibly count. Imagine the North End, but for every Italian restaurant or pastry shop there are a dozen fabric stores, stacked floor to ceiling with bolts of beautiful Asian silk, a spectrum of sheen. There are also cottons, woolens, satin brocades, linens and other fabrics.

Nothing is off the rack here, except for infant and toddler outfits, tops and bottoms. Dress the kids like mandarins. It only costs $5. Women in the shops wield the tape measure and scribble your vital statistics. Somewhere, hidden from view in the back, upstairs or down the lane, the seamstresses and tailors cut fabric and bend to their sewing machines. Their proficiency and speed are impressive. At Thahn Lich, a small shop at 148 Tran Phu that also goes by the name of Elegant, I got a three-piece, pinstriped suit for $30.For my sisters, I brought home silk ao dais, the traditional dress of Vietnamese women. They cost $20 or $25. The ao dai consists of a snug mandarin-style dress, hemmed at midcalf, typically worn over black or white trousers. The shops display endless variations on the ao dai theme. Silk pajamas cost $20. I also had two pairs of trousers made, with the cuffs tapered beautifully, for $12 apiece.Women's tops, cut from silk and bordered with silk piping, go for $10. Hoi An's silk ties cost a dollar. Don't come looking for conservative here. These are bright, bursting with color. If you want to bring clothes home for others, come equipped with measurements - height, shoulders, chest, waist, hips, length from shoulder to hip. For ao dais, measure length from shoulder to midcalf. It helps to convert to centimeters, but the conversion can be done in the shops.

As darkness fell on Hoi An, I spied a visitor in boxer shorts in the fluorescent light of a particularly small cloth shop, looking torn, a little forlorn. He conferred with his wife, who was fully clothed. They appeared to be making critical sartorial decisions. Clothes aren't the only item for sale in Hoi An. The busy hub of the shopping district is a typical Asian marketplace, with squatting vendors offering luscious looking fruits, vegetables, greens, meats and dried items of mysterious origin to most Yanks.

Don't plunge too deeply into the market if you're the least bit claustrophobic. The passages are narrow, especially under the roofed section. Galleries and other shops sell assorted Vietnamese handcrafts - handsome chopsticks, carved wood and marble, lacquered wood items. Overshopped ? Don't fret. Many shops sell duffels, backpacks and wheeled suitcases at a fraction of U.S. prices. Check the quality - the seams, the zippers, the wheels. Most are OK, coming out of the same Asian factories that manufacture for Western designers such as Nike, North Face and Louis Vuitton.

The cost of accommodations in Hoi An is not quite as inexpensive as for clothing and dry goods except for one hotel I found. You won't find a better bargain than the Thao Nguyen Hotel (also known as The Grassland), an immaculate family-run operation at 22 Hai Ba Trung. It's new, fairly elegant and an easy bike ride or healthy walk from the shopping district.

To draw guests from centrally located hotels, the Thao Nguyen rents nice rooms for $15 to $20 per night during the high season (September to March) and $10 to $12 in the off-season. Use of the Internet and bicycles here is free. The property also has a small swimming pool, too small for laps but ideal for cooling off or relaxing, and a rooftop terrace restaurant. These rates can be expected to rise as people discover this place. For a reservation or information, e-mail grasslandhotel@vnn.vn.

Another find is the Ancient House Hotel, 61 Cua Dai Road, closer to the shopping district but secluded and private. The buildings here are traditional, with tile roofs. In a building at the front of the hotel, rice paper, a favorite of Vietnamese cuisine, is cooked over a wood fire and placed in the sun to dry - the white rounds resemble drumheads. The Ancient House has a restaurant, a nice pool and rooms from $70 to $90 per night, single or double occupancy, including breakfast. Go to www.ancienthouseresort.com.

By Ric Bourie - The Boston Herald - March 20, 2005