The Suit Is Made (25/2/14)

Today I had a suit fitting check at 11am and a shoe fitting check at 3pm and I wanted to see the town at some point today too. After a small lay in I met up with Stephanie, Sylvia and Barbara at breakfast and we made our plans for the day. They wanted to go to the beach at some point so I said I'd meet them there after my suit check, and then we'd all head into town later and do some shopping and have dinner too. The day sorted we tucked into the buffet breakfast and 3 plates of food and two Vietnamese coffees later I was done. We also bumped into the two American blokes from Hue at breakfast so they decided to go to the beach with the girls too. They were going to arrange bicycles for the day and so I left them to it and got ready and started making my way to the tailors. I was a little early but the suit was ready anyway and so I tried it on. It...was...perfect. The trousers, waistcoat and jacket fitted like a tailored suit. The white shirt fitted perfectly too but needed a slight adjustment at the collar as it made the tie look wonky. I'm not an expert but the stitching looked amazing on everything. The unfortunate thing now is I've tasted the good stuff and there's a chance everything needs to be tailored from now on. I'd only decided on one tie for the white shirt so far and still needed a tie for the other shirt, so the woman in the tailors got me to follow her on my bike to a shop in town, belonging to a friend of hers, that just sold ties. We took the other shirt with us and so I put it on and tried a couple of ties on that the women suggested. I thought they both looked good and couldn't decide between them, so I chose both. My first tie was skinny and only one of these ties was too so the tailor said she'd make me a skinny version of the other one from the same material. The ties sorted I was told the shoes were also ready now and so went to try them on. The lady brought them out for me and I couldn't believe my eyes. They were EXACTLY the same as the picture in the Next catalogue. The leather was amazingly soft and they fitted like a pair of tailored shoes. The left one needed to be tightened a small amount but apart from that they were spot on what I wanted. I got told they would be finished by 3pm and could pick them up then to try with the suit. I thanked her and headed to the beach to meet the others. They'd sent me their location and so Google mapped my way there. The beach was quiet but it still took me a while to spot them. I got myself settled and stripped to my swim suit and surveyed the sea. It was slightly rough but still looked inviting. It was colder than expected but that didn't stop my slow motion Baywatch run into the sea before tripping and face planting a wave. How cool am I?! It was a nice break from the blistering heat of the day and the suit fitting was definitely not the activity to be doing in this weather. Some of the others were already in the sea and we were all having a go at body surfing the big waves. I'd never done this before and it was awesome especially when you got a good bit of distance out of it. It was ridiculously tiring though constantly battling the waves so I was soon back on the beach and drying off in the sun. After a couple of hours of sunbathing it was time for me to leave and head back to town to pick up my shoes and for my final suit check before paying. The shirt adjustment was spot on and the final tie looked great too. And the shoes were now a perfect fit. Happy that everything was exactly as I wanted it I settled my bill and the tailor also packed and arranged for the suit to be sent on to Australia for me. It was about 200 quid for everything including shipping. Now THAT is a bargain. The service was excellent and so I wrote them a review on Trip Advisor praising them for everything they'd done. With everything sorted I left and headed back to the hotel to meet the others who were now returning from the beach too. We arranged to meet a little later in the foyer to go into town so I took the time to shower all the sand out of my hair and get ready. After meeting we walked to town with the plan to shop and as a result found we all wanted to go to different places and picked a place and a time to meet before splitting up. I ambled along looking in various places and discovered the Hoi An method used by shop keepers to get you to buy their things. You ask how much, they tell you. If it's a good price, which it normally isn't, you buy. If it's not a good price you put the item down and start to walk out. This is when they're tricky. They say "How much you pay, you show me" and hand you the calculator. The second you enter a number you're into playing the game and have ultimately committed to buy. And it's hard to say you don't want to buy because you've picked the item up and are obviously interested. But walking away gets easier the more practice you get. Luckily without making any guilty purchases I got to the meeting point. Only Stephanie arrived and the others didn't so we went to the restaurant where a bunch of others from the hostel were and squeezed on the end of the table of about 15. We both went for the set menu and started chatting to the others around us. We all traded stories and had a good laugh. One girl though, from a different part of Holland to Stephanie, had quite a few stories but all I could think while she was talking to us was 'she sounds like Austin Powers character Goldmember'. I really wanted to say "I love gooooolllldd" but I resisted. No idea what stories she told me though. Although more expensive than normal, the set menu tasted amazing with really fresh seafood as part of it. After dinner, Stephanie, me and a German girl left to walk round the market and enjoy the street lanterns some more before heading back to the hostel. We found out the others had got delayed shopping but were back at the hostel and I arranged to meet them all for breakfast. We said our goodnights and I crashed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.