Hoi An - Trading Places

We have heard and read numerous stories about how cheap it is to get tailor made clothes in Hoi An so we thought we might as well jump on the band wagon and get some new threads.
Our mission started out by referencing our travel book and google searches, which resulted in learning that there are over 400 tailor shops in this town. We learned that there are dramatic differences in cost, followed by the term, "you get what you pay for". I googled " top ten tailors in Hoi An" and narrowed the results down to the three that had the best reviews for reliability and for quality workmanship. Of course we also had the personal reference from the gal at the tea shop. LOL
We set out on our quest, first locating the referred shop, a small space with some fabrics and some clothing but no sewing machines in sight. The owner was friendly and spoke reasonably good English. She seemed knowledgable but had a very limited selection of fabrics. She assured us she could get anything we wanted, problem is we didn't have a clue as to what we wanted and certainly would have difficulty telling the difference between an average and high end cloth.
We opted to go the patient route and check out the fabric store in the market. At the market we were swarmed by several women, all eager to make us some clothing. It was very overwhelming, little did we know it was just the beginning! One got Marie busy looking through a catalogue while the other took me into fabric land where the were hundreds if not thousands of fabric bolts. There were also several women on sewing machines. More confused now than before and with the warning of "quality of work" hauntingly playing on my mind I suggested to Marie that we go and check out the other tailors on our list.
We headed down to the waters edge and walked the promenade towards town. As we approached the bridge there were two young women cleaning chickens on the side walk by the water under the bridge. We were not sure if they were living there or just set up camp to cook the chicken ink the small BBQ higher up. Yuck!
Further along there were a lot more of the boats with Vietnamese operators, for hire. One of the boats,was a fisherman setting his nets.
Back to the street we walked by shop after shop of clothing, many advertising "tailor made". Some had interesting outfits that required a closer look, however, every time we paused the vendor would jump up and attack with, " you come in my shop", " you buy from me" or " good price for you". The clothes on display in the shops were very similar with a definite Asian flair and seemingly dated. Of course I'm no Joan Rivers when it comes to fashion. LOL. After struggling for a couple of hours we arrived at one of our three picks. The shop had many fabrics and a lot of personnel to assist the eager shoppers. The girl told us that for a suit, men's or women's, their fabrics were divided into groups. Good, better and best. Of course the fabrics we liked were always in the "best" group.
Eventually we ended up at a place recommended by our hotel and "trip advisor" on the web. Check out the yellow/gold jacket. Tomorrow, if everything works out, we might reveal our fashion iniquities.
Dinner was at the Morning Glory Restaurant so named after the Morning glory plant, a vegetable staple for the Vietnamese. The cooks prepare the meals in an open area in the middle of the restaurant. We have often been tempted to try squid stuffed with pork, appearing on other menus but were never able to summon enough courage to actually order the dish. Being this was an exceptional restaurant for Vietnam we agreed to order something out of our comfort zone after asking the waitress what she would choose given a choice of beef curry or the squid. We ordered the stuffed squid and a sautéed pumpkin with garlic. The squid turned out to be a gastronomical delight! Definitely would have it again as well as the pumpkin, although I must say my pumpkin dish, with the orange zest and spices everyone sampled at Jo and Clays, was much better.