Day 8 - Wednesday 14 May 2014

Hoi An - Unexpected Finds

It was another unbearably hot day today so we took a taxi to Tuong Custom Tailors to try on our clothes.
My two dresses are lovely and Jim was extremely happy with his shirts. While waiting for our travelling companion to try on her new clothes, Jim idly discussed underwear and next thing was having five pairs of silk boxer shorts made. They will be beautiful! Almost a pity to hide them under clothes.

After the tailor, we staggered out into the blazing sunshine and through to the Central Market. It looks much more pleasant in the daytime and was a photographer's paradise. Lots of little old ladies in conical hats doing typically Vietnamese things - chopping coconuts, selling small sweet Vietnamese bananas, grinding sugar cane and walking around with baskets slung on each end of a long pole.



Just when we could bear the heat no longer, we stumbled across a bar called "The Three Dragons" - the words "air-conditioning" and "beer" calling to us like sirens.

Inside we discovered a lovely Australian man called Simon who owns the bar, along with his Vietnamese wife.
We had cool drinks, lovely Vietnamese food and learned lots of interesting and useful things about Hoi An. A very pleasant afternoon indeed.

We came back to the resort and, after a nap or two, sat by the pool eating a complimentary fruit platter supplied by the staff.

We decided to stroll into Oldtown in the evening for some dessert and ended up at a lovely French patisserie called Cargo. Good coffee and lovely pastries.

Just as we were ready to call it a night, we passed a shop called the "Gemstone & Art Museum" and were lured in by an enormous aquarium. It was exactly what the name suggests - a museum of gem stones - but it also contains an exotic jewellery store. 

The owner is a lovely cultured woman called Nga, married to an Italian man. She designs the jewellery, her husband, Marco, is the architect who designed the building and her father owns all the gemstones.
Jim bought me some gorgeous Cleopatra-style ruby earrings from the jewellery store as a 25th wedding anniversary present: -

In celebration of the purchase, Nga offered us all an aperitif in their garden cafe - an amazing place!
Marco himself sauntered in and sat down for a good half hour chat. We talked about how he and Nga met, how they had built the museum and what their plans were for the future.

A lot of European expats strolled in during the chat - so its obviously a place for Europeans to congregate.
A fascinating and unexpected evening! Came home about 11.30 p.m.