Hoi An old town
I am so happy being officially metrosexual. My man-bag and shoes match and look amazing next to my new shirts and trousers. I have reached the highest level of style in my life yet. I’m not going to sugar coat it; I’m fucking stylish in Vietnam!
It was incredible looking at the handiwork of the tailors. They put together 4 completely custom fitted items in a day. I went back today to try them on and make any adjustments. One of the shirts was perfect, the other just needed the top button moving a cm for my chubby neck. The trousers were well fitted and needed the cuffs widening to allow my rediculous feet to pass through easily. The last shirt turned into a joke.
It was a bit of fun anyway, I didnt really need it but I spotted some really nice fabric *hangs head in shame realising what I just said* It had large square checks in white, dark red and grey. When it became a shirt it looked really good, I was really happy with it until I noticed the colour had bled out of the red into the white just on the front. I made her wash the shirt. If it came out then thats fine, I’d just use some sort of colour fix or special wash for that shirt. But it turned the whole water pink and all the white squares along with it. Not good. So she offered me another choice of fabric for a shirt. They were really good about it to be fair but now I’m getting my second choice shirt which isnt the point of a tailors… 1st world problems.
Meanwhile in a sweatshop around the corner… They managed to make a whole shirt in 2 hours and it looked good when I came back for fitting. This time my forearms were ludicrously tight because of the remenants of my climbing muscles. She said she would open it up and I can collect it tomorrow morning before we hit the road towards Hue ( pronounced ‘hway’ )
Today we also chose to get some bits of the bikes fixed, modified or completely replaced. We are half way up the country so it was time they got some TLC. I had dropped my bike when I stopped to get a particularly atmospheric photo of some rice… and the left instrument cluster had busted open. I ziptied it back together so I could still use the clutch and it made it the last 20km into Hoi An. Also my asthetic key issue was solved so I now dont have to stall the bike each time I want to turn it off – far more convenient.
Mike hit a particularly big pothole on the road in that blew the fork seals. The whole forks needed changing and again I was amazed at the cost. In the UK I would have expected to pay £200 plus labour to fit them. Mike was charged £20 all inc. When I found that out, I wanted mine done too as they were fairly ropey. Last thing was getting the oil changed and the bike felt like it was less crap! Still quite crap, but noticably better than before!!