Unhappy Soles

Hoi An
We spent 3 nights in Hoi An, mainly relaxing and dealing with our tailoring. After being dropped off by the easy riders, we ordered some stuff. 2 Suits, 4 shirts and a winter coat for Ali and 2 pairs of shorts and a dress for Jenni. At the first try on, the suits were spot on, the coat needed some tweaking, but Jenni's dress looked horrible. She was mortified and was all too quickly engulfed by the homesickness and lethargy. So as she mooched off back to the hotel, I defied orders and went back into the shop. I told the lady there was a problem with the dress, pointed out how it should have been and she set to work. I went back and explained myself to Jenni.
Later that day at the next trial, the dress was a million times better, better fit, better hang, everything and Jenni now loved it. So she ordered 2 more dresses and a winter coat! Our mood was better, so we went to get some shoes made too from the tailor's sisters shoe shop. We ordered a pair of shoes, 2 pairs trainers and flip flops for Ali, and a pair of shoes, a pair of boots and some sandals for Jenni.
Next day, and our last in Hoi An we returned for final dress fittings and several shoe fittings. SO DISAPPOINTING! The shoes fitted nicely, but their designs and fabrication were definitely second rate. Pay the little bit extra and buy real shoes! Jenni asked for some changes to her shoes, as any changes could be made – apart from these ones, so we had to pay extra for her to get another pair of shoes made. It just felt like a swizz, and the quality of shoes was average, and they looked noth8ing like the catalogues! In hindsight, we should not have bought the shoes. Happy Soles was the shop, but we did not have happy souls afterwards. We had trouble with the finishing of shoes, with the painting of them etc. Jenni's new shoes had no bows, and the boot's buckles were being painted silver instead of being silver! They still were not ready by the time we left so we paid for them to be shipped, along with most our clothes.
Tailors, great. Shoe shop, gross.
We also checked out the old town which was very pretty and bought a cool lantern and some ties. We saw the old Japanese bridge and some of the other quaint sights of the ancient town before returning to tailoring! There were so many foreign tourists in Hoi An, especially after our trip through the mountains, not sure we liked it!