5th March: Hoi An, Vietnam

Breakfast in the hotel garden was eggs today, but they were at least washed down with delicious dragon fruit smoothies. We had a lovely, chilled morning spent reading and relaxing before popping out for coffee from a nearby café. Kaja had enjoyed the taste of my coconut coffee a couple of days ago so much that she took the unprecedented step of ordering one for herself!

We slowly ambled our way into the old town. I had an idea what sort of suit I wanted and a few recommendations for tailors. I very rarely wear suits and think in most circumstances they make the wearer look untrustworthy. However, having one that could be dressed up or down for all potential occasions on which I might be required to wear one does make sense. I’m hopeful that I can get one here that fits me perfectly and does me for years to come. It is next to impossible to find anything that fits me in the UK, and everything costs a fortune anyway. After visiting another couple of tailors, we found a slightly textured charcoal colour we liked and got a good vibe from the staff.

There are so many potential options in colours, patterns, textures, materials, and styles! I was getting overwhelmed by the entire process, but Kaja was great at helping me decide. Eventually, we settled on a two-piece charcoal suit and a couple of shirts and I got measured a couple of times to make sure that it all would fit me. All in, it’s about £150 but I think it’s worth the investment now rather than panic buying something ill-fitting and even more expensive when I end up needing one at short notice. Many UK brands get their suits made by the tailors here, so I’m hopefully cutting out the middleman and getting something of similar quality.

After a long chat to the tailors, I had time to grab a quick passion fruit, mango, and pineapple smoothie and make my way back to the room. I’d arranged a call with Kim to catch up and iron everything out for work when we’re back. Kaja went off to get her hair cut and had an adventure with lots of cute dogs. Unfortunately, we both forgot that she had the room key! Luckily, the friendly family who run the place were able to let me in to our room. Phew! My makeshift desk on the balcony was a small table with and stool on top. To my surprise, after some tech and internet gremlins, me and Kim managed to speak. It was really nice to chat but for the next few weeks, work can wait! Dinner was a spot just around the corner where they had lots of different vegan dishes you could mix and match for about 50p each! We had a feast of orange ‘chicken’; lime and soy tofu; tomato tofu; spicy aubergine; and some veggies; all based on healthy red and black rice. I had another lime soda too, although I’m yet to have one that really hits the spot of the perfect sour-sweet-salty balance. I will keep trying! Hoi An is the food and drink paradise we’d hoped it might be, so there is no better place.