This morning we understood the breakfast concept, it’s a menu with prices, but everything you eat for breakfast is free. Why the hotel bother setting out prices for breakfast dishes if it’s included in the price for all rooms I’m not entirely sure. We had over the course of a week now survived dubiously fried eggs, fresh vegetables, food from street stalls and even ice cream without a single problem so we decided to make things a bit more interesting by renting bicycles. We’re still taking bets at 1-800-Retardos by the way.

Today was a day of fittings, first 90 minutes at A Dong Silk, then we went to the cloth market to check out Mona’s dress. Since it was pretty nice and only needed minor adjustments she started ordering more dresses, and I somehow made the mistake myself of asking the price for linen and suddenly I was taking measurements for another suit. The plan was a white linen to, for the lack of better words, go colonial – we’ll see what the much cheaper tailor can whip up. Another hour and a half later we biked down to the beach. It was a nice road and traffic wasn’t bad at all, we after some hesitation ignored a not-so-officially-looking guy telling us to park our bikes with him and settled in the dunes.

The water was cold enough for me to not dip more than my left foot, and most of the clientele seemed to enjoy the sun above the sea. A tasty lunch just by the beach didn’t cost more than an additional 10% compared to Hoi An city center which was a nice surprise. A bit of reading later and we headed off for more fittings at A Dong Silk. It was really wonderful weather so we took yet another stroll down the river and it was really nice to see the yellow painted houses glow as the sun set. For dinner we decided to skip Cafe 43 and try out a recommendation from Thid, Hoi An Sai An, just by the riverfront. It supposedly was run partly by a Swedish guy who had some Swedish dishes. There was however no sign of swedish influences or staff, and although we paid premium the food was on par with street stalls, so likely the guy sold off somewhat recently. We decided to have drinks and desserts at Cargo Club instead. Their Mojitos was so-so but their chocolate pastries were on the other hand superb.

We started the day with a nice breakfast at the hotel, pineapple pancake with strawberries. Health is important to constantly keep at bay with various available vices. The primary and first goal of the day was however A Dong Dilk. After checking with Claes it seemed that they were pricey since they used more expensive fabrics, in addition the ratings on Tripadvisor was outstanding. As my friend Henrik often puts it “If you buy the most expensive thing, it’s seldom you get the worst possible quality”.

Two three piece suits and a shirt was the first order for me. Skirt, trousers, blouse and some alteration for Mona who somehow managed to spend a sixth of what I did. We walked the suggested walking tour in Lonely Planet and took our time savoring the atmosphere. The cloth market was interesting, it was the first place the sales people come close to harassing in their attempt to get buyers and it was more entertaining than irritating but it was still a tangible difference compared to other tailors or shops. I think they sensed weakness in Mona who ended up ordering one dress, cheap and hopefully of OK quality. A Dong Silk for all their Italian cotton lacked some interesting designs, it was more traditional patterns and fabrics.

We ate lunch at green moss, cheap but nothing extraordinary in taste. We headed back, and I wanted to take some more photos of a market so Mona went ahead and we met up at the hotel after half an hour or so. We did some Spa research, the plan was to get that feet pedicure done for a bargain. As we were about to leave I asked Mona where she had put the bag with my clothes from earlier. She first froze, then got a bit stressed and finally ran off to pick it up where she’d left it. Unfortunately no luck, but there is a slim chance that some of my business cards where in the bag. The bag contained my Tiger of Sweden suit and the “legs” to my pants/shorts, but nothing belonging to Mona. Well, you buy some you loose some as the old saying goes.

The Spa, Hoi An Day Spa was nice and I gave my feet the best treatment available while Mona enjoyed a relaxing facial. Total price 19 USD. After the luxurious treatment we decided to pay Cafe 43 another visit. Their set menu VI was really really nice, rice dumplings, a curry, a wanton soup and a plate of fresh fruit. Add four beers and tip and you have a dinner for two for the price of just under 6 USD. One could live a very good life for a small amount of money here.

I woke up with Mona looking at my face, apparently she didn’t sleep through the sounds as well as I did, despite she using earplugs while I didn’t. I vaguely recall our neighbors where paranoid about missing their stop and basically had alarms two hours in advance, Mona confirmed this memory. Anywho, I get up and remove the curtains from the window and lo and behold a light switch. A little bit of reading and playing peekaboo with a local kid later we get off at Da Nang. I remembered to save my ticket and was happy for that since it got checked as we got into the station (but after we jumped off the train).

There was a sign for Vikto, which I consider close enough so we got in a cab and realized it was a lot warmer here, perhaps in the low-mid twenties. At the hotel, Hoang Trinh, we got a lovely room which we a few minutes realized had an window towards a kindergarden. We switched room quickly before leaving the hotel to scout the local area.

We found a bunch of locals eating some vegetarian dishes at a rather basic restaurant, it tasted great and was very filling, especially for the price of 1 USD. We strolled into the old parts of the town which looked a bit like I envisioned New Orleans looked back in the days. Some streets even banned cars which was making things even better. As we walked and looked into stores we met a tourist(?) kid, five year old or so, parents not in the immediate vicinity – coming towards us from the other end of the street while singing “I’m a lumberjack, and I’m OK”. Not what we expected.

We found the tailor that Claes had recommended, A Dong Dilk, it seemed a bit pricey and didn’t have many items in the showroom though but we would come back later for a proper visit. A bit tired we headed back to the hotel for a quick nap, which took slightly more than two hours. We decided we would try out this place some other people from the Ha Long Bay trip recommended – Cafe 43. Following others recommendations seemed to be working well so why risk a winning streak? The place was almost full, the food was ridiculously cheap, and the beer even cheaper – one freshly brewed beer was slightly less than 1 SEK. So how would this food taste then? The answer is awesome, potentially the best so far on the trip, the stuffed squid is highly recommend. We will definitely be back. Before turning out the lights at home we did some research around tailoring, and also saw that Claes and his wife were depicted on A Dong Silks homepage. Which really wasn’t that surprising.