Day 253 (March 1): Hoi An, Part 2

Saying goodbye to Hoi An and our guide, Luong

The last post described the first half of our time in Hoi An. The two themes of the second half of the week are beach and clothes.

Hoi An is famous for its custom clothing industry. We learned from our guide that many aspects of Hoi An's development are attributed to its role as a significant port for hundreds of years. Food and other aspects have been heavily influenced by the interactions that have stemmed from this. Today, many tourists come to Hoi An to have handmade clothes produced at a fraction of retail. Our guide told us about one of the stores ("the best one!") and we followed her instructions.

Step 1 in the process is to have your measurements taken, to pick out fabric and to provide a picture or model of the garment you want. Roughly 24 hours (or more) later, you return for step 2. Here, you try on the first iteration of your clothes and identify any needed adjustments. Afterall, if you produce a full suit in 24 hours it might need some tweaking! Having completed step 1 on Wednesday, we had a colossal fashion show at 10 on Friday. All ten of us plus a laptop showing the movie Ice Age. The movie is about 90 minutes and that's about how long the process took.

Here's a video clip of Lily trying on one of her two dresses.

Here are some more of us:

Dress up time: That's Ali on the right in the surprisingly blue dress!

Linen suit for me

Ali had an idea for a "one sleeve" dress and could not be dissauded 

This is Elise's color story and she's sticking to it!

Ms. Cate in green

We had lunch in town but the most memorable part was that I plied our kids with Rocky and Bullwinkle so that the adults could breathe and talk.

After some school time at the hotel we headed to a beach near Hoi An on the seaside (Hoi An is on a river). We chose An Bang Beach to spend a bit of time before dinner at a well-reviewed burger joint. It did not disappoint, although the kids were really excited to come back the next day to get in the water.

Did you know that all the females in this family have blue eyes?

Henry had procured matchbox cars in town and he worked with Enzo to create a sandy maze for them

Cate helped bury a local boy in the sand while Anya ran to and from the water.

And Ali had a meltdown.

Burger Craft FTW!

That's Venus just right and down from the moon. Some notable celestial event

As promised, the next day was beach day. A little school in the morning, front row seats at lunch and then front row seats for the playtime. I think we paid $8 to have four chairs, perfectly shaded by umbrellas. We rented a few boogie boards and watched the kids exhaust themselves in the surf. Apparently we were too relaxed to take more than a few pictures.

To top it all off, we had a babysitter in the evening. It was great to have an evening out with adults. We found the sitter through one of our worldschooling facebook groups. She is a first grade teacher (perfect! three of the six kids are in first grade!) in an international school in Hoi An. Furthermore, her school has been closed as a preventative measure against coronavirus so a little sidework was welcome. Even better, she brought her 12-year old niece who happened to be named Lily, too! I want to make a plug for the sitter's NGO, Bright Futures for Kids, which seeks to provide books for kids.

Meanwhile, we had a lovely evening on the town, starting with drinks at a lovely, riverfront bar endorsed by a friend on facebook just a few hours earlier!

Elise Makler, photobomber

In the morning it was time to say goodbye. Cate had made friends earlier in our stay with the security guard so they had a special hug to say farewell. We will also miss our absolutely terrific guide, Luong.