From Hôi An with Cheap Suit

I was probably supposed to have a clear mind during our peaceful Yin yoga class on the outskirts of Hôi An this morning. As I looked over at Emma, contorting herself into the instructed position, two thoughts persisted: 1. I don’t think either of my legs will ever be able to bend like that and 2. The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The former thought is obvious, but the latter – not so much. I don’t think about Harry Potter very often, but when I do, it is nearly always because Emma has opted to listen to the Stephen Fry narrated audiobook for the millionth time. So why the persistent thought? That’s because of the relaxed hotel dude.

Our hotel is a fancy one – we splashed out. It’s still only about £50 per night. Money goes far here. As we arrived, a relaxed hotel dude directed us to a comfortable sofa and gave us herbal tea and hotel-made biscuits with ingredients I’d never heard of. He took our passports for photocopying, and on return, after discovering we were from London, was excited to talk about Big Ben and Harry Potter. He helped us pick out some Hôi An top spots and we made polite conversation, concluding with the thought that maybe he should one day visit London since he seemed so interested. His quiet response: ‘I’d love to, but a trip there is about my annual salary’. We didn’t really know what to say to this – but it didn’t at all seem like a plea for a chunky tip, just a quiet thought that was spoken out loud.

Now this is something that we already know, but again, something I don’t think too much about. It’s great for me (and other Westerners) that we can wander over to the hotel bar and get a Saigon beer for 65p, or the most wonderful 1hr massage for £7.50 – but I guess this isn’t such a good deal the other way around. You’re hard pushed to get a pint of Guinness for £7.50 in London.

Vietnam is a hive of activity. There is road, real estate and bridge construction everywhere – impressive and beautiful too. Industry is thriving and everyone seems jolly busy. I was curious so I looked it up: Vietnam’s economy has grown 9% in 2026 alone – pretty impressive vs the UK’s 1.3% or the mighty AI-driven USA growth of 2.3%.

So back to my persistent yoga Harry Potter thoughts. Will the relaxed hotel dude make it to platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross station? Probably at some point.

Enough of my musings. Hôi An, among many things, is famous for its tailors. Emma insisted that we had to go. Here’s a custom-made tailored linen suit, tie, dress, trousers and blouse for ~£230.

I couldn’t quite read the name tag on our tailor’s shirt, but it looked like it said ‘Ms Minty’. Ms Minty was completely hilarious. Here she is hiding behind me making some aeroplane noises.

Morning cycle to the yoga studio through the rice fields was particularly lovely. Hotel featured in the background below:

Here is another longer form video riding through the rice fields after our yoga session:

I must also say, Hôi An is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve been to. I’ve blabbed on too much above – I’ll save the photos for another post. Here is a taster :