26.11.15

Shopping in Hoi An

Colourful lanterns for sale in Hoi An Vietnam

I guess everybody likes a bit of souvenir shopping while on holidays in a new place. Cute handcrafted things are my weakness and knowing this I always try to restrain myself in order not to go overboard and usually look for figurines of cats for my collection and for some interesting bijouterie or silver jewelry pieces. Have to confess however that seldom my purchases come to nothing more than those only. Same happened to me in Hoi An, too. There is such a big choice of beautiful handmade things for sale and the prices are so attractive that it is really hard not to go nuts with souvenir shopping in this town. Ceramic vases, colourful lanterns, patchwork toys, wooden ships, lacquered boxes, embroidered paintings, coconut jewelry, paper cut cards, pure silk scarfs, marble Buddhas - anyone can find something to one's taste.

Vietnamese ceramics
Jewelry for sale in Hoi An

Patchwork toys

Vietnamese painting

Paper cut cards from Vietnam

Wooden toys

Vietnamese painting

Vietnamese painting for sale in Hoi An

Vietnamese masks
shopping in Hoi An

Vietnamese hand embroidery

You can bet I couldn't pass by this shop, the dresses on the mannequins looked too appealing to me. Bought a nice skirt there that would be featured in my next post.

Besides the skirt, what else did I buy in Hoi An? Here are my purchases

Carved bird, small boxes and a larger jewelry box. The bottom right photo shows the mother-of-pearl inlaid top of the box.

Souvenirs from Vietnam: vases, marble cat figurine and paper cut card

Ceramic vases, a marble cat figurine and a paper cut card (closed and opened view). Surprisingly, it was rather problematic to find a cat figurine. I don't know whether the Vietnamese don't like cats or simply don't find them worthy of their attention. More popular themes are dragons, Happy Buddha and, unexpectedly, pigs. Anyway, I was lucky to find this greenish marble figurine on our last day in Hoi An, in the shop near the Marble Mountains.

Jewelry from Vietnam: silver marble pendant, lacquered coconut earrings, necklace and ring, silver fish earrings

And finally: a bunch of lacquered coconut jewelry: three pairs of earrings, a necklace, a ring and a bangle (not shown here); silver fish earrings; and silver marble pendant. Also bought a couple of wooden and marble bracelets, a shell hand mirror (forgot to take photos of them) and a light delicate pure silk scarf (will show some other time).
I really enjoyed my shopping in Vietnam. And if I ever come there again there are still many things that I would like to buy.

5 comments:

  1. You bought some fabulous stuff. it must have been tough, everything you've shown us looks fantastic especially the jewellery! xxx

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  2. Hoi An is very rich in handcrafted items! I can believe you did a lot of shopping there!!
    The inside part of the paper cut card is amazing, and all those colourful necklaces ... very beautiful jewelry box as well! Everything is very tipical ...

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  3. Pigs of all things! How funny. I adore all those bright, colorful things, especially the little animal figures. I have so much fun shopping in places like this but hardly ever take more home than pictures. Speaking of pictures I loved loved loved your tights shot. Need to go check that out one more time ;) Happy weekend to you, dear.

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  4. I see so many lovely things! That shop with those stunning dresses caught my eye too...and I can't wait to see that skirt you got there.
    Beautiful art pieces, necklaces, sculptures, vases and decor...so many unique and inspiring thing.

    I especially liked that embroided painting of workers in the field, it kind of looks like it was embroided with straw.

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  5. That first photo of the lanterns is stunning! Oh, how I'd love to have that blown up, framed and hung on my wall. It would make me smile everyday! You always take such beautiful photos. And your shopping was a great success - really unusual pieces.

    http://petitesilvervixen.blogspot.co.uk/

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