Shhh Don’t tell anyone

For over 10 years, whenever we were out & about and passed by any type of shop that sold anything resembling purses, Michelle had been trying to find a purse similar to one she got at Nike almost 20 years ago. It’s a small compact purse with quite a few compartments. It’s been showing its age.

When I was reading about Hoi An, it’s famous for its lanterns and its sewing shops. We didn’t have enough room in our luggage to get any lanterns, and with their sewing shops, they are famous for duplicating things. You bring a pair of trousers, a special shirt, what have you. They will duplicate it.

So I had this romantic idea, I would bring that purse with us, have it duplicated, and give it to Michelle for christmas. About a week before we left, I scoured our house looking for that purse and couldn’t find it. So I off-handily asked Michelle one day, “Hey babe, what did you ever do with that old Nike purse?” and she said “I”m bringing it with me as my travel purse”.

So surprise christmas present is out of the picture, so I let her know about duplicating and had plans upon reaching Hoi An, we’d try to do it.

We found a leather shop and showed them the purse. With technology advancements, the pouch to hold phones needed to be enlarged and as she’d been carrying a new ipad-mini courtesy of her father on this trip (he lent it to her), she has fallen in love with it & almost fit in the Nike one. Almost.

So we asked them to duplicate it but making it just a few centimeters wider for the phone & ipad-mini. They told us to come back the next day. It wasn’t ready. They asked us to come back the following day.

So we show up & darn if they didn’t duplicate it. In leather no less (with nylon inside). They did such a nice job, we commissioned another one in brown.

Pretty cool. Pictures aren’t the best, you can ask to see them when we return!

And she’s officially switched over to the new one because the Ipad-mini fits so well.