What Top Gear did in Hoi An, and what's still there

Their clothes were finished. Completely, irreversibly finished. Three men, hundreds of miles of Vietnamese roads, one Vespa with no front brake, and a monsoon that nobody on the BBC payroll had apparently thought to check the forecast for. By the time Clarkson, Hammond and May rolled into Hoi An, they looked like they'd been through something. Because they had.

Hoi An was the exhale. The one stop on the Top Gear Vietnam Special where Vietnam was allowed to win.

Clarkson took one look at the tailor shops lining the streets of the Old Town, called it Savile Row, and that was that. The bikes could wait. The schedule could wait. They were getting suits.

Yaly Couture: the tailor shop from the episode

The shop was Yaly Couture on Tran Phu Street, and it's still there. Still measuring people up, still turning around suits in 24 to 48 hours, still absolutely overrun with tourists who watched the episode and made a pilgrimage.

The experience works like this: you walk in, pick your fabric (there's a lot of it, probably more than you need to choose from at 9am without coffee), get measured, decide on the cut, and come back for fittings. Most people do two or three. The turnaround is fast enough that you can fit it into a two-night Hoi An stay if you plan it right, but tight enough that you shouldn't leave it until your last afternoon.

The suits were not subtle. (I say that with full respect for the craft.) Brightly coloured, immediately identifiable as the suits of men who had not been shopping in some time. They wore them riding out of Hoi An the next morning toward Hue, suits and all, with a marble ballet dancer and a model galleon strapped to the backs of the bikes. (Gifts. Long story. Watch the episode.)

Yaly has since expanded across Hoi An and added an online ordering option for alterations. The original Tran Phu Street shop is the one to go to if you want the version of the experience that happened on camera.

Practical note: Hoi An has at least 400 tailor shops. (Not an exaggeration. Possibly an underestimate.) Most of them will tell you they're the best. Some of them are fine. Yaly is the one with the documented television appearance and, more importantly, a consistent track record with people who aren't on expense accounts.

While the suits were being made

Hammond and May rode down to Hà My Beach, the stretch of coast directly in front of the Nam Hai Resort, about 15 minutes south of the Old Town. Clarkson, exercising what he would probably describe as good judgment, got a foot massage at the hotel instead.

Hà My is not the Hoi An beach most visitors end up at. An Bàng gets the cafes and the sunbeds and the backpacker crowd. Hà My is quieter, longer, and largely empty outside of guests from the resort (now the Four Seasons Nam Hai, which tells you everything you need to know about what it costs to sleep there). It has the kind of emptiness that makes for very good television and also a solid afternoon if you have a motorbike and nowhere specific to be.

It's worth the detour if you have wheels. Less so on a bicycle, honestly.

The lantern festival

After the suits were done and the bikes were parked for the evening, the Thu Bon River filled with lanterns.

Hoi An's full moon festival (Hội An Phố Cổ) happens on the 14th of every lunar month. The Old Town switches off its electric lights, traders set out candles, and the riverbank turns into something that looks almost too cinematic to be real. Paper lanterns float out across the water. It's the kind of thing you'd assume was staged for a travel brochure. It isn't.

Hammond, being Hammond, nearly missed it entirely. He arrived late, got into a standoff with a security guard at one of the bridges, and, according to behind-the-scenes accounts from the crew, there was quite a lot of swearing before he eventually made it across. The rest of the evening went more smoothly.

If you're planning your Hoi An dates and the full moon festival is within reach, organise yourself around it. Check the lunar calendar before you book. The atmosphere in the Old Town that night is unlike any other night there.

Dinner at the Cargo Club

After the river, the crew ended up at the Cargo Club on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street. It's a Hoi An institution. Two floors, river views, a menu that sits comfortably between Vietnamese and Western without having an identity crisis about it. Good cocktails. Good people-watching from the upper terrace.

It didn't make the final cut of the episode, but it's worth knowing about regardless.

The morning after

Clarkson's credit card bounced at the Nam Hai breakfast the next day. The bill was $90 per head, payback for every missed lunch on the road south. It turned out the card had been declined because it was October 8, 2008.

The day the global financial crisis hit.

Richard Hammond, who had just paid off his castle, reportedly found this very funny.

Then they put the suits on, strapped the gifts to the bikes, and pointed everything north toward the Hai Van Pass. The Hoi An segment of the Top Gear Vietnam Special runs maybe twenty minutes on screen. In the context of a 75-minute episode that covers a thousand miles, that's a lot of time to give one city.

It earned it.

Frequently asked questions

Did Top Gear really film in Hoi An?

Yes. Hoi An features in the Top Gear Vietnam Special (filmed 2008). The presenters stopped to have suits made, visited the beach and the full-moon lantern festival, and rode out toward the Hai Van Pass.

Which tailor did Top Gear use?

Yaly Couture on Tran Phu Street. It is still open and still turns suits around in roughly 24 to 48 hours.

Can you still get a suit made like the one on the show?

Yes. Yaly takes your measurements, you pick the fabric and cut, then come back for fittings. Plan two to three days and do not leave it to your last afternoon.

What beach did the presenters visit?

Ha My Beach, the quiet stretch in front of what is now the Four Seasons Nam Hai, about 15 minutes south of the Old Town.

When is the Hoi An lantern festival?

The full-moon festival falls on the 14th of each lunar month, when the Old Town cuts its electric lights and the river fills with lanterns. Check a lunar calendar before booking.

Related Hoi An guides

• Hai Van Pass - the Hoi An to Hue motorbike route
• Things to Do in Hoi An - what is actually worth your time