Friday, December 09, 2005

Old Becomes New

Shoe repairing is such a common street business in Viet Nam. This old lady opens her business from 8am til 4 pm with her very simple shop, a few small chairs, a small machine standing right next to the tree, with shoes hanging as a crazy advertiserment on the wall. It's a classic! She is so friendly and her shop looks busy with heaps of shoes around her in various stages of fixing. It's better to get your old shoes repaired rather than spending a lot of money on a new pair, don't you think?

4 comments:

Wendy C. said...

Wow...I am really spoiled. Even with four children, I wouldn't have considered fixing old shoes, not when the mall is just a five minute drive from home...I don't know if that is good or bad. Thank you for the thought provoking post.

Triet said...

what's the going price for shoe fixing in Hanoi??

Van Cong Tu said...

Hi,
I am not sure how much it cost s but I am sure that it's less than an dollar. How about that?
Wendy, I don't think that you are spoiled, it's just that certain skills like shoe repairing are not freely available in western society.
Cheers

The Oriental Express said...

Well, it depends. I always buy cheap shoes that are on sale. eg. 50 to 70% off. Labour cost is so high that sometimes it is cheaper to buy a new pair of shoes than to repair them. When I go to the cobbler I will go for the ones on the roadside. If you go to "Mr. Turnkey or Mr. Keyees for eg. they are very costly. :-)

Wow, you write very very well.