Hoi An

The next day was a different scene…..

Hunkering down in Hoi An against Typhoon Nari 14th and 15th October

We had left a lovely sunny and hot Danang on Saturday but they were now planning to evacuate 55,000 people to higher ground ahead of Typhoon Nari. Here too they were battening down the hatches as we say. Sadly some locals didn’t know anything about it when we asked them and one man in particular said it wouldn’t come this way! Well they were going to get a shock!

During that day we sheltered from the rain in a bar over looking the swollen river as the locals, who only yesterday were shouting out for us to go in their boats up the river ‘cheap price’ were now pulling their boats out of the river and tieing them to granite monuments on the banks. The street vendors, who were selling trinkets and fruit yesterday, were today selling rain macs and umbrellas.

Business as usual! What do you mean a typhoon is coming?

 

Our hotel had taken down the hanging plants from all of the balconies and closed the wooden shutters on the rooms. I wondered whether the frogs and toads would be barking in the ‘field’ by our hotel that night during the typhoon? The night before it had been very hot and humid and we had stood listening to them on the way home.

Anyway, as we looked out at the rain from the bar that day we watched an old women across the other side of the river as she secured her little boat the best she could. It was an interesting scene, she was in the rain wearing normal clothes and, of course, a conical hat and we felt we were getting a glimpse in to her normal life as she prepared her belongings in readiness for yet another Typhoon. Then she suddenly turned her back to us, pulled down her trousers on the edge of the river bank, and pee’d over the side into the water!!! Now I am not sure whether this was some sort of tradition or religious offering to the god of Typhoons asking them to keep her and her vessel safe or if she was just taken short but either way these tough old folk aren’t shy over here!!! Jane, if she was pooping she did so very quickly! And pulled her trousers up equally as fast! (Chuckle)

The wind was strong that evening and we decided to eat in the hotel as trees had already lost leaves and twigs. As we went to our room to sleep later that night we wondered what we would find when we woke in the morning after typhoon Nari hit. We didn’t get much sleep as we heard the winds howling and things banging and creaking. We didn’t have any electric and we could see the staff with lanterns up and down the stairs checking the hotel throughout the night. At 4am Glen got dressed and went down to talk to them. Our balcony over looked the enclosed pool area and reception and we could see leaves everywhere, the corridors outside of our room were also filled with leaves!

Fiddling while Hoi An floods! (Smile)

The next morning there was water running down the walls in the corridors from the windows and dripping through the light fittings on the ceiling. The staff told us there were tiles off the roof. We could see there were tiles off on the buildings opposite the hotel as well as ours but we didn’t realise the extent of the damage until we walked out later when the winds stopped.

The market by our hotel was a mess…… so they just brought their stalls on to the street.

That night the owner came from Danang…. (He owned the Orange hotel too, where we stayed in Danang). There wasn’t any electric there either and the storm had hit hard. He had been told that they were going to release the Dam (two in fact) inland and the last time they did that the hotel here in Hoi An flooded to shoulder height!!! Everything had to be carried up from Reception and the Restaurant to the first floor! The owner lit some incense sticks and said a silent prayer towards the open pool area. Glen then helped all the staff carry the tables and chairs up to the higher floors. The owner was so pleased and sat with us and gave us free beers. The female staff squeezed Glens arm and said “you very strong” (chuckle) We considered going back to Danang with his driver as we didn’t like the idea of being here with the hotel and streets flooded that badly but he said “no problem, we have a boat to take you from the hotel to higher ground where the car can pick you up if you don’t like it” oh really I thought!! Joy! “Our other guests before when it flooded liked it and thought it was fun to go in the boat” as Danang didn’t have any electric either we decided to stay here!

The day after we woke and saw that the water had not come in to the hotel, everything was fine. The sun was shining, the rain from the storm had gone. We went on a bike ride to the beach. On our 4kms ride to the beach we passed road after road of devastation, huge trees had fallen on to houses and across roads and there were teams of workers everywhere. There were so many electric lines down. But now they were mending the electric wires, collecting the leaves and branches from the road side and people with chain saws and cranes were removing the large trees. The day before all we saw were locals with machetes chopping up the branches and taking them off on bikes or dragging them in sacks. Today the professionals were out in force. (Smile)

These Water Buffalo didn’t seem to be bothered… Typhoon? what Typhoon?

We crossed a bridge where two rivers met and merged into one…..

One was ‘muddy’ and one was clear, weird.

Last night we walked out to the old town and everything was getting back to normal. Another day and new tourists would be unaware of the mess and damage. However the ‘Lowlands bar’ we had sat in before the typhoon was the only one still not open though. Their sign brags about being the lowest point in Hoi An…… They were paying the price for that now sadly.

An Hoi island river front at night