Hoi Ahhhhhn

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We'd been looking forward to Hoi An so much. The centre is set along the Thu Bon river and as well as a pretty waterfront the town has many lovely old wooden buildings displaying traditional silks and lanterns. The atmosphere was very romantic. Other bonuses were good cheap accommodation, tasty Vietnamese food, as well as lots of fun touristy things to do like cooking courses and having clothes tailored. We had a few days planned in the town, including Eric's birthday.
Hoi An brought back memories of one of our favourite parts of Venice, the island of Burano. There was something about the water, the cobbled streets and multitude of colours. However while Venice has aqua alto Hoi An just flooded. We missed the bit in the guide that mentions the town has major problems with flooding in October and November. Bah
Our first day was lovely but the next day it started to rain (on Eric's birthday) and when we woke the next morning the street outside had been turned into a river with locals punting around in boats (and also still on bikes and motorbikes even though the water was hip level). The next 4 days the streets were underwater making it impossible to walk through much of the old town. The locals took this in their stride and would simply reopen their shops, cafes and restaurants wherever it was dry (we found the market just moved a few streets out of the water) or as soon as the water level dropped below your ankles. The cries of "moto moto sir?" (motorbike taxi) had changed to "boat boat?" as the enterprising Vietnamese adapted to the flooded streets.
We nonetheless enjoyed our time - heading out for great food, drinks, getting clothes made. And we had a nice big room with a balcony for $10, good wireless connection and a fab dodgy DVD purveyor on hand (the Quiet American was a favourite). We had booked a one-day cooking course which involved boating down the river to local farmers to pick herbs and visit markets to buy ingredients before heading to a riverside kitchen to cook. However the rain put a stop to that. Instead we changed to an evening cooking course led by a young chef Kui who had in his time met more than enough tourists to throw around some 'double entendres'; (see the pictures to prove beyond any doubt that Eric's spring roll was indeed much longer. Ho ho ho.....).
The food was gorgeous and we can now make a mean squid salad and fish in banana leaf combo.
But time to leave we thought and our destination was suggested to us. Collecting brekkie for a 'delicate' (hungover) Eric after his birthday Zoe had run into some people who travelled up from the south that morning and swore there was no rain there. Sounded good particularly as Zoe had to wade through water and navigate a number of floating dead rodents to get to the cafe. We researched it and found Mui Ne gets a quarter of the rainfall of any neighbouring areas. Hurrah!
However a few sunsalutes later and we actually got some splendid sunshine in Hoi An after all the rain...on the day we were to take the night bus to Mui Ne. We immediately decided to delay our trip so we could visit an old temple complex called My-Son. The assumption here was that surely the weather wouldn't change again...and so we enjoyed My-Son in the pissing rain. But it was still lovely to see and we got to boat along the river rather than wade around in it.
To ensure we get our bit of nice weather our next destination is Nha Trang one of Vietnam's premier beach resorts. One night there and then onto Mui Ne. Will it rain? Dunno and don't trust Lonely Planet which says it is dry season or the weather forecasts which lie any more...

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Photos

Our restaurant on the river for Eric's birthday
...was restaurant in the river a day later