Vietnam - Hoi An - More natural disaters coming my way, why does it always rain on me?!


Advertisement
Vietnam's flag
Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Quảng Nam » Hoi An
November 7th 2011
Published: November 21st 2011
Edit Blog Post

Vietnam - Hoi An - Why does it always rain on me?!

With the combination of a ten hour train journey, a one hour bus ride and a thirty minute motorbike ride I was pretty knackered by the time I reached Hoi An, but I was anticipating good times because so many travellers had informed me it was a great place to visit.

After trawling around for twenty minutes I finally found a hotel for $10, things seemed a little more expensive here but you could still find reasonably cheap digs if you looked and bartered hard enough. As you will all know I hate parting with my cash so needless to say I was prepared to look around for a bargain.

I decided it was time for a quick stroll before having a late lunch, I'm glad I did because this turned out to be all I saw in my three days here. As I approached the old historic area of town I was greeted by flooded streets and general chaos and commotion, but it seemed isolated to just a few streets around the river so I thought it would be ok and maybe tomorrow with flip flips on I could still look around, school boy error number one!

After a quick look round I made my way back to the hotel and whilst doing so it started to rain so I dived into a restaurant just four doors down from the hotel for a late lunch, by this time it was 4pm and the rain just got heavier and heavier until the roads and pavements became one. At this point I decided I had better get back to the hotel, it was now 9pm and I had been putting off going back thinking the rain would stop but it didn't.

After getting back to the hotel I sat in the lobby watching the rain continue to pour down for another hour or so before deciding it was time to go to bed because I had a tour at 7:30am to a place called My Son the following morning.

As you will see from my photos the rain clearly continued all night and when I went down from my room at 7:30am expecting breakfast I was presented with a somewhat unusual sight! Floating tables and chairs along with the fish from the hotels indoor pond all happily swimming along together in the reception! Needless to say my tour was cancelled : ) some people are so selfish honestly!

After the hotel staff kindly advised I changed my shoes to flip flops and roll up my shorts to almost speedo style trunks I made my way through to the back of the hotel waist deep in water, where a boat would take me to dry land in an attempt to try and sort out another hotel, I thought how nice of them to sort this out, then they told me it was $1 to go across, you have to love the fact they will try to make money here no matter what. And to top it off mid-way across the street or river which ever you prefer, the lovely boat owner stopped the boat and doubled the price and refused to row me and the other two people across the river. There is not a lot you can do in these situations, but one thing I have learnt is never say ok or yes just motion for them to keep going but always have the right money in your pocket. Once we reached dry land it was time to contest the price but not until I was off the boat. Being frank there was no negotiation I just gave them the correct money for the initially agreed price and walked off to them shouting and screaming, happy days, I guess you can’t blame them for trying.

When I reached dry land I heard my name being called from a café across the street and to my surprise it was the two Dutch guys I did a trek with in Nepal who were in exactly the same situation (or boat but that seemed such a cheap joke) as me. We had a coffee and found a hotel and for the next two days eat, drank and played pool until the flood water receded enough for the buses to depart. It turned out to be great fun and a real experience of a very different kind than I had ever imagined. I wish I could have stayed longer to see the sights but time was getting very tight now because I had a flight in Hue to Hanoi in two day’s time where I would be meeting my friend Brad for a week of exploring.

So in summary I did and saw nothing in Hoi An apart from play pool and over indulge in food and drink, I guess it’s not that bad really.

Once I was finally able to catch my bus I arrived in Hue, where I should have spent two days but it turned out to be only one night because of the delays in Hoi An. I had a quick look round a very dilapidated Citadel and then made my way to the airport. It was all feeling very rushed by this stage.

I really feel I have missed out quite large chunk of Vietnam here because of the rains, both places are meant to be very good and basically I saw very little. Lets hope the rains are not the same in Hanoi or both Brad and I will be very disappointed and no doubt end up skint drinking the week away in a bar………..I have everything crossed for good weather!



Additional photos below
Photos: 14, Displayed: 14


Advertisement



Tot: 0.101s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0721s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb