NO MORE WATER PLEASE

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We made it out of Hoi An 😊. Had an interesting few days there. We arrived to find the hurricane hit just off the coast of Hue where we moved from. It was still windy and raining on arrival here. The next day it was so bad we spent the whole morning in a cafe, had both breakfast and lunch there! There was a break in the weather in the afternoon and we managed to see the Japanese bridge and walk some of the streets in the old town. We were watching ppl rescue their motorbikes out of the flooded area by the river in wooden rowing boats. On our way back we saw a fish jumping down the road!
Decided to eat at same cafe again, as it was one of the few open, but the food was running out. Ate quickly as they were shutting up as the water was now filling up the road outside!
Went back to hotel to find we had no power and no water, but the corridor had turned in to motorbike car park! Went to bed by candle and head torch to be awoken by commotion outside at 2am. Russ put his foot on the floor to find that we were ankle deep in water and our kit was floating. Quickly moved it on to the beds, luckily it was not too wet. Carina went to find hotel lady who didn’t seem to mind that we were wading thru water and was still smiling and joking as the water flowed thru her hotel. She finally gave us a room on the 1st floor where we moved up to along with 2 other girls who were also flooded out. Laid out our wet kit, and tried to sleep.
Woke up bout 6 ish to find the water had risen on the ground floor to waist deep and had flooded the lower stairs. Tourist on the top floor then tried to leave for breakfast as they had no idea of the flood downstairs!! We had a little giggle that they had waterproofs on ready to face the rain.

We packed up our kit and watched a French man wade thru the ground floor that was waist deep with his big backpack above his head. He said it was cold, but it was not until he was outside when he walked into a submerged bench, and then fell off the pavement on to the road and was chest deep in water, we thought this was a bad idea. We thought that maybe a boat was in order. Flagged one down that was rowing past the balcony and lowered big bags over the balcony onto the boat. We waded waist deep with small bags above our heads to the boat now rowing into the reception area. Used a bench in reception to climb on to the boat. It was the most expensive 100m we have ever paid to be rowed down the street! Then we ran aground and had to wade with all our kit to the dry road. Luckily it was only shin deep. Managed to find a drier hotel and checked in, luxury they had a generator and at least cold running water. That night it rained again, but we were ready. We had all our kit off the floor, no more floating sandals for us. There was no need as thankfully no water came in.

Dried off and visited some more sites. The weather was really hot and sunny as if nothing had happened....typical. Tried to visit Dad Lauson’s tailor, but the road was under water so we couldn’t get there. Next day the water levels had dropped, and we made it to the tailor. Had a chat and he remembered you, and we gave him some photos. No time to make clothes as had found a bus company that was running to get us out. The main road was flooded so the bus we got detoured down a country lane, and almost got snagged on low hanging electricity cables! We had to walk over a closed bridge to another bus that thakfully took us the rest of the way.

But another bus change later and a total journey time of about 19hrs we made it to the hill town Da Lat which is actually cool and not humid as were 4900ft asl, yipee we arent sticky at the moment. But you guessed it, it keeps raining but hired push bikes today and saw all the sites. However, we did spend 2hrs under a bus stop waiting for the thunder and lightning to stop!

Moving on to Saigon tomorrow, another bus ride. Have checked the weather forecast, and its storms and rain……great.

Carina and Russ

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Comments

[Emma]

Wow!
I'm amazed by your watery adventure! Well done for being practical and 'keeping your head above water' at all times!!! Bloody hell, it sounds like something out of a disaster movie! Well, while you were getting drenched and seeing your worldly possessions (well, not quite... your 'travelling possessions!) gently floating of of your reach, I have been sorting out a job and having various birthday celebrations. I've got a 15 hour per week (9am - 12am) TEFL teaching job starting on Wednesday, so that's good. Thanks for your birthday message too! Take care! Glad you can both swim! Lots of love Emma xxx