Flowing Times in Flooding Hoi An

Now, when we have guided you safely from Da Nang to Hoi An by yellow bus, it’s time to share our time in this picturesque little town, flooding Hoi An.

We arrived at Hoi An on Monday afternoon 12th of December and settled into the nice and cozy Quynh Nhan Homestay guest house. Even though the weather was a little unstable at that time, it didn’t rain (yet). That enabled us to wander around the beautiful ancient city center during the evening.

Meeting the ladies

One of the most amazing things ever was to meet the pair of older ladies we had traveled together during our last trip to Southeast Asia. The accidental meeting place was a very beautiful old bridge between the old city and Night Market. The wife did recognize some familiar voices speaking out loud and went to take a closer look. The lovely ladies first didn’t identify us but after few explanations, we were hugging each other and changing the latest whereabouts. Last time we had seen them was on a boat trip from Chiang Khong, Thailand to Luang Prabang, Laos in December 2015.

What a crazy coincidence!

On Tuesday, the sky ripped off and rain began. That was actually the first time since our first trip together to Southeast Asia on 2014, when it has rain properly during our trip. And it sucks big time! Ok, a little shower once in a while doesn’t hurt you and water is most of the time warm as well. But when it begins to spread everywhere like in the flooding Hoi An ancient city, the fun part ends. The sewer systems here just cannot handle a huge amount of water coming down so quickly.

We didn’t go out for dinner. Instead, we ordered a pizza with the help of our kind Quynh Nhan Homestay guest house hosts. It took half an hour to come and we were starving already. Perhaps our hosts saw that because they offered us one tasty plate of their own cooked delicious food. What a great gesture that was!

Rain stopped in Flooding Hoi An!

The morning of Wednesday looked different than the day before. We could even spot a little part of blue sky behind the clouds. That gave us the courage to grab bicycles from the guest house and off we go to the flooding Hoi An ancient city again. Quickly after reaching the old city, the weather changed back to the dark and warm pour began. We hurried to the Hoi An Texture Marketplace in order to keep ourselves dry.

…just for a while, though.

When the worst part of rain was over, we grabbed something to eat and went back to our accommodation. Luckily, there are still 25 degrees Celsius so we can handle the “little wet”.

During the Wednesday evening, it was wife’s turn to feel a bit ill. So like a proper husband, I went to grab some medicine for her from local pharmacy even though the weather was getting worse and worse all the time. With that being said, we just took it easy in the evening and watched a couple of movies.

I woke up quite of early on Thursday morning. I kind of wished we might get one more “normal” day enabling us to go and see the surroundings of Hoi An. But I could forget it at the instant after peeking out behind the curtains. Okay, it wasn’t raining that much at that time but the instead the wind was blowing like never before.

In this point, it is important to mention that these kinds of unexpected nature powers effect obviously to the electrical systems as well. As being a digital nomad and an internet entrepreneur, when you don’t get electricity you won’t get online. Simple as that. Few hours internet time per day is more than enough for me to keep things flowing. Until this moment, we have been able to get that (knocking on the wood). In addition, as long as the battery both my laptop and iDevices last, I can write these blog post offline as well by using Google Docs.

There is nothing new under the sun in flooding Hoi An

Our last day in Hoi An was on Friday 16th of December. We had a possibility to extend our stay there but because of the weather we just couldn’t do it. I’m pretty certain we will give this charming little town a new change at some point of our journey. Having said that, we only saw the true life of Hoi An on Monday evening, the day we first got there. The rest of the days it was raining wildly and the ancient city left under the flooding river. It made the wandering around impossible to enjoy.

The next step is to move to Hue via Da Nang. Now that we know how yellow buses work, we are going to take the yellow bus back to Da Nang. We will travel one of the most beautiful three-hour train journeys ever from Da Nang to Hue. The railway goes beside the coast of Vietnam almost the whole trip. There is only one wish, though. Let’s all hope the weather will not spoil the pleasure of sharing the stunning views with you!

 

Images from our time in Flooding Hoi An: