Day - 7 The Aftermath

Going to skip ahead here to yesterday. I'll fill in the rest of the blanks later.

We woke up early as we were booked in for a cooking class and needed to be at the cafe at 8:15 am for a tour of the markets, a boat ride up the river to the cooking school, a leisurely lunch and return boat ride. Dawn and I had been looking forward to this after reading about it in net accounts.

We dressed and went downstairs. The rain was bucketing down and the wind had picked up, but it was not more than a bad storm type of deluge so we plunged out into the street to walk down to the cafe meeting point for early breakfast.

On our walk there were smashed ceramic plant pots and tiles that must have been blown off of roofs and balconies during the night. We had our heads down and a strong grip on umbrellas and even though I was also wearing a rain poncho I was soon soaked from the thighs down. The river was about 1 metre below its banks and running fast. I wondered how a boat would go against it.

The cafe was a shambles when we got there. The front entrance was closed so we walked round to the back entrance. Signs were blown over, smashed tiles in the courtyard and a few inches of water over the ground. We walked in with one of the staff and found several people {other staff) still asleep inside. They quickly moved us to a higher part in the cafe and brought us menus. Business as usual!




We ordered an omelet and scrambled eggs and a Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk. Breakfast came quickly and a few others turned up for the cooking class. A woman from Perth and a couple from Colorado. Our guide announced it was time to go and so we saddled up and stepped into the rain and now almost gale force winds. Talking was almost impossible unless the person was right next to you and some nervous looks were exchanged between the members of the group.


The tour of the markets involved standing in sometimes ankle deep water with rain sheeting down. The tarps used to protect the stalls periodically dumped bucketfulls of water on our heads, and busy women pushed by trying to get their daily shopping added to the chaotic waterworld. What was most frightening was the wind that was quite obviously getting up to gale force and the roof sheeting was rattling, banging and flapping quite frighteningly adding to the noise of the rain beating down and the vendors trying to sell their fruit, meat and fish.



The markets sit on the river bank and the water was already into the fish section. Things were not looking good at all for the boat ride. The guy from Colorado was getting quite agitated and there were muttered discussions as we were digesting SMS information coming in from Australia.




Our guide announced that his manager had declared the boat ride to be out of the question and that we would instead go via minibus. We again went outside and walked towards the bus stop. Things were deteriorating with the gale force winds now ripping limbs from trees and dropping them around and on us. Luckily for those with umbrellas, like Dawn and I, the provided some shelter. But I was very nervous about the real possibility of a braining from a branch or a whole tree.

The mini bus took a while to get to us and we piled aboard. We felt somewhat safer inside until we started down the road. A tree was down in front of us and so we turned round and went to go another way. In a few minutes that way was also blocked by a down tree. The roads were also getting quite flooded. I told the driver that we would prefer to be taken to our hotels than the cooking class as this was too dangerous for us to be outside. He replied that his manager would need to hear that from us as he would get into trouble if he called the tour off.

His manager rang him back and told him to bring us to the cafe and they would do an impromptu course there. We piled out of the bus as the driver on hearing that his contract to drive us to the Red Bridge was not going to be fulfilled and he would not get paid, refused to drive us any further. A stumbling half-run to the cafe saw us back where we started, a few kilos heavier from the water , and adrenalin levels into the stratosphere.

The course started and we kept our eyes on the mobile phones for further news. As half the course was made up of the course we did last night, because of the impromptuness, I didn't pay much attention till the second half where we made our own rice paper. Ohhhh fresh rice paper! The lesson finished and we sat and ate the fruits of our labour but I wasn't really very hungry and the mood was subdued. It is true that food tastes better with good company.

The clothes shop where our stuff was being made was on the way back to the hotel and so we battled our way there. The door was open and the family huddled inside. They told us the clothes would not be ready until tomorrow, as I knew they would not be, and that they would drop them to our hotel the next day.

We fought our way out into the street again and bumped into the lady from Perth who was also heading to our hotel. The streets were now very flooded, the rain hitting us was stinging from the gale force winds and I was having to walk backwards to keep it out of my face. There was no traffic and we stuck to the middle of the road to avoid any trees falling on us. The hotel was a welcome sight and the lobby was full of people milling around looking out the doors.

The wind howled on and shutters were banging and crashing. The hotel has atrium roofing with wrought iron decoration supporting clear perspex to let the light in. When the rain pooled on top became too heavy the perspex bowed enough to let it fall the 4 floors to the carp pools below ...cleverly designed I think...or just lucky? The power started to go on and off but people weren't too bothered as the staff bought out votive candles and we could still order from the breakfast menu so I had a banana pancake and Dawn had fried noodles, we both had lemon tea as another shot of the strong Vietnamese coffee {we had had two already during the day} would have caused our hearts to burst.

The power came back on and we decided to go upstairs while we still had light. The wind seemed to be dying a little bit, but it would return in viscous gusts. The rain fell on and on. We watched TV for a while trying to understand the Vietnamese news reports. Pictures form Da Nang 30klms away seemed to be mild to what we had gone through, though the news crews like us, probably didn't manage to get much footage when you are running to get out of a very dangerous situation.

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Day has dawned here and it is SUNNY! it is BEAUTIFUL! Time to see Hoi An without pouring rain....