From Tourism to Escapism, Typhoon Ketsana

Before reading any further please click the three links below to see what Jen and I managed to find ourselves in the path of.

200,000 people have now been evacuated and the death toll is around 75.

Click here

Click here

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We were heading North from Nha Trang to Hoi An when it became clear that things were starting to look bad. The bus occasionally would shake from the force of the wind and the rain was so loud it felt like it had a tin roof. As we got closer to Hoi An the damage of the approaching Typhoon became more visible, trees had fallen in the way of the bus and when they were cleared we upgraded further to powerlines. The bus stopped many times to clear the roads and eventually we arrived in Hoi An.

I'm sure Hoi An is a nice place to visit but without electricity and with people in hiding preparing for the coming rains and wind Jen and I never got a chance to see much. We pulled up outside of a hotel in the bus and they only had two rooms left. By luck Jen and I got one of the rooms and were relieved to have shelter.

The hotel had electricity from a generator because the worst storm in five years was not going to stop a Vietnamese hotel owner from making cash! The phone lines and internet was down but we felt secure in the hotel and were prepared to probably have to wait out the storm for 48 hours. No big deal.

The next morning though the nearby river had burst its banks and it became a very big deal. Water had risen six foot whilst we slept and if I stood in the middle of the street outside I would have just been able to keep my head above the water standing up. We had to be rescued by a small paddle boat which floated into the lobby to take people to land 4 at a time.

Once we got to dry land we found the bus station to be underwater and the trains out of service too. Tourists were milling about everywhere but luckily we seemed to have our heads screwed on and found a taxi to a nearby town. From here we got a big bus overnight (18 hours) to take us North to Hanoi which is where we now are. As the bus shot along the highway I could see the water rising and cars/bikes having to turn back in the roads. Sometimes there was so much water that the bus driver could not tell the difference between the highway and the rice paddies, he was driving on instinct and I am convinced that if we had left it any longer we would still be stuck in the middle of Vietnam.

All safe now though, and pictures will be added soon (though check Jens blog as she took most of them and should be updating now)

bx