Water is Rising in Hoi An!

Woke up to a familiar sound this morning- rain pounding on the tin roof outside my window. Not necessarily unexpected so I just put on my standard rainy day uniform - Chacos, quick-dry shorts, t-shirt, rain jacket, military rain poncho, topped off with an umbrella - before heading out the door for a quick breakfast. My ride to the My Son temple complex was supposed to pick me up at the hotel around 8:00 but when I returned the girls at the front desk explained that the trip had been canceled due to flooding on the roads. Fair enough. With ten hours to kill before my night bus to Nha Trang leaves (assuming we can float out of town), I took my refund and headed back out into the storm.
I figured that 24+ hours of fairly heavy rain had to be doing something to the Thu Bon river so I went straight to the closest bridge to check it out. It must be the river guide in me, but I get the biggest kick out of watching a river in flood. Apparently, I'm not alone - a small group of local kids had assembled at the bridge to see what kind of goodies were being swept out to sea. The river had come up overnight - dramatically so. A line of ratty styrofoam boxes from the market floated beneath us on the current. Looking upstream I could see the water had risen into the homes and shops lining the river. I could also just make out the figure of a man busily tossing armloads of trash, including the type of foam boxes I had seen, into the stream - garbage disposal, Vietnam style.

I wandered a few blocks into town, bypassing the market on the water's edge, and made my way to the riverside promenade where I had been going for dinner each night. The owners of several of the cafes had told me about the flooding that occurs each rainy season (ie. now) and they weren't joking. The entire block was knee deep in water...and it was still rising. Small wooden boats had taken over for the motorbike taxis and people carried on with their business as best they could. Rats scurried for high ground and people pushed loaded bikes through water that rose to the tops of their tires. Scooters were stalling out as kids tried to ford the streams developing at intersections. Boat owners kept moving their bowlines further and further inland - a few were using sculptures in the city park as anchors. Tourists and locals alike crowded the few spots of dry land to get a look at the flood. And no one seemed overly concerned with the situation - lots of laughing, smiling, and shrugging of shoulders. The last big flood, I was told, occurred two years ago when the water had risen to the rafters of the ground floor shops and restaurants. Shopkeepers weren't evacuating their furniture and goods to the second floor yet.
After taking photos and walking (wading) around a bit I started back for the hotel to dry out.
Approaching the riverside fish/vegetable market, I could see that it was also knee deep in water and still as busy as ever. Against the steady hum of a hundred Vietnamese conversations, women continued selling vegetables on table tops literally only an inch or two above the rising river. Vendors, buyers, and gawkers (me) splashed through tight aisles as God only knows what sloshed and swirled in the water around our legs. My sandaled toes occasionally strained chunks of soggy vegetable matter from the water and the smells of the steamy fish market mixed with the surging river water started to make me nauseous. There was a perceptible current running through the market stalls and I laughed when I saw little old ladies peeling vegetables for sale and just dropping the rinds and skins in the water at their feet - knowing they would just drift away. The only problem is when the entire market starts doing the same thing. I can only imagine what must be floating into the South China Sea right now.

Update: With another hour or so to kill before the bus ride, I wandered back down to the waterfront for another look. It hasn't stopped raining and the river has NOT stopped rising. Another few square blocks are flooded out and, short of hiring one of the newly minted water taxis, I couldn't even get close to the spots where I took the photos above. Most of the market has migrated a couple of blocks inland to higher ground and hasn't even skipped a beat. Just another day in rainy-season Vietnam.