Times were tough in Hoi An. We'd already been faced with the tail end of a typhoon two days before in Hue but this time we were up against the real thing in Hoi An; SUPER TYPHOON Haiyan. And yes, it was exactly as scary as it sounds. It was recorded as being the worlds most intense storm at its peak, absolutely battering the Philippines.
We were told by everyone and their mother to stock up on food, make sure we were in a good, sturdy building and cancel all travel plans for Saturday and Sunday. I had wanted to create a detailed diary of the typhoon hitting, record everything as we heard it and finally become the journalist I've always wanted to be. Joke.
I got off to a good start as you can see from the list below.
- Thursday 7th Nov, first rumors of super typhoon hitting Vietnam. Ignored rumors.
- Friday 8th Nov, guest-house confirms rumors.
- Friday 8th Nov, 18.00, rte reports storm, family bombards us with with messages.
- Saturday 9th Nov, 8.00am, tour guide tells us it's worst storm ever and not to be late back to the bus or we will all die. Or something to that affect.
- Saturday 9th Nov, 14.00, some rain. Bought food. Start sit-in in room. Local people sandbag houses and nail shutters closed.
- Saturday 9th Nov, 18.00, no rain. We go for a walk.
Surprisingly, I started to run out of exciting content fairly quickly. After a few rounds of pool we settled ourselves in for the long haul watching Terminator 3, The Amazing Spider Man and Snow-white and the Huntsman, all three torture in themselves. We fell soundly asleep with our torches in our hands and a full fridge of food in our room. Expecting to be woken up by catastrophic winds around 4am, we cracked an eyelid the next day at 11am with not so much as a breeze in the air. The storm had not only downgraded in strength but it had stayed out to sea. Not the most exciting journalistic coverage of a typhoon but the relief was epic.
There is a little bit of a perverse disappointment floating around tourists that the storm didn't hit. Granted, we - the tourists - would have been perfectly fine in our sturdy hotel buildings. Actually, our hotel, the owners brought their extended family to stay in the rooms to wait it out which I took for a good sign. But over a hundred thousand people were evacuated from their corrugated iron-roofed, bamboo homes along the coast of Vietnam alone. They would have lost everything and the coverage of the storm in the Philippines is horrific. All I know is that the hum of local people back to work the next day was especially sweet.
And then the rest of our days in Hoi An were only mildly influenced by the talk of the Typhoon. We mostly lounged around the old town exploring the lovely streets, art galleries and souvenir stalls and the big food market. We got to spend a day out on Cua Dai beach. We got stupidly sun burned all over after Lorna instigated a sandcastle building contest. I'm not joking now when I say this, I might not have won the competition but the muscle pain I had in my gluteus the next day after digging an award winning sandcastle foundation was un-be-liev-able. A 1,000 squat session has nothing on building a sandcastle.
We also managed an excursion out to the Myson Holyland site. This is a site built by the same people as Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Really worth taking a look if you are in the area. Not least has it ancient temples and statues but it's full of altars to the Hindu god of fertility and/or destruction. See picture below. Our tour guide took no shame in telling us that his wife is a very, very happy lady on the days he gives that altar a hug. And he hugs it everyday.
