Hoi An Sojourn

 I say sojourn, as we are here for a blessed 3 nights.  We arrived yesterday afternoon and did a walk through the old town.  This city has a charming old town influenced by Japanese, Chinese and European inhabitants for centuries.  The effect is delightful with most shops dangling lanterns from their facades, low hanging tiled roofs interspersed with temples.  We visited one such temple, which exemplifies the historical importance of the maritime trade to Hoi An.  

This temple is dedicated to the Lady of the Sea, a Chinese deity who protected the sailors as they traversed north.  There were 20 day coil incense burning with names and wishes for the future and a painted depiction of her protecting sailers as well as the temple itself.  

Another sight was a preserved Chinese medicinal merchant’s house also in the old town.  It contains an inner courtyard, which in a narrow house was a feat.  

Rain starting in earnest now.  

I get sympathetic foot pain just looking at those barbarically small shoes

Here you could see the waters rising near the noodle restaurant.  Later that night it did just that.  The old town was largely inaccessible today unless you wanted to wade.  Ummm nope.  

Note the lanterns in this image, which is of the restaurant 5 days ago, when it was flooded.  Compare it with the lanterns below for perspective. 

And then we encountered the same topic.  The river here was receded from days prior but still too flooded beyond its actual banks and the bridges were underwater as well.  We ate dinner in a local noodle restaurant which had just cleaned up after the waters receded, and sadly, the next day was all under water again.  This because the dam upstream needed to release water over the spillways so all downstream inhabitants were notified that there would be more flooding.  This in anticipation of another typhoon on the way.   Again, some flooding is not unusual, but this is once in a century level flooding and the upcoming typhoon is expected to be severe.  So to avoid excessive strain on the dam and the potential catastrophic effects, the release of water now was designed to mitigate that.  Needs must.  

Last night it rained extremely hard all night long, with thunder and lightning too.  The amount of rainfall overnight was 4.4 inches.  The street in front of the hotel was flooded this morning.  I can honestly say that we in the Pacific Northwest have no idea what monsooning really is, until you have seen this kind of rain.  It is intense.