Hue Life

TG-4, f2.3, 1/250, ISO 320, RAW, 30mm

Rainy Day and Floods

Leaving Da Nang this morning the weather was overcast and a bit cool but pleasant to drive, after Lang Co however it started to rain.

First light rain, then stronger the closer I got to Hue and once I arrived in Hue, it was pouring and water flowing down the streets.

This meant only one thing, the street near my coffee shop would be completely flooded again.

Despite the recent works on the drainage and canal system, the rain caused flooding everywhere in Hue that lasted till late in the evening.

But as it always goes with these things, people took it with a smile and were generally just dealing with it and making jokes in between.

Rainy Day & Floods

Some clouds moved in in the early afternoon and some thunder was heard before it started pouring down.

I do like heavy rain and stormy weather as it's more exciting than the usual light rain and I like the sounds of the pouring rain on the roof.

Well, I figured I go out to look at the rain and maybe take some photos of people wearing raincoats on motorbikes.

Imagine my surprise when I saw waterfalls running down the staircase of my coffee shop and the road in front of it flooded.

In a way it reminded me of the very first time in Hue in 2011. It wasn't as bad this time round though but still a lot of rain and flooded streets.

After managing to stop the water and clean up the coffee shop the rain also stopped and the water started to retreat.

What impressed me the first time about Hue and people in Vietnam and still holds true is how quickly everything goes back to normal. What would be a big deal in Europe, is here literally just brushed off (or 'broomed' off? ;) ) and people go about their usual business as if nothing happened.

A completely flooded street (or streets) causes no big problem here and things keep on moving but a little bit of rain (or sun, or snow, or wind, or some leaves, or smoke, or ...) manage to bring the whole rail network in London to a halt.

The positive aspect of the flooding is that now most of the dust has been taken care of.

Water, Lots of Water

Woke up this morning without power in the hotel and water almost in the reception area, the good news was that it stopped raining.
By the time I finished breakfast the water levels went down a bit although it was still not possible to leave the hotel without getting wet feet.
Rather than stay longer in Hue we decided to stick to the plan and leave for Hoi An, for this we had the hotel arrange a car for us. we took some pictures along the way.

The weather was nice and sunny although the flood waters were visible everywhere along the way.
Once we arrived in Hoi An we found out that half of the old town was flooded, not getting discouraged we decided to go out and take some pictures anyway even if it meant wading through more water.

This is a series depicting the day and focusing on scenes with water in them (not that I have a lot of pictures without water in them). It is a longer series but I wanted to give a good overview of the situation we have been in.

I have a lot of respect for the Vietnamese people who despite all this flooding and having no electricty at the hotel were always friendly and managed to help us out with everything possible. Even the people we saw who had their houses flooded anyway had a smile and made the best out of the situation. Live just goes on here without too much fuss. I hope my pictures can show this.