Skiing with Mim, Kat, Rachael, Jessica and Annette
On Sunday we did some extreme skiing/boarding with Tor, Kathy, Mim, Kat, Rachael, Jessica and Annette. The video speaks for itself...
The snow is amazing right now. It's been dumping since Sunday. I hit the Mt. Rose chutes yesterday and can finally say that they are ready to go. The conditions will be great this weekend.
We just went back and added up all of our expenses from our trips to Turkey and SE Asia. I'm sharing these to help anyone who is planning a similar trip.
The quality of our hotels, food and travel was everything from budget to fairly comfortable. We stayed at hotels/guest houses/bungalows that ranged from very low end ($5/night) to fairly high end ($60/night) by SE Asian standards. We ate everything from street buffets ($.50/meal) to some nice places ($20/meal). In general we skipped the long bus rides and took short flights (2 in Turkey and 4 in Asia) within or between countries.
There were people traveling on a fraction of our budget but this was nothing near the level of cost or comfort we know from business or personal travel under normal circumstances.
Anyone traveling alone could probably assume about 55-60% of the cost for a similar trip since most (but not all) of our expenses were per person.
If you are looking to trim down the expense you can probably do much better than we did on the main flights to and from Turkey/Thailand. We booked both with fairly short notice.
Here's how it broke down.
Turkey (July)
Travel Days: 30 Cash + ATM + Credit Card: $4,636
Plane Tickets: $3,400
Total: $8,036
Living expenses per day (food, hotel, buses, internal flights, boats, etc.): $155 for two people Grand total cost per day: $268 for two people
SE Asia (October - December)
Travel Days: 82 Cash + ATM + Credit Card: $8,518
Plane Tickets: $2,397
Total: $10,915
Living expenses per day (food, hotel, buses, internal flights, boats, etc.): $104 for two people Total cost per day: $133 for two people
Today will definitely go down as one of the great days of the season. Mt. Rose received about 20 inches of snow last night and today which layered perfectly onto the firm base we already had.
We were skiing knee deep powder along the boundary line of South Rim and through the woods along Lower Lake View. The exposed earth in the Chutes is covered but I'm still not sure they are ready yet. Other than that the rest of the mountain is in great shape. No lift lines. No wind. It was a cold, dry, perfect day for skiing.
It should be cold all week so this weekend should be great!
Saturday was another warm, clear day, perfect for snow snow shoeing. Ken Phelps and Tom Wiles skied at Northstar and said they had a great day of warm, smooth runs.
On Sunday Ken, Tom and I hit Mt. Rose. The temperatures dropped on Saturday night and froze most of the mountain. It was like skiing in Vermont. We were kept to the groomed runs. Anything else was a chunky, frozen mess.
Video: Captain Ken Phelps tearing it up at Mt. Rose on Saturday
On Sunday night it started snowing again. When we went to bed a few inches had accumulated. On Monday morning it was still snowing on and off. The car thermostat said it was 13 degrees on the summit of Mt. Rose highway.
When we got to the mountain we were pleasantly surprised to see they had received 6-8 inches of new snow. We made some amazing runs down fresh untracked power on the side trails and easy tracked power down the center. Some patches still have rocks or ice hiding underneath them, but overall it was our best conditions of the season.
The Mt. Rose web site says that they have received 8-10 inches in the last 12 hours and 16-20 inches from this storm.
I hear the drive back down 80 was a bit of a mess last night so prepare for some 7+ hour drives either way.
Earlier this summer we bought Mt. Rose season passes. We came up on Monday, January 7th, during a break in the big storm that dumped 5 or more feet of snow across the area. On Tuesday the 8th we tried to ski but all lifts were closed due to high wind and low visibility.
We skied every day from the 9th through the 12th. I was the first person down the Chutes (Jackpot) when they opened them on the 10th. The conditions were everywhere from untracked, decent powder to hard pack and ice.
Mt. Rose was a great choice. We like it because it's close to our family place up here and it has the highest elevation in Tahoe. While we were skiing in snow last week it was raining at Alpine (and probably Squaw as well).
After four days of skiing we were sore and needing some downtime to focus on the job search so we took a few days off this week. It was also really warm for a few days, then biting cold.
We hit Mt. Rose yesterday (Thursday, 1/17). It was cool, dry and sunny without a cloud in the sky. The warm days earlier this week have melted off a lot of the cover. Small trees and rocks that were covered last week are now peaking out. The snow is either smooth and groomed or chunky from the melting/freezing pattern.
Overall the conditions are still amazing for mid-January. Even if the snow is not ideal, the fresh air and view of the mountains while cruising down groomers is still a great way to spend the day. We have a great base for future storms to build on. That said...we need fresh snow. I see a storm is heading this way and may drop some snow on Monday or Tuesday.
We are shooting to be back in San Francisco around the 29th or so and can't wait to see everyone.
It's been about three weeks since we got back from SE Asia. We spent Christmas and New Years with family and friends, then drove up to the family pad in Tahoe to ski and start the job search. Tahoe sure feels a world away from Bangkok or the beaches of Cambodia...
Here's our final travel log;
Northern Thailand October 3- 6: Bangkok October 6-8: Ayutthaya October 8-9: Chiang Mai October 10-19: Pai October 19-20: Chiang Mai October 20-21: Chiang Kong
Laos October 21-22: Slow boat down the Meikong River October 23-27: Luang Prabang October 28: Nong Khiaw October 29: Moung Ngoi Neva October 30-31: Nong Khieaw October 31- November 1: Luang Prabang
Vietnam November 1-5: Hanoi November 5-7: Halong Bay November 7-8: Ning Binh November 8-11: Hue November 11-12: Hoi An November 12-17: Ho Chi Minh City
Cambodia November 17-19: Phnom Pehn November 19-22: Siem Riep November 22-25: Phnom Pehn November 25- December 4: Sihanoukville December 4-5: Phnom Pehn
Southern Thailand December 5-6: Krabi December 6-8: Ko Lanta December 8-12: Ko Phi Phi December 12-19: Ko Pha Ngan December 19-20: Suratani December 20-22: Bangkok
Book Recommendations
Vietnam Now: A Reporter Returns by David Lamb
This is a great read while traveling in Vietnam. David Lamb was a war reporter in the 60s and 70s. He returned to Hanoi 30 years later and wrote this book about post-American war Vietnam. It is fascinating.
In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam by Robert McNamara
I wasn't around during the Vietnam war so it has always been an abstract piece of history that we learned about in class or by watching movies. This book is a detailed chronology of the events that led up to the war and its escalation from the perspective of Robert McNamara, who was the Secretary of Defense for Kennedy and Johnson. Not only is it a great account of the events, it is refreshingly honest. He openly admits the many mistakes that were made by himself and the administrations he worked for. The last two chapters are the best part of the book. Rather than focusing on Vietnam he gives his perspective on the proper role of US military force going forward (which is 180 degrees from how we've approached Iraq and Afghanistan). The final chapter is on returning to as close to a non-nuclear world as possible. This is a must read if you want to understand the Vietnam war or if you are interested in how these situations come about.
Cambodia: Report from a Stricken Land by Henry Kamm
Kamm is an former Southeast Asia Correspondent from the NY Times. He walks through the unbelievably convoluted history of Cambodia from the French colonization, through the American/Vietnam war, the Khmer Rouges, the Vietnamese occupation, the U.N.'s failed attempt to prop up a democracy and the current Kingdom. It's a great backdrop when traveling in the country.
Interesting sights and experiences
families of six plus a TV riding a scooter
signs telling people to not stand on the seat of a western toilet (because they are used to a hole in the ground)
signs in every hotel saying no prostitutes or weapons
pigs and buffalo walking around everywhere
taking shoes off to go into shops, hotels and homes
little respect for intellectual property- copied books, music, movies, fake 7/11s and Burger Kings
"Friends" reruns running everywhere
living out of a backpack for months on end
driving on the left side of the road (Thailand)
constant currency calculations
31.6 Thai Baht/USD
16,021 Vietnamese Dong/USD
3,964 Cambodian Riel/USD
9,266 Lao Kip/USD)
being flooded out of our hotel (Vietnam)
pictures of the King everywhere (Thailand/Cambodia)
monkeys hanging out in the streets
Exotic food sightings (that I didn't necessarily try)
embryonic duck eggs (Vietnam)
fried cockroaches
dog meat dishes
durrian (a fruit that smells so bad that it is banned from some hotels and airlines)
happy pizza and shakes
fish sauce in everything
giant pigs strapped to a scooter heading to market
Depressing or just really annoying things (in no particular order)
water/food that will make you sick
smoke from the burning of trash and crops
creepy sex tourists
amputees from war, land mines, snake bites and the general lack of modern health care in many places
people wearing surgical masks because of pollution and disease
cars, buses and scooters honking their horns nonstop
roosters waking you up at 4:00am
stray dogs
mosquitoes, mosquito nets and having to put on repellent
taking malaria medication that makes you nauseous
squat toilets with a water scooper
aggressive touts trying to get you to stay at their hotel or go on their tour
"Spring Breakers" (20-something backpackers who are drunk and annoying to us old folks)
long, loud, bumpy, smoky bus rides
dirty and/or loud bungalows/hotel rooms
wet bathroom floors
cockroaches
foreigners not respecting local traditions
trash everywhere (Cambodia)
cold showers
Nescafe instant coffee
tuk tuk drivers constantly hassling people
Non obvious things I would recommend to anyone going on an extended trip
Get on electronic bill pay. I've been using Paytrust for many years and couldn't live without it.
Have someone receive and open your mail if you are going away for several months. Aside from bills and the usual mail, you can get time sensitive notices. While we were gone I received a notice from the IRS that they disagreed with my 2005 mortgage deduction and that I had a few weeks to reply or they would close the case and send me a bill for $4,000. Fortunately I was able to email my accountant and have him straighten them out. We also got Jury Duty and DMV car registration notices that needed to be dealt with while we were gone. If my father wasn't opening our mail we would have missed all of these things and would have had to untangle them when we got home.
Travel insurance is important. We saw many tourists who had fallen off scooters (by far the main mode of transportation in SE Asia), been bitten my wild monkeys (!) and had other random health care related issues. Get a travelers insurance policy that covers emergency evacuation back to the US and will cover visits to the hospital while you are traveling. Make sure your policy covers scooter/motorcycle accidents. Some don't.
Make sure you have secure access to your online bank, broker, bill pay service, etc. Internet cafes are everywhere but they are littered with viruses and key logging software that can steal your passwords. There are a number of tricks you can use to lessen your odds of having a problem, but I will do everything possible to do a better job with this next time I travel. For example, ETrade offers a random password generating token that I wish I had before this trip.
On a similar note, tell your online broker, bank, etc. where you are going. I had huge problems transferring money from my brokerage account to my checking account because they could tell I was logging in from Cambodia which seemed suspicious to them. I had to make a 45 minute call to unlock my account from Siem Riep. When we finally resolved it they agreed to credit my account for the cost of the call, but it was still very aggravating.
Set up, fund and test your Skype account in advance. I tried to set mine up while we were traveling and am still having problems. Skype is an amazing way to make cheap calls but forget it if you are stuck in the endless/useless loop of their Customer Service department.
If you are going away for several months see if you can turn off or minimize as many monthly bills as possible. For example, get your cell phone and cable TV service down to the minimal monthly plan, tell your cleaners you will be gone and see if you can suspend your gym membership.
If you want to have a cell phone while you travel, bring or buy a phone that has a removable SIM card. You can buy local pre-paid ones in every country. We didn't do this but met a lot of people who did.
Research malaria before you go. There is a massive amount of conflicting information out there. Go to the CDC web site, see if the area you are visiting is malarial, get your meds from a travel nurse and take them while you are traveling. This sounds obvious but we met many travelers who had malaria meds but weren't taking them because they had their own kooky theories about the area, the disease, etc. Malaria can be a lifelong problem so take your meds!
Put your contact information (email and phone #) on anything valuable that you may loose. Many people will try to return things if you give them an easy way to contact you. Make sure your bags, camera, passport, etc. all have obvious ways for people to reach you if they find them. I had a hotel manager show me a box full of digital cameras and other stuff that people had left behind. He said he would be happy to return them if he knew how to reach their owners.
This is part of a bigger decision, but consider getting LASIK before you travel if you wear glasses or contacts. I can't tell you how nice it was not hauling that stuff around. Dealing with contacts would be a nightmare when staying at some remote hill tribe village, going to the beach, etc. I got it a year ago and I LOVE IT.
[Added on 2/17/08] Do yourself a huge favor and back up your photos at least once a week. I spent a lot of time dealing with this. After you meet a few people who lost all of their pics (or you briefly think you lost yours) you get highly motivated to spend some time on this. One cheap and easy way to do this is to back them up to CDs at Internet Cafes as you go. You can do it while you are checking your email. You should keep the CDs in a different place than your camera in case your whole bag gets ripped off or lost. Even better is to mail the CDs back home from time to time. I was so paranoid about this that I was making CDs and uploading our pics to Ofoto along the way (uploading is not too bad in Thailand but everywhere else had pretty slow internet connections). You can also get huge memory cards for almost nothing so you don't have to delete your pictures from your camera, which gives you another copy. I just saw 4 gig cards at Costco for $35 (one 4 gig card can hold 800 pictures if they are 5 mb each). Another way to do this is to back up your pics to your iPod if you get a special cable. Finally, put your email address and phone number on your camera. This will be your only hope for getting it back if you loose it.
[Added on 2/18/08] Try to stay healthy. Being tethered to a hotel room/bathroom for a week is a terrible way to spend your travel days. Only drink bottled or purified water. Steer away from uncooked food. We bought a Steripen for about $100 that uses UV light to kill all of the bacteria and viruses in your water. It can sterilize a liter of liquid in about 60 (or 90?) seconds. We used it as much as possible to cut down on the number of plastic bottles we were throwing away.
[Added on 2/22/08] Always try to know what is socially acceptable and appropriate for local customs. It's painful to watch clueless Westerners not respecting local traditions and values. Most of it is common sense, like don't make out with your partner in a religious building, dress modestly when visiting religious or other important sites, don't yell at people (even if you are frustrated) and don't take pictures of people who are trying to meditate (especially with a flash). I saw people doing all of these things on a regular basis along the way. Some things are less obvious, like not pointing the bottom of your feet at any Buddha statue. Have a little respect (and a little class) and be a good global citizen. Every country is different so read your guide book before you get there.
The last thing is obvious- pack wisely. There are many packing websites so I won't go into much detail here. Aside from the obvious, here are a few other random thoughts...
travel guides are your lifeline. For a multi country trip I would recommend bringing a SE Asia travel guide plus the guide for the first country I was visiting. I would then trade/buy the guide for each of the other countries as I enter them and give away/sell/trade the guides you are done with.
guides + other books are really heavy to carry around. Bring one or two and buy the rest as you go. Some cities have great used book stores so get them while you can and get ride of the ones you are done with.
bring ear plugs. I've never been an ear plug person but I came around on this trip. Some hotel rooms are loud and some bus rides involve honking and other noise that you want to filter out. I like the waxy ones, not the foam ones.
bring a sleep sheet. Some rooms don't have a top sheet so you sleeping directly under a blanket that you know hasn't been washed in a long time...if ever. We got prefab sleep sheets, which is like a sheet that has been folded in half and sewn down one side. You can throw it in with your laundry a few times a week (it also makes a great laundry bag).
bring a good locking system for your bag
have personal cards with your email on them printed (they are much easier to hand out to other travelers/locals you meet along the way)
pack your clothes in those big zip lock bags that you can roll the air out of, like these. They are GREAT for packing up and keeping your clothes dry.
bring rechargeable batteries, a flashlight, a small notepad that will fit in your pocket, a watch that has a reliable alarm on it and other gadgets.
bring iPod speakers for your hotel room if you have room
Margaret carried all of our pharmaceuticals including first aid, antibiotics and all kinds of other stuff that we either used or gave to fellow travels who needed them.
As I wrap up this blog I can't help but notice how little it does to communicate the deeper, more philosophical aspects of the trip. Let me know if you are interested in that and we'll talk about it over a beer some time...
About a week ago we flew from Phnom Penh to Bangkok, then down to Krabi in the far south of Thailand on the Andaman Coast. It was the King's 80 birthday so EVERYONE was wearing yellow... except for us.
From Krabi we took a boat to Ko Lanta where we stayed for two nights. Ko Lanta is a great island if you are looking for a really quiet, uncrowded place to relax and hang out. From Ko Lanta we took a ferry to Ko Phi Phi, which is beautiful and had amazing snorkeling but was too much of a young spring-breaker scene for us.
Yesterday we took a ferry, bus, and ferry to Ko Pha Ngan on the Gulf of Thailand side. So far this has been the best island for us (thanks for the pointer Daria).
Overall I'm glad that we saved the beaches of Thailand for last, but I'm also a bit board with sitting on a beach. The previous two months of being crowded on broken down buses, slugging it out through gnarly jungles and personally experiencing so many local cultures was far more rewarding.
Southern Thailand has natural beauty but is completely overrun by the tourist industry. It's a great place if you are looking for a beach. It's not a great choice if you really want to experience Thai culture.
We only have until the 22nd so it's really winding down now. I'm sad to leave but will be happy to be back on the home front.
We will be back in San Francisco for the holidays and then up in Tahoe for the month of January to start the job search and hopefully do some skiing.
Today I have some bad news. I dropped our camera in a toilet in Cambodia. It's a long story but it involved me trying to change from pants to shorts in a little bathroom on a beach and oops! no more camera. We are now taking pictures with an old school film disposable so eventually I will have more pictures to share.
Everything else is great here. We ended up doubling our time in Cambodia after visiting with Darin and Tami in Phnom Penh twice, heading up to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat then making our way to Sihanoukville on the south coast.
First and foremost, Darin and Tami are doing GREAT. After a few years of travel they look amazing and sound all the wiser (check out their blog links that I have listed to to right side of my blog).
On top of a great tour of Phnom Penh during the Water Festival, they pulled together an amazing Thanksgiving dinner for us and a few other expats. It was seriously good food and quality hang time with them. Thanks again D & T!
Cambodia is an amazing place to visit. I need to find some time to write up a whole blog entry on its beauty, the amazing people, their tragic recent history and the current challenges of the place. While not always the most clean, sane or otherwise predictable, it is definitely one of the most fascinating places I've ever been.
Angkor Wat was spectacular on the scale of Machu Pichu in Peru or the Pyramids of Egypt. I won't rehash the history of the place but would say it's a must see if you are in SE Asia.
After two months+ of cultural backpacking we needed some downtime so we found ourselves in Sihanoukville, a great little beach town that was perfect for just hanging out. It's kind of the End Up of SE Asia. Somehow we got stuck there for ten days.
I can't say that traveling in Cambodia is for everyone, but if you are looking to get off the beaten path to see a completely different corner of the world, it's a great place to visit.
Over the last two weeks we have traveled the length of Vietnam, from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Vietnam is harder to get your arms around than Thailand and Laos, but is more interesting in the end. On November 1st we flew from Luang Prabang to Hanoi and stayed for four nights. Hanoi is fascinating for a few days, then it gets a little suffocating. The Old Quarter is crammed with so many scooters you can't believe it. Their driving style is completely insane. Everyone warned us about crossing the street in Hanoi. It's actually really interesting. You just walk into the flow of scooters and they all swerve around you. It's unnerving at first, but it actually works for some reason. The normal laws of physics don't apply here.
From Hanoi we went to Halong Bay for a three day boat, bike, hike and kayak tour. I know I said this about Laos, but Halong Bay is definitely one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. I'm not nearly articulate enough to describe it so just take a look at the pictures.
From Halong Bay we went a few hours South to a small town called Ninh Binh where we cycled around for a day. A highlight from Ninh Binh was when a random man ran along side my bike and just hopped onto the rack over the back wheel. He needed a ride and I happened to be going that way so he just jumped on. The language barrier was insurmountable so we just rode along until he hopped off and waived good bye.
From Ninh Binh we took an agonizing twelve hour overnight bus to Hue. That was the last overnight bus we will be taking. We're getting too old for that :-) The next day we took a twelve hour bus tour of the DMZ , which was interesting but was waaaaaaay too long.
Two days later we took a four hour bus South from Hue to Hoi An through heavy rain. Hoi An is supposed to be the most beautiful city in Vietnam. When we got there water was pooling up in the street corners, but the road was clear outside of our hotel. After dinner and drinks the water in the streets was about knee deep so we took off our shoes and waded back. By the time we woke up in the morning the water had risen another five or six feet, completely flooding the town. Our hotel lobby and shops were under several feet of water. We left the hotel in a canoe. It was the biggest flood Hoi An had seen in ten years so it was time for us to pack up and leave central Vietnam. We booked a flight to Ho Chi Minh City out of Danang for later that night.
The one hour drive to Danang turned into a full on Rambo mission. Our taxi driver took us as far as he could but the water got too deep. He wanted us to either return to Hoi An or get out of his cab in two feet of water and pelting rain. We called bull shit and just sat in his cab until he flagged down a cargo truck and worked out a deal with the driver to take us to the airport.
We crawled into this huge truck cab and muscled through water that was so deep it was stalling cars and scooters all around us. After about 5 km the truck driver stopped and told us to get out since he needed to go in a different direction. We got out of the truck in the pouring rain, standing in the middle of nowhere completely soaked with nothing but our backpacks. We could do nothing but laugh about it.
The truck dropped us in front of a local family hanging out in front of their house. The older gentleman helped us figure out how to get to the airport, which was only a few km away. He went into the rain for a good ten minutes to find us a taxi, put us in it and sent us on our way. We made it to the airport in time to catch our flight thanks to a lot of help from a handful of strangers.
A few days later we read that flood waters submerged 188,000 houses and killed 28 people. It also flooded a crocodile farm so thousands of crocs were on the loose! We were never in danger but it was pretty interesting seeing water take over like that.
Ho Chi Minh City is far more commercial and familiar feeling to Westerners. It is completely different from Hanoi. You can really feel the cultural difference between the conservative Communist capital in the North and the more liberal Capitalist vibe in the South. We ended up staying in HCMC for five nights.
While in Vietnam we hit the War Museum, the DMZ and read a few books about the war to try to understand the jigsaw puzzle of circumstances that lead up to the conflict. The current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are not as gory as the Vietnam war was but are similar in so many ways... the US trying to prop up a preferred government despite a huge local resistance... the lack of large-scale international participation... the entanglement and escalation over time... politicians giving overly optimistic updates on the progress... the lack of domestic support. They are also different for many reasons, but I find the parallels interesting.
It's hard for me to understand a lot of it because I wasn't around during the height of the Cold War, but how Laos and Vietnam falling to Communism was going to threaten the United States national security is still hard for me to understand... especially after traveling through the area. These are small, rural, poor countries.
The Vietnam War was tragic for both sides. The US lost over 50k+ troops while Vietnam ultimately unified around a Communist government. The Vietnamese unified the country and gained independence but lost over 3 million people, had their infrastructure destroyed, was blanked in chemicals that still prevent plants from growing (and still cause birth defects according to some credible sources) and was sent into economic and political isolation for decades.
In Ho Chi Minh City you can't help but notice all of the men missing arms and legs. They are everywhere. I'm not sure if they are the neglected who fought for the South, farmers who stepped on land mines or if it is unrelated to the war. It would be interesting to find out...
I just wrapped up a book called Vietnam Now, which gave me a much better understanding of how the country has fared over the last few decades. Since the 80s they have been opening up their economy, relaxing a lot of their social restrictions and have normalized relations with most of the world. Both Clinton and the "W" visited over the last few years. Overall things seem to be pointed in the right direction.
Whatever your politics are, the Vietnamese are incredibly gracious hosts and are a pretty amazing bunch when you understand their hardships and rebound over the years. I give two huge thumbs up to traveling in Vietnam.
more camera. We are now taking pictures with an old school film disposable so eventually I will have more pictures to share.
First and foremost, Darin and Tami are doing GREAT. After a few years of travel they look amazing and sound all the wiser (check out their blog links that I have listed to to right side of my blog).
On November 1st we flew from Luang Prabang to Hanoi and stayed for four nights. Hanoi is fascinating for a few days, then it gets a little suffocating. The Old Quarter is crammed with so many scooters you can't believe it. Their driving style is completely insane. Everyone warned us about crossing the street in Hanoi. It's actually really interesting. You just walk into the flow of scooters and they all swerve around you. It's unnerving at first, but it actually works for some reason. The normal laws of physics don't apply here.
Two days later we took a four hour bus South from Hue to Hoi An through heavy rain. Hoi An is supposed to be the most beautiful city in Vietnam. When we got there water was pooling up in the street corners, but the road was clear outside of our hotel. After dinner and drinks the water in the streets was about knee deep so we took off our shoes and waded back. By the time we woke up in the morning the water had risen another five or six feet, completely flooding the town. Our hotel lobby and shops were under several feet of water. We left the hotel in a canoe. It was the biggest flood Hoi An had seen in ten years so it was time for us to pack up and leave central Vietnam. We booked a flight to Ho Chi Minh City out of Danang for later that night.
