“Yellow City” in The Rain Season

Hello friends,
How are you today? I hope you and your family doing well.

Today I want to share with you about my favorite place – Hoi An, I've lived here for 3 years, but sometimes I still feel like a tourist, because every day I discover new things in Hoi An.

Hoi An is an old town located in Quang Nam province - central Vietnam, located on the banks of the Thu Bon River, is one of the attractive destinations for domestic and foreign tourists.

People know Hoi An with its quiet, rustic beauty, mossy tiled roofs, and ancient golden walls bearing the stamp of time. This unique architectural space is the intersection of Western cultures, typically France and the East, with Japanese-style temples and Chinese-style wooden houses. All create a look that is both elegant and elegant, yet luxuriously harmonious.

However, one of the factors that make Hoi An unique is the yellow walls. That's why it is also known as "Yellow City".
To explain this, there are many theories. Some argue that yellow is the color of royalty, while others claim that yellow is less heat-absorbing, making it ideal for Vietnam's humid tropical climate. Whatever the reason, this color is highly revered in Vietnamese culture, representing luck, pride, prosperity, and respect.

It can be said that Hoi An each season has its own beauty, but one of the most impressive and fluttering things for tourists is in the rainy season.

When the floodwater rises, besides the silence and peace, it also evokes a distinct sadness that few cities have. Because it is located on the lower Thu Bon River, the city is prone to flooding every rainy season due to water from upstream, high sea level combined with the discharge of hydroelectric reservoirs. Unlike Saigon, Hoi An has rains lasting 3 days and 3 nights that have not stopped, after one night when opening the door, the surrounding is already surrounded by white water.

From October to December 2020, Hoi An experienced many big floods, flooding most of the roads, making it difficult for people to travel. However, there are still tourists who come long distances just to admire a quiet Hoi An, people open boating services for guests on the river, cafes are also bustling again. The shop is still selling but the furniture is set higher than usual.

And in the new eyes of young people everywhere, it is a specialty, they enjoy twisting their pants, wading through the riverside roads, taking advantage of posing for pictures with the old town, and then lounging. The sidewalk toad shop while eating and playing with water is a very special experience that not all tourists can enjoy when coming to Hoi An.

Instead of walking or cycling, as usual, tourists can experience the feeling of riding a boat around the city, a unique way of discovering Hoi An. The beauty that makes them fascinated and bewildered.
Everyone's face was wet with rain and floodwater, but they were very eager to sit on a boat going through the alleys and winding river roads around the old town.

We brought SUP from Da Nang, experience the feeling of rowing SUP on the river, which has changed the color of the city. Rolling through the small alleys, touching the walls that are now soaked with water, the quiet, quiet taste of Hoi An has never been so deeply engraved in our memories.

The people here seem to be familiar with the scene of the flood season, so they accept it calmly, because even anxiety and hustle can't go against the laws of nature, so they accept living with them.
Through announcements about the situation of rain and flood, people quickly put their furniture up high, avoiding serious material losses.

Most of the houses in the Old Quarter have two floors, with trapdoors to help move things before the water rises. But flood disaster has brought worry about the degradation of monuments. Currently, Hoi An ancient town has more than 1,100 relics and ancient houses, of which, mainly privately owned (houses and churches). Although the city has always paid attention to the restoration and embellishment of monuments because it was built for a long time, it is often affected by climate change such as storms, so the works are still threatened the safety of monuments.

A very gentle, very humble Hoi An, quietly watching the sporadic flow of people passing by, although hoping the city will soon be healthy, soon, no longer flooded like that, but the unique beauty of the season cannot be denied city flood.
If you have the opportunity, once come to Hoi An in the flood season, to have more memorable experiences about this beautiful city.

Thanks a lot to my friends Quy Ngoc and Tung Le to share with me those beautiful pics.

Thanks for reading,
Big hug from Vietnam <3