Still more rain

Monday 29 September 2008
Hoi An

So it was raining once again today. Raining, like a bitch. I mean you think you've seen rain, but you ain't seen rain like this, honey. It was creating rivers in the streets knee high, washing away sand, rubbish, small children and some of the less secured parts of town.

Our activities in the morning were cancelled, apart from one. There was a small orphanage nearby were orphans, and disabled and disowned children were looked after. A lot of children are disowned in Vietnam either because they are born out of wedlock and the mothers are ashamed of losing their virtue, or if they are disabled, they don't want to look after them. Of course some children are still being born disabled due to the effects of Agent Orange, even now.

It was hard not to cry. There was a room full of disabled children, some simply just lying there, some crying, others came up to us and gave us a hug. In a country where most people sleep with one family to a room, with a couple of matresses between them, these children were even worse off. It was gut wrenching. We gave some donations.

Afterwards I did a web search and found that a British woman had set up a charity to work with this specific orphanage, you can find it here: http://www.kianh.org.uk/

Please give generously.

After that we went to lunch at what has to be the best, and most expensive, restaurant so far - The Mango Rooms. But before we arrived there the heavens really opened and we were soaked. We sat in the restaurant while we waited for it to calm down. Once we were back at the hotel there wasn't much to do so we surfed the internet and then slept for a good while. In the evening we went out to a restaurant and then back to the same bar as the previous night. We drank some beer and played some pool and I actually managed to beat Stephen (the pool king on this tour) in a game of doubles, which was a miracle.

Everyone else went to bed and I hung out with some random people for another drink at another bar. But to get to the ba we had to walk along the river path, which by now was flooded over by the river. I only had flip flops on though so it wasn't too much of a problem for me.

We arrived at the other bar and it was nothing special so I stayed for one and then called it a night.