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16:55 After Typhoon, Tourists in Vietnam Venture Out

A view of the town of Hoi An in the aftermath of Typhoon Ketsana on Thursday. function getSharePasskey() { return 'ex=1412136000&en=ee001e09c96acb87&ei=5124';} function getShareURL() { return encodeURIComponent('http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/world/asia/02typhoon.html'); } function getShareHeadline() { return encodeURIComponent('After Typhoon, Tourists in Vietnam Venture Out'); } function getShareDescription() { return encodeURIComponent('The town of Hoi An, which is popular with tourists, is returning to life, two days after Typhoon Ketsana killed at least 92 there.'); } function getShareKeywords() { return encodeURIComponent('Travel and Vacations,Typhoons,Hoi An (Vietnam),Vietnam'); } function getShareSection() { return encodeURIComponent('world'); } function getShareSectionDisplay() { return encodeURIComponent('International / Asia Pacific'); } function getShareSubSection() { return encodeURIComponent('asia'); } function getShareByline() { return encodeURIComponent('By SETH MYDANS'); } function getSharePubdate() { return encodeURIComponent('October 2, 2009'); } Sign in to RecommendTwitterSign In to E-MailPrintReprintsShareCloseLinkedinDiggFacebookMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalink By SETH MYDANS Published: October 1, 2009 HOI AN, Vietnam — The chest-high waters in this carefully preserved little town are receding and as the roads dry they are filling up again with tourists who had been trapped in their hotels.Skip to next paragraphEnlarge This Image Julian Abram Wainwright/European Pressphoto Agency A man prepared to clean up a house in Hoi An on Thursday. “We were in our room for three days,” said Sandra Hudspith, 62, a sociologist from Australia. “All we had to eat was noodles and if I never see another noodle again I’ll be happy.” Tony Boyle, who is also from Australia, peered into shops where people were using brooms and mops and to sweep out the muck the flood left behind. “You feel ghoulish, like you shouldn’t be here,” he said. “But they need the money. They’re lovely, lovely people.” This old trading town, which is now one of the country’s premier tourist attractions, was one of the hardest hit areas in the typhoon that battered central Vietnam two days ago, killing 92 people by the latest count. The storm, Typhoon Ketsana, also killed 277 people in the Philippines and 14 in Cambodia, and more storms were forecast for the Philippines. Typhoon Parma, with winds gusting up to 130 miles per hour, was expected to make landfall on Saturday north of Manila, and heavy rains had already begun in some parts of the country on Thursday evening. Authorities warned of mud slides and heavy flooding, and said the strength of the storm could surpass that of Ketsana, which caused Manila’s worst flooding in four decades. In Hoi An, as in Manila, people were struggling to recover. Low-lying parts of Hoi An’s old town, with its mustard yellow walls and curved tile roofs, remained flooded Thursday and some people were still trapped on upper floors. Small wood skiffs piled high with produce delivered food and water to them. Some boatmen did what the people of Hoi An have learned to do best — tourism — ferrying visitors up and down the flooded streets for a look. “Come visit our gallery!” called Hoang Thi Thao from the flooded Thanh Lich Gallery to a passing skiff as she washed down her muddied walls. “Maybe tomorrow.” In the To To Boutique, on slightly higher ground, the bottom shelves were empty where bolts of cloth had been removed up to the flood’s high-water mark. A male mannequin stood a the front of the shop, naked from the chest down. Its trousers had been removed and its shirt had been tied at the chest, where the rising water stopped. Le Thi Ngoc Anh, 35, the shop owner, said she would probably put its pants back on tomorrow. Around the corner in another clothing shop, the owner, Do Thi Nga, 47, argued with a tour guide who had come to pick up clothing ordered by her clients. The flood had stopped the work of the tailors and the tourists were leaving now after making a two-thirds down payment. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” said the tour guide, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, as she climbed back onto her bicycle. Another shop nearby was a shambles, with broken crockery and soaking piles of clothing lying around. “We’ve lost everything, a hundred percent,” cried the owner, Ha Thi De, 55, her lips quivering, as she collected muddy bits of broken crockery and dumped them into a bucket. Her husband sat on a plastic stool at the open shop front, staring into the street. “He’s helping me to clean up,” Ms. De said. Bit by bit, Hoi An was returning to life as it has come to know it. The sun was shining and groups of tourists ambled down the streets with cameras and shopping bags. A former trading town that was one of the country’s main ports in pre-colonial times, and then a ruin during and after the Vietnam War, Hoi An has been turned into a tourism showpiece. It was designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations in 1999 and local officials project that 1.2 million tourists will visit it this year and that the number will more than double over the next six years. Provincial officials have begun to worry that it is all getting a bit too much. The Quang Nam Provincial Peoples Committee issued a report recently saying development threatened to overwhelm the character of the town. In the Milan fabric shop, which also sells the richly filled moon cakes of the harvest festival, Vuong Huu Khoi, 55, said his family had retreated with its merchandise to the second floor, eating some of its merchandise to get through the flood. The slow pace of business gave him a chance to light a cigarette and consider what his town had become. “They used to call it the forgotten town,” said Mr. Khoi, who was born here and left only to fight in the 1970s as a soldier for South Vietnam. Now, as the country transforms itself as fast as it can into something that looks more modern, this is the place visitors come to see the real unspoiled Vietnam. “They come to see what they see in their guide books,” Mr. Khoi said. The buildings have been preserved but commercial life has replaced the old relationships and rhythms of the village. “It is not the real Hoi An,” he said. “But of course there is nothing we can do about it. When change comes we just have to accept it.”Sign in to RecommendNext Article in World (13 of 37) »

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