At the present time there are 10 people reported dead, and an estimated hundred million dollars of damages, as a result of the typhoon that swept across northern Vietnam on Sunday night. If you're looking at a map, the hardest hit area was the northern coast of the Gulf of Tonkin - and then Ha Long Bay (where I've just returned from) is a little bay off of the Gulf of Tonkin.
On Sunday night I was travelling by train from Hue to Hanoi, and despite the fact that central Vietnam was the original expected location where the typhoon was going to come ashore, at the last minute it headed a bit further north. So for me on the train, all that I was really aware of was A LOT of rain, and perhaps the ride was a bit rockier than usual (but I don't have anything to compare it to so I really don't know). It definitely was a rocky ride however --- and being on the top bunk I was very glad there was a guard rail as I was thrown into it a couple of times during the night!
On Monday and Tuesday mornings we were back travelling by bus again, and particularly on Tuesday morning when we were travelling towards Ha Long Bay, the damage caused by the typhoon was very evident.
As I've said before, I know that photos taken through the bus window aren't the best, but this is just a little example of what I could see along the way.
I've really been quite fortunate in terms of weather the whole time I've been travelling. Even with this typhoon, which did create some grey days and a bit of rain for a couple of days before and certainly during, there hasn't been anything that meant a change to the itinerary. And when you consider that there were no cruises on Ha Long Bay for Saturday, Sunday or Monday nights, and then we went out on Tuesday and actually had a bit of sunshine at times ... all I can say is "how lucky I am".
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