Hey, everyone! WHOA, what memories I ended up making during my brief stay in Cao Bằng. Incredibly, I was trapped in a flood during the worst flood in the town’s recent history. It was an experience I will likely never forget, for more reasons than one. Wow.

A few housekeeping things:

1) If you’re interested in my art, have a look at my merchandise on RedBubble!
2) If wanting to read my first novel, Eclipse Me, you can find the link here.

Hà Giang to Cao Bằng

After a long bus journey from Hà Giang to Cao Bằng, I made it to my homestay. The driver kindly dropped me off in front of Siu Homestay, which was much appreciated since it had been raining all day long. It was early evening at this point, so I was ready to check in and grab dinner. I was greeted by Lan, Siu’s aunt. Via GoogleTranslate, she instructed me to have a seat and that Khai (Siu’s husband) would come get me situated shortly. A few minutes later, he arrived and helped me bring my bags up to my private room on the 3rd floor.

I was pleased to discover they offered laundry services, so I dropped off my things. Surprisingly, they were dropped before the night was over! In hindsight… thankfully.

I went to grab dinner a few doors down and then returned back to my accommodation to type up the most recent blog post. At one point, I wanted to check my wallet for something. And I could not find it. I checked my tote bag, where I always put it, but it was not there. Had I left it at the restaurant? I couldn’t have… I began to panic. I was going to be so FUCKED without my wallet. I decided to check my backpack and realized that I had absentmindedly put it there while talking to Khai after paying for laundry. THANK GOD.

I initially was planning to stay in Cao Bằng briefly. Get in my first night, go on a tour the next day, and then leave that night or the next day. I texted Siu asking if she knew any tour companies and she got me in touch with someone. As the night wore on, she cautioned me that the rain was supposed to continue and it might be better to hold off. That’s alright, I figured I would have a chill day and explore around town.

After writing up my blog, I went to bed.

The Flood

In the morning, I woke up to a text from Siu. “The city is flooded. It’s best to stay indoors unless necessary.” No way. My experience with flooding is very minimal. As a teenager, the basement in my family home flooded – maybe a foot high at most.

I couldn’t believe it when I went to the front door of the homestay and saw the water from the river had flooded enough to cover the entire street. It had stopped right at the steps leading up to the entrance of the building. For some reason, at the time, I thought that was as high as it would go.

Siu and Khai were out getting supplies and asked if I needed anything. Thinking this would be short term, I asked if she could get me a sandwich and a big bottle of water. They ended up dropping off the items. I paid for the two banh mi, but they gave me four bottles of water for free. So kind!

The rain continued. It was light, but consistent. At this point, it had been raining basically since I got back from the Hà Giang loop.

Siu texted again and told me the power would be shut off temporarily. Okay, no problem. I decided to work on a drawing, so I went down to the ground floor. I kept getting distracted by the flood water, so I hardly made any progress. I saw people walking through the street, water up their calves. I chuckled when I saw people on a motorbike driving through the water. An announcement was looping through the city center via loudspeakers, but because it was in Vietnamese, I couldn’t understand what was being said.

Lan and her husband Tuyen were starting to move things to slightly higher ground. I decided to help them instead of drawing. At first, Lan tried to dismiss my help but eventually permitted me.

Maybe fifteen minutes later, just before 2pm, water broke through the threshold. It began lapping up onto the floor of the homestay. With a mop, Tuyen’s brother was at the ready, trying to push it back out. It was fruitless.

Around this time, the only other guest at the homestay, an Israeli named Noam, came downstairs. We chatted briefly. After it seemed everything had safely been moved to higher ground, I went back upstairs.

I Googled the flood online to see if other places had been affected as well. I saw on Reddit that eight people had died, getting caught in a flash flood (I imagine in the early hours of the flooding). I found out there were landslides and many people were stuck on their busses for 10+ hours, eventually returning to their original destinations. But really, I was having trouble finding current updates from actual news sources.

Then, with not much to do, I walked to the top of the staircase, where light was coming through the skylight. I spent the next two hours finishing a drawing. I didn’t think there was much chance the water could raise significantly higher, but I also didn’t have much experience with floods.

Deeper Water

When I finished my drawing and looked downstairs from the third floor, I felt I was in the Titanic. All I could see from the balcony was water. I went downstairs and saw a number of people in the process of moving things. Lan was in the bedroom, putting clothing in large plastic bags. She passed them off to me to bring to the second floor. They sell cigarettes at Siu’s Homestay, so we were transporting stacks and stacks of cartons onto higher floors. There must have been hundreds of cartons. In the end, I think all of them were saved.

By 7pm, the water level was still rising. Khai had come by to bring food for everyone – rice and meat, as well as a brothy soup in a drink cup. Khai had also brought me some food reserves (a few loaves of bread, milk), and a large powerbank, which ended up lasting me to the end of my stay in Cao Bằng thankfully.

The main crew ended up leaving maybe around 6pm but Lan, Tuyen, Noam, and I continued to move heirlooms, documents, and more items to higher ground through the better part of the evening. Noam and I were grossly fascinated by the rising of the water. We mused how high it could possibly rise. I asked him what they did with the wooden couch that had been there earlier. “It’s right there,” Noam said – and just the very top of it was visible. Maybe an hour later, it toppled over and began to float in the water. The table we had used for our dinner plates began floating, too.

We wondered if the water would reach up to the electrical outlets, which were about halfway up the ground floor. Sure enough, they did. Around the same time, the front door sensors started going off. With the water lapping around the sensors, the door constantly thought someone was trying to open the door. It ended up short-circuiting after 10min. It was eerie stuff.

Occasionally, during a lull in activity, I would go upstairs and look out the top floor balcony at the city below and the rising water level. All day long, I could see the bridge in the distance, with cars and motorbikes continuing to pass along it. Surely the entire city hadn’t been affected if people were still driving around the area. The bridge became a sort of symbol for me – while everyone else was passing by, I was stuck in the homestay with nowhere to go.

Around 9pm, we called it a night. I was going to remain in my room on the 3rd floor but Siu texted and said “water levels are expected to keep rising. Please move to a room on the 4th floor to feel more secure.” Lan and Tuyen, Noam, and I were all in separate rooms on the 4th floor. They were chuckling as I moved my stuff to their floor. We are all in this together.

It couldn’t possibly reach my floor, right? In any case, I moved my belongings onto the desks and tables to keep them off the ground.

I tried to sleep despite lack of air conditioning. It was warm. In the middle of the night, I would wake up periodically and touch my foot to the ground, seeing if water had entered yet. Thankfully, it had not.

Water Receding

I woke a number of times in the morning but decided to sleep as long as possible in hopes that when I finally did, the water would have lowered. I didn’t know how quickly the floodwater would take to drain out. A day? Five? Researching online, the answer was unclear. I couldn’t be sure what to expect.

The water had begun to recede by noon. Not by much, but it definitely had lowered a foot or two below the electrical outlets. Definitely an improvement from the night before.

I went up to the top floor balcony again and looked down below. There was so much garbage floating in the water. Garbage, old TVs. There was a mannequin body and even a fridge. I couldn’t believe something as heavy as a fridge could be floating like that. Unreal.

As news reports finally came in, I discovered that this flood was the worst in recent history. At first, I thought it was the worst since 1986 but later I found out this one was worse. Tuyen told me in his lifetime (52), he had never experienced something like this. Siu sent me an aerial photo from, I guess, the news, of the flooded city. I couldn’t believe it. The government had issued a Level 3 Disaster Risk, which is the highest level when it comes to issuing warnings. I read a story about a woman in Sa Pa who was on the roof of her (I imagine) one-story home, waiting with her children to be rescued. Another woman whose inventory was destroyed and she wondered how she would make a living for her family. Just devastating.

I saw Lan at one point and she gave me sticky rice and crushed peanuts wrapped in a banana leaf. The family and staff at Siu’s homestay were very good about taking care of me throughout the flood. While I wasn’t necessarily scared, I felt uncertain at times. Their generosity soothed me. They provided me with food and bottles of water throughout my stay. Khai waded through deep water a number of times to bring Noam, Lan, Tuyen, and me supplies.

That afternoon was a little chiller. I went to the upstairs balcony and just peered at the activity below. From afar, watching the people driving along the bridge. On my street, watching the water levels lowering like paint drying. I saw people throwing trash and ruined belongings out their front doors – only to float down the river and likely wind up somewhere else days later. Later in the day, I saw a couple of people floating along on kayaks.

Because the flood had completely covered the street, I was surprised to see the rows of bushes emerging from the water. I forgot they had been there in the first place.

I killed time by playing my Nintendo Switch until it died. I also had a nap.

By then, it was late afternoon. The water level had lowered enough and I heard activity downstairs. I went to see what was going on. Another group of people had come by to help rinse off furniture and mop the floors. I joined them. We spent the evening trying to clean up and get the mud off of everything. By the end of the night, the last puddles of water waded out the front door. Victory.

Khai brought dinner for our group. We ate together and shared laughs despite the language barrier. Cigarettes were passed around. Eventually, the staff/extended family that came to help left.

I felt very grateful that the water had left the building. Two days in. Still no power, even though the neighbors had theirs returned. I called my parents quickly to let them know I was okay. Before I went to bed, I noticed a huntsman spider was hanging out on the ceiling of the top bunk. While this was the first time I’ve seen a huntsman in the same room as me (and in the same space as where I was sleeping…) it just felt like par for the course. There were bigger fish to fry. I tried to pretend it wasn’t there and just went to sleep. Another hot night with lousy sleep, but we survived the flood. Thank God!

The Clean-Up

The next morning, the water had left the street and sunk back to the river edge. But I couldn’t have imagined the mess that was left behind. The street was just… mud. Mud and slush. Maybe a foot high. I saw people walking through it barefoot as they began to try and repair the mess of their homes. While I was able to step outside for the first time in two days, I felt there wasn’t anywhere for me to go easily. I didn’t want to get some skin infection from the nasty slush haha.

Throughout the day, government officials and volunteers came by with heavy machinery to try and clear the streets. It took all day, but eventually things were looking better.

Mid-day, I returned to the upstairs balcony (sort of my sanctuary), and I accidentally stumbled upon Siu praying. Khai was there, too. “Hello!” he said. I apologized for interrupting and pointed to the balcony. He said it was okay and I went out there. He joined me.

Khai pointed to the street below and with GoogleTranslate, explained to me, “tonight there is supposed to be a market along the street.” Really? Even with all this mud? I wondered. “But now everything is destroyed,” he added, which broke my heart. Was. There WAS supposed to be a market. Not anymore.

I know a lot of my family/friends were worried about me during the flood. And I am so glad I am okay. I think about Siu and her family, of the people of Cao Bằng that I saw cleaning their homes and the streets, and I think to myself… I am but a visitor here. When it was safe to leave the town, I was able to leave. But Siu and her family, the others – they are stuck with the aftermath. Everything they lost, their livelihoods affected, etc. While Siu’s family didn’t get out unscathed in terms of ruined belongings, I think they actually had it better than many others. I think of the cafe owners, the local produce vendors with only one floor. Their entire inventory was likely wiped out. It is really devastating and humbling.

After some back and forth via GoogleTranslate, Khai told me that we would have dinner tonight to celebrate. That sounded great to me. Throughout the whole affair, everyone was in relatively high spirits. I found that to be impressive. And what better to celebrate than surviving the flood?

By late afternoon, Noam and I decided to wade through the lingering slush to get to an ATM. We both wanted to grab more money and also get out of the building for the first time in days. It was refreshing. I walked around town for maybe half an hour. I would have walked more, but I wore flip flops from the homestay and they were too small for my feet lol.

I’m not sure what I was expecting. I guess because I saw people crossing the bridge every day, I thought the rest of the city wasn’t that affected. But everywhere I walked, people were hosing off their belongings, throwing things into piles on the street. The whole town had been compromised by the flood.

In the evening, Noam and I joined the family downstairs for dinner. Because we’d been eating for sustenance and not necessarily luxury, I was NOT expecting the spread laid out before me. It was an entire table filled with plates of food. There must have been twenty people seated around. Shots were poured and while I wasn’t able to drink (much to the chagrin of some), I did extend my cheers.

Everyone talked to one another in Vietnamese. Laughing, shouting, eating, drinking, shaking hands. Even Siu and her kids were there. A full family affair. While I wish I could have communicated with everyone better, I felt very special to have been invited to a seat at the dinner table.

Some people were getting HAMMERED. While I couldn’t drink, Noam told me he was definitely drunk after a few shots haha.

Eventually, the group thinned out. After eating, eating, eating, and then being urged to eat more (LOL), I stepped outside and joined a few others. Cigarettes were passed around. Noam pulled out GoogleTranslate and we began conversing with Tuyen more. He told us that we are always welcome back to Cao Bằng. He gestured the flood levels, how we were wading through the floodwater right along with him and the others, etc. Tuyen is such a character haha.

At the end of the night, it was Lan, her sister, Tuyen, his brother, Noam, and me. Lan peeled Indian mango and apples for us. After the chaos of a lively dinner, it felt quiet and intimate. The perfect way to end the night.

I had told Siu I would go to the ATM soon to get money for extending another night, but she told me she would let me stay free of charge through the end of the week if I needed. SO thoughtful and generous. She and her family just wanted me to be safe above anything else.

The Aftermath

Because I figured the roads were pretty much cleared, I booked the tour I initially came to Cao Bằng to do. There were two attractions I wanted to see in particular: God’s Eye Mountain but more importantly: Bản Giốc waterfall. I had seen a photo of Bản Giốc years ago and it (along with Ha Long Bay) were the two sights in Vietnam that I really, really wanted to see. When I asked the tour organizer if the waterfall had been viewable the day before, they said yes, just that the water levels were quite strong.

I was picked up at 7.30am and taken to the tour office. After a light breakfast, I met Monica, another tourist from Australia. We each had easyriders to take us to the various points of interest throughout the day. Mine’s name was Chu AKA Pikachu.

Our first spot of the day was, in fact, God’s Eye Mountain. We drove out of Cao Bằng City and, I have to admit, it felt good. Along the way, we passed more evidence of the flood’s destruction.

We split off from the main road and down through a small village. Rounding a corner, we arrived. God’s Eye Mountain! Basically a karst mountain with a hole in it, looking like an eye. Very cool! We spent time taking photos. Monica even put up her drone and got footage of the surrounding area. There was even a local and his (albino?) horse walking along the trail.

We continued along on the tour. Monica had her phone out constantly, filming things. She hadn’t gone on the Hà Giang Loop and didn’t plan to. While the scenery was beautiful, I was slightly underwhelmed compared to Hà Giang Loop. Although, I’m not sure much is going to compare to that region! Still, the farther we got from Cao Bằng City, the more impressive the landscapes.

We passed a lot of farmland. Many people were harvesting during that time. It was cool to see that in action. I wondered if there are always sections of crops to harvest throughout the year. For the most part, the main crop grown is just rice. Maybe this time of year in particular is the best time to observe locals harvesting. If that’s the case, I certainly picked an interesting time to be here!

An hour later, we arrived at our next stop, which was Tiger Cave. I’ve mentioned before – caves are cool but I’m not like SUPER into them or anything. But this one was great! It had a lot of interesting formations. Stalactites, stalagmites. Formations that looked like little rice terraces. But the thing that blew me away was that there was a raging river running through the cave. We weren’t able to get close to it at any point, but we could hear it rushing through the area.

The cave had a lot of unique formations but I think the most iconic is the Lotus stalactite, which basically looks like an upside-down lotus flower.

I was surprised that we were given the opportunity to take photos underneath the formation.

I actually really enjoyed the cave! But… what I was really looking forward to was the next attraction – the Bản Giốc waterfall!!!

We drove up to a viewpoint to get a perspective of the falls from a high elevation next to a Buddhist monastery. Waterfall aside, the view was gorgeous. On one side of the valley was Vietnamese mountain range, on the other, Chinese. Bản Giốc was situated at the border between the two countries.

Even from afar, it was easy to see that the waterfall was raging. Even this area, two hours north of Cao Bằng, had been affected by the flood.

Monica, like me, had been wanting to see Bản Giốc for a long time. Our guides cautioned us that the next stop might be closed. Huh… why? We saw heaps of people along the Chinese side, walking along the boardwalks and observation areas. The Vietnamese side had a few people, but hardly anyone at all. (Maybe government officials or people who snuck in.)

As luck would have it, access was closed. We got SO close but then weren’t permitted entry by one of the staff members of the area. Slightly devastating, but what can you do. “It’s too dangerous right now,” they said.

Instead, we drove up the street and pulled off. We climbed over the railing and stood near the edge of the hill, taking photos with a side view of the falls. Honestly, standing on the edge of the hill was probably more dangerous than walking along flat ground and avoiding some floodwater on the boardwalk, but whatever haha.

I learned later that on a good day, you can actually go on a boat tour that takes you right up to the waterfalls. China and Vietnam switch boat access at 10min intervals, so the borders are clear. I would have loved to do that. Maybe one day, I’ll visit the falls from the China side and go on the boat tour then. This time, I was not meant to.

After the falls, we stopped for lunch. Because the tour allotted a decent chunk of time at the waterfall, we had time to kill. I think Monica and I were both good, technically, having gotten our fill of what we wanted to see, but the guides kept trying to find nice areas to take us to. “We could go to Frontier Waterfall,” they said. Uhh, sure! That one was flooded too and just looked like a river. But we passed through the countryside and were able to see lovely, quaint spots of Northern Vietnam.

One of my favorites was a random stop along a bridge. The river flowed between two large karst mountains. At one point, a farmer walked by with her three water buffalo in front of her. Cute!

We ventured back to Cao Bằng City, debriefed at the tour office, and then Chu took me back to my homestay.

I told myself, if power isn’t back at the homestay, I will just get a night bus to Cát Bà. Well, the power wasn’t back on, but when I was about to buy tickets, I decided against it. I’m glad I decided to leave the next morning. Around 7pm, one of the staff, Deo, came up, and invited me down for rice. I had already eaten some of my food reserves but thought, sure, I’ll come be sociable for a bit.

But… where was the rice? Lan and Tuyen were outside. Tuyen gestured towards a car. Noam and I hopped in, unsure where the hell we were going. Noam had asked Deo if we should bring money, to which Deo shook his head.

We were escorted ten minutes by car and then brought to what was essentially a private banquet room. Lan, Tuyen, Tuyen’s brother, Deo, and… another woman and her child, whom I don’t know, all sat around the table. Food started coming in. There were ingredients for rolling our own spring rolls, hot pot with goat boiling in the center of the table, various other meats around the table… and honestly, I have no idea what probably 80% of the stuff I was eating was. But I went with it! At one point, a bowl of something red was placed in front of me. “I think this is blood pudding,” Noam mused. I decided not to question what was inside such a dish, but I’m pretty sure it involved blood haha. It wasn’t bad, though!

More shots (I cheers’d with a shot of Pepsi lol), more cigarettes. Tuyen took his shirt off because it was warm in the banquet room lol. Wild times.

At one point, Tuyen got a phone call and then pointed to the lights, then outside the door. “The power is back on?” Noam asked. “At Siu?” I asked. “Mm-hmm,” Tuyen nodded. “WHOOHOO!” I cheered, which made Lan laugh. It felt fitting that the power should be restored on this day, the day where all of us had left the homestay for the first time since the flood began.

Some people came and left. Lan was around for a while but then disappeared for thirty minutes. Same with Tuyen’s brother.

After maybe an hour and a half, we left the dinner and returned to our homestay. Unfortunately, power wasn’t fully restored. Some rooms had power, but others were kind of only 5% on. Definitely some kind of weird electrical issue.

I used GoogleTranslate to tell Tuyen I would be leaving early in the morning, and if the doors would be open. He took a photo of the lock and showed me how to leave the building. I told him that I am so grateful for the kindness of him and his family, for taking care of me, for feeding me, etc. I told him I will never forget them. Tuyen read it, nodded, gave me a thumbs up, and said, “okay! Okay,” as he often did. He shook my hand and we went to sleep.

I had a hard time sleeping that night and had to be up early for a long, long bus ride to Cát Bà. But, I did it. I gathered my belongings and left Siu’s homestay.

And while I may have left, I think I’ll always remember my time in Cao Bằng. That time I got trapped during a flood in Cao Bằng. The concept of flooding was unfamiliar and unnerving to me. I didn’t know what to expect. Lan, Tuyen, Siu, Khai, and all the others… they have certainly left their mark on me. Despite the severity of the situation, they took care of me as one of their own. I know how fortunate I am to have just been a traveler passing through, only temporarily inconvenienced – while others livelihoods were severely impacted. I keep saying it, but that’s because it’s true: it was devastating to witness so much loss, mess, and destruction. Things could have turned out much worse for me but I survived. I am not taking that for granted.

To think I came for a quick visit to see some waterfall, and left with a story to be told for the rest of my life.

(As an aside, Sui let me know power has since returned to the homestay. Yay! I left a raving review on Agoda/GoogleMaps and sent it to her to pass along to her family. She responded, telling me that my words brought warmth and tears to their hearts. She said if I ever come back to Cao Bằng to see her family, I will be welcomed back as one of their own. How lovely.)

Miscellaneous

I had the weirdest experience getting from Cao Bằng to Cát Bà. Well, really it was just the driver that was bizarre. I thought that the van was taking me from Cao Bằng directly to Cát Bà. Maybe two hours in, the driver tried asking me where in Hanoi I was going. “Hanoi? I’m going to Cát Bà.” I pulled up the translation for him. “No. Hanoi, Hanoi!” Uhhhhh. I ended up contacting my point of contact for the bus ticket. “The driver is saying the van is going to Hanoi? Do I transfer somewhere?” He responded that yes, the driver would drop me off at the office and then they’d take me to Cát Bà on another bus. Um, okay, that was not clear at all. He then said he talked to the driver. Well, later, I wanted to be clear, and I pulled up the location of the office. The driver seemed very annoyed by this. When we got to Hanoi, he basically tried to drop me off on the side of the road. “It’s saying it’s 25min from here,” I said. “You take Grab,” he said. “But… no… I’m supposed to get dropped off at the office?” Another guest on the bus could speak some English, so he tried to translate for me. I messaged my contact again, trying to explain the situation to him. Eventually, the driver paid for a Grab scooter to take me to the office. I tell you… that motorbike ride through the crazy streets of Hanoi was certainly an experience. I think, in hindsight, the driver just didn’t want to deal with the traffic of Hanoi Old Quarter. But still, I booked a ticket that was supposed to take me directly to the office! (Actually, directly to Cát Bà as far as I understood.) Crazy stuff. I ended up making it safely to my connection and a couple hours later, arrived at my accommodation in Cát Bà.

Art of the Week

This is the piece I drew during the flooding of Cao Bằng. I was inspired by the hard-working women/people in the farms. I tried to incorporate the H’mong style of clothing, the Asian farm hat, etc. And of course, sunflowers. When I finished the drawing, Lan had seen it and seemed to be commenting on it. Tuyen referenced it a few times as well. When I left Cao Bằng, I left the drawing behind for them both.

Reflections

Boy, was it nice to have a shower once I got to Cát Bà! Much needed after having very limited water supply in Cao Bằng.

It has definitely been a crazy ass week. I felt very disconnected from the outside world while trapped at the homestay. But, as mentioned earlier, it was a lasting memory. What an experience! And I’m so glad to be okay.

I will be in/around Cát Bà for the next several days. Today is a heavy rain day as there was another nearby typhoon passing through the area. I am waiting for the weather to clear up and then will be going on an overnight tour of Lan Ha and Ha Long bays. After that, I will spend a few nights in Cát Bà National Park.

But for now, I am just going to relax in my accommodation and enjoy the modern pleasures of air conditioning and electricity.

Until next time, sending you all my love. x