It is 6am when the alarm goes off and I open my eyes in my beautiful room. I slept well and feel good this morning. I have a long shower and go downstairs to have breakfast. I see the receptionist from last night and ask again about the pick-up time. She confirms that I'll be picked up at 8am. Great! After breakfast I go back to my room to pack a small backpack to take with me to the DMZ. We will be away all day, so I take some bottles of water and juice with me.
I go downstairs at 7:55am and have the feeling that the promised 8am will rather be 8:30am, as it usually is. But, at 8am sharp, a young Vietnamese man appears outside, we look and give each other a conspiratorial nod and before the receptionist can say that he has come for me, I walk to the entrance without saying a word to put on my shoes and to follow him.
We walk through the alley and reach the main road where a minibus is waiting. Unfortunately it is not one of those posh minibuses with superior comfort, but it is a shabby one. The sliding door opens and I see that some people are already there. We greet each other and I take the seat behind the driver. We drive around the area to pick up some others and at the last stop the young Vietnamese man says goodbye to us, wishes us a pleasant day, jumps on a scooter and rides away.
The driver of the minibus steps on the throttle and off we are. We leave Hue behind us a few minutes later and I get dizzy and sleepy due to the heat, humidity and the noise. I close my eyes and doze off for a while and think that I should have gone to Dong Ha and done the tour from there instead. Why? Because Dong Ha is a lot closer to the DMZ and you get to see much more. If you do the tour from Hue, you'll spend most of the day driving around.
Another option would be to take a private driver instead of going by minibus. My reasons for not taking a private driver are: a) I want to meet some other people and b) the cost. While the minibus tour is just 11 - 12 Pounds the private car including driver costs 90+ Pounds. Besides, as I find out, you get to visit the same places.
What I failed to ask yesterday is, where we will go today. I open my eyes at some point and realise that we are driving northwest instead of north. I ask the person next to me if he knows where we are going, but he has no clue. I ask some others, but nobody has a clue. I turn to the driver and ask for the air con to be switched on, but he doesn't understand. I type air con in the dictionary and show it to him. He replies that there's no air con. Great! I ask him to open the window but he doesn't understand. I knock on his window, as I am sitting behind him and now he gets it. Finally some fresh air! I doze off again and wake up when we stop somewhere in a village or a small town. The front right door opens and a lady with a big hat gets in. She says something to the driver and off we are. She turns around to greet and to introduce herself. I forget her name immediately and by simply looking at her and listening at the way she speaks I get the impression that she works for the government. I will ask her later if she does, but she will say that she doesn't and put on a cheeky smile. She will ask me why I am asking and I will tell her that her English is really good and that I once read that tourist guides are civil servants (I have never read that).
She tells us the stops and the places we will visit today and also shares the recent history of the country. That is the last 80 - 90 years, but focuses on the war between North and South, the 1980s and a bit the more recent years. I don't understand most of what she says, not because of her English, no, it is really good, but because I feel dizzy and sleepy.
It is the passion she shows while talking that makes me believe that she works for the government. It is the vocabulary she uses, those bloomy words, the fire in her eyes, that style of speech communists use when they talk about their countries and leaders. Watch the North Korean band Moranbong on YouTube and put subtitles on to see what I mean.
We make another stop to have something to eat. There are only three things on the menu, Pho, rice with chicken and noodles. I take the noodles. I buy some chocolates and a can of diet Pepsi for later and wait for the others to finish. Half an hour later, we are back on the road to Khe Sanh Combat Base. But before that we stop at a settlement to take some photos from afar and then at the Dakrong Bridge.
At the settlement, we stop for not even five minutes, because we don't have much time and because it is raining a bit. When we get back onboard, my eyes fall on a button on the dashboard and I ask the lady what that is. She says that it is the A/C. There's air con? I ask. Yes, she replies and asks whether we want to have it on. Yes, we do. It is so much better with the A/C on!
The current incarnation of the Dakrong Bridge was built in 1975 after reunification. Just west of the main DMZ zone, the bridge was considered the beginning of the Ho Chi Minh Trail network, and during the years of conflict with the United States, this access point was hotly contested. The Dakrong Bridge fell many times. Now it's a grand suspension bridge, a proud thumbed nose as if to say, "You can't knock down my bridge anymore." The road to the bridge leads to the border with Laos, and even the overnight buses that take intrepid travelers over this route will stop for a good look at the bridge, which heads south (buses continue on the main road west to Laos). Across the bridge is a small village that's a popular stop for tour groups, and where most buses turn around and head back to the main highway. The stunning scenery all along Highway 9 is worth the ride.
The Ho Chi Minh Trail is a concept, not a road. The trail was a vast network, spread across hundreds of miles of terrain extending far into the interior of Laos, a broad avenue of hundreds of kilometers of trails that brought supplies to North Vietnamese troops, by hook or by crook, usually on the backs of porters or with giant loads precariously perched on overlaid bicycles. You might call it "the path of least resistance," or the "road less bombed or occupied," really. The trail starts in Quang Tri Province, basically anything from the Dakrong Bridge south, and the Americans were constantly trying to foil the Viet Cong and Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap's relentless end-run around the front line to stage attacks in the south.
Source: https://www.frommers.com/destinations/hue/attractions/the-dakrong-bridge-and-the-ho-chi-monh-trail
After a short ride, half an hour I believe, I don't know exactly because I doze off again, the driver takes a right turn to Khe Sanh Combat Base. An epic battle took place between January and July 1968. You can read all about it here, or here. and here. Or watch a film here.
As you can see from the photos, the atmosphere is oppressive, depressive and gloomy. It is a vast area with all those military relics and hardly any people. There are very few others besides us and the silence is deafening. You walk around and can't even imagine that half a century ago this was a battlefield.
We then continue our journey across the river that used to be the border between North and South Vietnam. Unfortunately there is no stop planned on the bridge and in the adjacent area. We complain about it, but the guide says that there is no time. The driver drives as slowly across the bridge as possible, so we can take a few photos. There are still the North and South Vietnam flags on either side to remind you which territory you enter.
A highly impressive complex of tunnels, Vinh Moc is the remains of a coastal North Vietnamese village that literally went underground in response to unremitting American bombing. More than 90 families disappeared into three levels of tunnels running for almost 2km, and continued to live and work while bombs rained down around them. Most of the tunnels are open to visitors and are kept in their original form (except for electric lights, a more recent addition).
An English-speaking guide will accompany you around the complex, pointing out the 12 entrances until you emerge at a glorious beach that faces the South China Sea (East Sea). The museum has photos and relics of tunnel life, including a map of the tunnel network. The Vinh Moc tunnels are often compared to the Cu Chi tunnels, which are more cramped and humid, and were intended for soldiers, not civilians.
Source: Lonely Planet
This is an asian lady walking ahead of me and the Vietnamese lady is in front of here. As you can see, the tunnels are narrow and low, as they were made for Vietnamese. You'll have a hard time walking around if you're a tall (6.2") bloke like me. Reconsider entering if you have love handles, as it is quite narrow. No worries if you're East Asian.
After spending a few minutes outside, we go back into the tunnels and continue our tour. It takes a while until we are through. It is amazing to see where and how people lived. They had everything they needed in there, even a school. There are some other tunnels in Vietnam and the Americans didn't have a clue they existed.
You can read a bit more about these tunnels here.
When we are out of the tunnels, I feel sweaty, tired and my heart is beating like crazy due to the humidity and the bending down all the time. I take a bottle of water from my rucksack, but it is hot and I can't drink it. There are some stands on the way out, all are run by ladies, and they try hard to sell their products when they see us. They tried when we arrived, but nobody bought anything. Now, some of us are thirsty, so we ask for water and get a heart attack when they tell us the price. They want 20.000 Dong for a small bottle of water, which in proper money may not be much as it is only 70p (GBP), but it is four times as much as you would pay in the supermarket.
We walk back to the minibus and drive towards the bridge between North and South, but there's no stop, the driver drives as slowly as possible and we manage to take some photos.
There is a graveyard shortly after the bridge and we make a stop there for a quarter of an hour. I miss half of the guide's speech because I need to answer some emails, but if I got it correctly, people who died in the war are buried here and some graves are empty because the corpses were never found.
After the short stop at the graveyard, the lady tells us that we are heading back to Hue. We pass by her place and she says goodbye and gets off. We continue and stop somewhere in Hue and the young man from this morning gets in and directs the driver around to our accommodations.
I go to my room to leave my rucksack and then walk a bit around in search of a place to have dinner. It is dark when I finish dinner and a bit cooler than during the day, so I walk a little around before I return to my hotel. I fill up the bath tub, lie in, close my eyes and think of all the things I saw today. I drift into the land of Morpheus and wake up a few hours later. Dry myself and go to sleep.
Have a good night everyone!
I go downstairs at 7:55am and have the feeling that the promised 8am will rather be 8:30am, as it usually is. But, at 8am sharp, a young Vietnamese man appears outside, we look and give each other a conspiratorial nod and before the receptionist can say that he has come for me, I walk to the entrance without saying a word to put on my shoes and to follow him.
We walk through the alley and reach the main road where a minibus is waiting. Unfortunately it is not one of those posh minibuses with superior comfort, but it is a shabby one. The sliding door opens and I see that some people are already there. We greet each other and I take the seat behind the driver. We drive around the area to pick up some others and at the last stop the young Vietnamese man says goodbye to us, wishes us a pleasant day, jumps on a scooter and rides away.
The driver of the minibus steps on the throttle and off we are. We leave Hue behind us a few minutes later and I get dizzy and sleepy due to the heat, humidity and the noise. I close my eyes and doze off for a while and think that I should have gone to Dong Ha and done the tour from there instead. Why? Because Dong Ha is a lot closer to the DMZ and you get to see much more. If you do the tour from Hue, you'll spend most of the day driving around.
Another option would be to take a private driver instead of going by minibus. My reasons for not taking a private driver are: a) I want to meet some other people and b) the cost. While the minibus tour is just 11 - 12 Pounds the private car including driver costs 90+ Pounds. Besides, as I find out, you get to visit the same places.
What I failed to ask yesterday is, where we will go today. I open my eyes at some point and realise that we are driving northwest instead of north. I ask the person next to me if he knows where we are going, but he has no clue. I ask some others, but nobody has a clue. I turn to the driver and ask for the air con to be switched on, but he doesn't understand. I type air con in the dictionary and show it to him. He replies that there's no air con. Great! I ask him to open the window but he doesn't understand. I knock on his window, as I am sitting behind him and now he gets it. Finally some fresh air! I doze off again and wake up when we stop somewhere in a village or a small town. The front right door opens and a lady with a big hat gets in. She says something to the driver and off we are. She turns around to greet and to introduce herself. I forget her name immediately and by simply looking at her and listening at the way she speaks I get the impression that she works for the government. I will ask her later if she does, but she will say that she doesn't and put on a cheeky smile. She will ask me why I am asking and I will tell her that her English is really good and that I once read that tourist guides are civil servants (I have never read that).
She tells us the stops and the places we will visit today and also shares the recent history of the country. That is the last 80 - 90 years, but focuses on the war between North and South, the 1980s and a bit the more recent years. I don't understand most of what she says, not because of her English, no, it is really good, but because I feel dizzy and sleepy.
It is the passion she shows while talking that makes me believe that she works for the government. It is the vocabulary she uses, those bloomy words, the fire in her eyes, that style of speech communists use when they talk about their countries and leaders. Watch the North Korean band Moranbong on YouTube and put subtitles on to see what I mean.
We make another stop to have something to eat. There are only three things on the menu, Pho, rice with chicken and noodles. I take the noodles. I buy some chocolates and a can of diet Pepsi for later and wait for the others to finish. Half an hour later, we are back on the road to Khe Sanh Combat Base. But before that we stop at a settlement to take some photos from afar and then at the Dakrong Bridge.
At the settlement, we stop for not even five minutes, because we don't have much time and because it is raining a bit. When we get back onboard, my eyes fall on a button on the dashboard and I ask the lady what that is. She says that it is the A/C. There's air con? I ask. Yes, she replies and asks whether we want to have it on. Yes, we do. It is so much better with the A/C on!
First stop at the settlement
A minority lives in this area (don't ask me which, I don't get the name) and if you look at the houses, you'll see that the ground floor is for animals and the first floor for the people. They live amid their fields and have everything they need around them.
Dakrong Bridge
The Ho Chi Minh Trail is a concept, not a road. The trail was a vast network, spread across hundreds of miles of terrain extending far into the interior of Laos, a broad avenue of hundreds of kilometers of trails that brought supplies to North Vietnamese troops, by hook or by crook, usually on the backs of porters or with giant loads precariously perched on overlaid bicycles. You might call it "the path of least resistance," or the "road less bombed or occupied," really. The trail starts in Quang Tri Province, basically anything from the Dakrong Bridge south, and the Americans were constantly trying to foil the Viet Cong and Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap's relentless end-run around the front line to stage attacks in the south.
Source: https://www.frommers.com/destinations/hue/attractions/the-dakrong-bridge-and-the-ho-chi-monh-trail
We salute you
The museum
We then continue our journey across the river that used to be the border between North and South Vietnam. Unfortunately there is no stop planned on the bridge and in the adjacent area. We complain about it, but the guide says that there is no time. The driver drives as slowly across the bridge as possible, so we can take a few photos. There are still the North and South Vietnam flags on either side to remind you which territory you enter.
Entering the north
An English-speaking guide will accompany you around the complex, pointing out the 12 entrances until you emerge at a glorious beach that faces the South China Sea (East Sea). The museum has photos and relics of tunnel life, including a map of the tunnel network. The Vinh Moc tunnels are often compared to the Cu Chi tunnels, which are more cramped and humid, and were intended for soldiers, not civilians.
Source: Lonely Planet
This is one of the entrances
In the museum
Another entrance. It will be our exit.
Before we enter, the Vietnamese lady tells us what we are going to see, the distance we're going to walk and how long it will take. She also says that it is hot and humid and if someone doesn't want to do the full tour or won't be able to do it, they can leave somewhere half way.
The way in
Some sculptures to demonstrate life in the tunnels
Light at the end of the tunnel.
The way out if you can't do the full tour. Two people leave us here.
A well
The Sea
You can read a bit more about these tunnels here.
When we are out of the tunnels, I feel sweaty, tired and my heart is beating like crazy due to the humidity and the bending down all the time. I take a bottle of water from my rucksack, but it is hot and I can't drink it. There are some stands on the way out, all are run by ladies, and they try hard to sell their products when they see us. They tried when we arrived, but nobody bought anything. Now, some of us are thirsty, so we ask for water and get a heart attack when they tell us the price. They want 20.000 Dong for a small bottle of water, which in proper money may not be much as it is only 70p (GBP), but it is four times as much as you would pay in the supermarket.
We walk back to the minibus and drive towards the bridge between North and South, but there's no stop, the driver drives as slowly as possible and we manage to take some photos.
South Vietnam
Our guide for today.
I go to my room to leave my rucksack and then walk a bit around in search of a place to have dinner. It is dark when I finish dinner and a bit cooler than during the day, so I walk a little around before I return to my hotel. I fill up the bath tub, lie in, close my eyes and think of all the things I saw today. I drift into the land of Morpheus and wake up a few hours later. Dry myself and go to sleep.
Have a good night everyone!
