The American War (DMZ tour)

Our day started with a wonderful breakfast-same as yesterday-but this time I requested the mulberry drink from yesterday. It wasn't on the menu but was delicious. I realized the jams were mango & passion fruit-not pineapple & fig. I ate the bread as a delivery method for the jam. We finished breakfast just in time for our DMZ tour. 

We set up a tour with Mr. Cu from the Mandarin cafe. Since we were the last two picked up & the van was semi-full, I thought Chris and I were going to have to separate as there wern't two seats together-the driver opened the doors to the front seats. We had our own individual air vents-no car sickness & no sweating. Heaven. This was probably the nicest vehicle we've travelled in here. 

I understand that we are touring a former war zone. Where I come to take photos as a tourist is the place where blood was shed & lives were lost for the cause of freedom.

We rode for about an hour before we picked up our English speaking guide in Dong Ha. This city has been flattened by bombs during the conflict as it was close to the DMZ (demilitarized zone-the line that separated North from South Vietnam). Amazing life's desire to continue-the area is green & lush & thriving. Our guide's cadence of the English language made her quite difficult to understand. My brain was about a sentence behind what she was saying. I also finally figured out that VC was Viet Cong & NVA was North Vietnamese Army. I'll be the first to admit I need to educate myself more as an American in regards to the conflicts/wars we've been involved in. That however in no way diminishes my gratitude for those who have fought & served in our armed forces. If we'd planned this trip more in advance, I probably would have read up & inquired with family members who lived during this era. 

Our first stop was to the Rock Pile which was the US Marine base during the conflict. From what I gathered, there was a 2 meter area on top of the hill (designated by the flag if you zoom in on the photo) where US helicopters used to land. 

We then pulled off the side of the rode at an "ethnic minority village." I already felt like a tourist without this awkward gawking moment. Thanks, but no thanks. 

Our next stop was to the Ho Chi Minh trail. I was expecting a dirt path with foliage on each side. I was sorely disappointed-as the trail has since been paved & is now the road!!

They do have a nice monument to the HMC trail. 

This part of the trail crossed a river & had a pretty significant bridge. We all took a myriad of photos-thinking this was the Ben Hai river which separated the North from the South and that we were at the DMZ. 

I thought it was the DMZ but was too shy (imagine that) to ask, afraid our guide had already explained it & that I was the one who misunderstood her accent. At lunch we saw a map-we hadn't gone near the DMZ-that was just the Cam Lo River and that was just a bridge. Imagine the laugh we all had over that. 

Our last stop pre-lunch was also the best: Khe Sanh base. The US spent extensive resources defending this base which included an airstrip. It is now a museum and coffee is grown in the outlying areas. The museum includes several US airplanes & helicopters. We finally figured out how to use the selfie stick. 

(A tank photo for Uncle Mike.)

There were some bomb relics. Our guide kept telling us the volume of bombs dropped on the area. One statistic was 7000 tons per person. 

There are still trenches & bunkers. 

I couldn't help but think about those who served in these trenches. The fear, anticipation, and raw emotion held in these trenches they were filled with our service men. I'm sure our Vietnam Vets have quite different memories of this base. 

Maybe this is the most accurate picture of all: 

We returned to Dong Ha for lunch. I had Chinese noodles with beef. It was really good. Chris had beef & rice-with iced coffee. 

We loaded back into the car headed to the DMZ. Oddly enough we did not stop at the DMZ-just drove slowly. You can see the different colors (yellow & blue) on the demarcation signifying the two former sides.

There is also a statue to peace that was built after the reunification of Vietnam. 

We did remember to take a DMZ selfie when we passed over the line a second time. 

I was hoping for a bit more fanfare. As Chris pointed out, we'd need to head to Korea to see an active DMZ. Noted. 

The big event of the afternoon was the Vinh Noc tunnels. These were lived in by North Vietnamese villagers during the war to protect themselves from heavy artillerary they received. The Vietnamese who lived in this area during the war tried to come up for air at least twice a day-morning & night-17 children were born in these tunnels.  Some tunnels went as deep as 23 meters. Each family had a little room-talk about tiny houses. We moved through (wasn't tall enough to walk through-more like a hunched over shuffle) the mid level and lowest level tunnels for about 20 minutes-ending at the ocean. 

Upon exiting we had just a glimpse of what the folks in the tunnel must have felt like when they came up for air. By the time we surfaced we were sweaty. I should also mention that this was the first time we broke a sweat all day-something very unfamiliar to us on this trip. 

We crossed back over the DMZ & onto a mass unmarked grave. The memorial was very Soviet & reminded me of some in Kharkiv (minus the tomb stones).

We had a pleasant journey. There were many times we had to stop for cows in the road. We passed many rice fields along the way & saw people working in them. Some rice filed a were green & lush & others looked more like muddy bogs. I simply enjoyed looking out the window. 

As our route entered foliage, we noticed a lot of butterflies-more than I've seen at any butterfly sanctuary or exhibit. They were light yellow and would flutter across the road in groups. Our vehicle would hit them-much like smashing bugs on the windshield. I'm sure Chris and I looked like fools trying to capture them in a photo via the windshield in a moving vehicle. 

Can't see them? It's like our photo of President Bush, trust me, they're there. 

The other memorable part about this journey was the horn. The horn in Vietnam is used multiple different ways: I'm here don't hit me, move over, go faster, I'm going through the intersection, I see you, etc. The horn is also used for blind corners to let oncoming traffic know you are there. To get to the tunnels we took a single lane windy road for about 10 minutes. That translates into almost continuous honking of the horn. We think our driver was a bit aggressive on the horn. 

We returned to Hué & basked in the air con for a couple of hours while planning our following journeys. We have a lot of work to do-and we haven't even read about Thailand!!

I heard drum beats-which continued so I opened the balcony & saw a Chinese dragon go by along with a small processional. At that point I realized how lovely it was outside & we headed to Xuan Trang for dinner. Being EuroCup, the first floor was filled with local young men-great that it's a local place, but I was hesitant to grab a seat. Chris asked if we could sit upstairs on the balcony-this place had wonderful atmosphere. I felt like we were on a date night!!

I decided to order local from the Hue page & had bánh Hué. The menu describes it as rice flour + pork, shrimp, & fish sauce. 

I was so adventurous & for the first time was disappointed-I do not eat gelatinous meats. Once I opened up those banana leaves, I found what I thought was a gold fish in rice flour gel-thankfully it was a shrimp. It was really really chewy & after one bite I couldn't keep going. I had one of everything & eventually performed surgery to extract the shrimp from the gel.

Thankfully Chris' dinner was much more appetizing. He got the beef hot pot for only $4!! This is a boiling pot of soup and you place thinly sliced raw meats in the pot to cook. You can add greens & rice noodles to make a soup. I've had it in Japan & it's one of the BEST MEALS I've ever had. We both ate the beef hot pot. 

And after my disaster, I needed something sweet so we ended the night with a banana pancake drizzled in chocolate. 

We swung by the store with posted prices & bought enough water for our travels. It was a lovely end to a wonderful day (and one heck of a long blog post).