The DMZ

---

Once again we were awake before sunrise with Jo stirring me into conciousness at 0530. Our tour of the demilitarised zone would take us 90kms back towards Hanoi and left from our hotel at 0600.

A girl pulled up on a scooter and put us into a taxi for the three minute drive to where we had breakfast. We both had Pho but it was pretty average, with 2 minute noodles instead of the rice noodles we had become accustomed to. The coffee was excellent – as it had been everywhere in Vietnam. Mine was served in a glass with a layer of sweetened condensed milk at the bottom of it. The mix of the sweetness against the super strong coffee was divine.

We had to wait until after 0700 for the bus to collect us and we didn’t get into Dong Ha for a five minute rest until 0900. We still had some miles to complete but about 40 minutes later we pulled up at the side of Highway 9 to look at The Rockpile, a 230m high hill that had once been of key importance to US troops who used the high ground to keep an eye on what was happening in the north. It is inaccessible from the ground so helicopters used to ferry troops and supplies to the top.

Next up was Dakrong Bridge, The structure we saw was rebuilt in 2001 but back in the height of the Vietnam War it was a key crossroads on what has since become known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail – a series of key logistical routes connecting the north with Communist sympathisers and combatants in the south.

The highlight of the morning was a visit to the old American combat base at Khe Sanh. Most of it has been turned into coffee fields by the government but a small museum, a plane, helicopters and tanks remain. Khe Sanh was one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war and was set up by the communists as a diversion for the southerners whilst a major offensive took place elsewhere.

The museum consisted of only some photos and a few bits of clothing but I noticed on one of the pilots helmets the name J Pearce had been engraved. It’s easy to throw around the numbers killed in Vietnam (500 US Troops, 10,000 North Vietnamese troops and countless civilians died at Khe Sanh alone) but putting a name to something somehow made it more real.

A couple of older blokes wandered around selling memorabilia that they claimed had been found on the battlefields. There is an industry in these parts that takes new metallic objects and makes them look old. I’m not sure how many of the 20 or so people on our bus bought any but I was pleased to not be amongst them. although on the way back out the gate we picked up coffee beans produced at Khe Sanh – D80,000 (NZ$5).

The trip back to Dong Ha took 80 minutes – most of which I spent listening to the Tour of Duty Soundtrack on the iPod. We passed on the tour lunch as we haven’t yet had a good lunch on a day trip anywhere in the world and we haven’t been charged fair prices at said places either. We found a dodgy looking cafe and were served a plate of unknown green vegetables, a bowl of soup, two plates of rice and a beer for D110,000 (NZ$7). We returned to catch up with the tour group who were all in the process of paying at least that amount each for what looked to be a similar meal.

The first stop out of Dong Ha was another old American site – Doc Mieu Base where absolutely nothing would suggest it was of any importance at all. There was a war themed statue that was clearly erected after the war. One of the (many) things I hate about being on a tour is the inability to stop where ever and when ever I want to. The old border between North and South Vietnam was the Ben Hai River. Our guide told us some info on a statue on the south side of the river but we didn’t stop. Our driver did slow down as we went over the divide but again, we didn’t stop even for a quick photo. For what it’s worth the statue on the south side was of the typical communist concrete style and portrayed a mother and her children looking north over the river to see their husband and father. A simple flagpole stands at the north side, god forbid having the man looking longingly back to the imperialist south. The river looked like a river.

The final actual stop of the tour was Vinh Moc Tunnels. As the yanks spray bombed this area just north of the 17th Parallel the locals had few places to go, so they dug. Just before the entrance to the tunnels was a museum with a model of the tunnels and several photos… one of which was of babies that had been born in the tunnels. The museum’s mute caretaker was one of these babies and he posed for a photo.

Another guide took us to one of the entrances and we descended. The Vietnamese are not known as a tall race. I don’t want to generalise here but it’s fair to say I am quite possibly both the tallest and widest person in Vietnam at the moment. At the absolute highest parts I could almost stand with my head to the side but this was in two very specific parts of the 500 metres of tunnel that we saw. For the majority of it I was at right angles from the hip, my head some three feet in front of my feet. Aside from the heat and the claustrophobic feel, the tunnels were quite incredible.

At times the network could hold 90 families and it had it’s own hospital area with maternity ward. It is built on three levels ranging from 12 metres to 23 metres in depth. The amazing thing is that almost every village on the north side of the DMZ had similar tunnels so there are scores of them in the area running parallel with the Ben Hai River.

We emerged hot, sweaty and far from ready for the three hour bus trip back into Hue. Having had a fairly fine day given the rainfall the previous day, we were surprised to find the street that our hotel is on completely under water. The centre was about a foot deep and it got to almost two feet in the gutters, enough to overflow onto the footpath and come up to the first step up to the hotel. When one of the few cars in Hue came through it created a bow wave that lapped a step higher again. A young boy of no more than three years old whose mother worked in the cafe kept running off and playing at the roadside – much to the disgust of his mum.

We ordered the prawn and squid pizza again (superb) and added some divine pork spring rolls to mix it up a bit. Whilst eating we got chatting to one of the waiters, a 19 year old student called Banh. He goes to university during the days and works at the cafe until 2230 every night before riding his motorbike home. His plan is to become a tour guide and going by the level of English some of our “guides” on the trip so far, he’ll go a long way. He’s a very proud Vietnamese citizen and we enjoyed chatting about everything from how land is distributed to the price of scooters – US$1000 for anyone who’s interested. It was a great chance to hear more about real life in Vietnam, something we missed in Cuba as the locals were not allowed to mix with tourists.

The day had caught up with us and we were in our room by 2000. If the river outside had become a street again, we hoped we could finally see the Hue Citadel early in the morning before the tropical rains started.

---