Blogs from Dong Ha, Quang Tri, North Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia - page 3

When we got off in Dong Hoi, at first i really did not want to stop and see the dmz. We had sppent the previous day on a 3 hour boat ride, 3 and hald hour bus ride, and then a 14 hour overnight bus ride. I was tired, but we decided in the long run it was better not to back track the next day. Our tour guide hoa was awesome. He breifed us on a little of vietnam history as we drove to our first sight, an american observation tower. He told us the history of the tower, there was no fighting by american at the tower but only a place for high officals to look around. However the jungle around the watch tower had been destroyed by american bombs prior to americans setting ... read more

Day 247, 2nd February DMZ at coast - Truong Son - Cam Lo Nick and Rory woke us at 7.30am after their camping suareé in the DMZ, they’d not been blown up by un-exploded stuff, and we were on the road just afterwards. We looked on the nearby Ben Hai estuary, and beyond to the south was and endless white sandy beach stretching into South Vietnam. As we were looking south, we notice that the bluff we were standing on was actually a bunker, and that there were loads of overgrown trenches, many with rusting remnants of barbed-wire from the war time. We continued along country roads, paralelling the Ben Hai river. There was nowhere selling food until we reached the main road, and then it was a short ride to the bridge crossing the Ben ... read more

Well hello lads and lassies I just spent the last hr writing a really nice travel blog only for when i was just about to publish it. did the whole thing get lost on me and now i am ready to pull my hair out!! God somethings never change and one of those things is how much i hate computers or more like of how much they hate me (and i have never done anything to them to deserve this hatred honest!!!) Well anyway how are ye all doing?? hope that that November weather is treating ye all well. While i on the other hand am suffering from the problem of too much sun and pealing a bit. It's a tough life!! ha ha So i am still in Vietnam and i have been here nearly ... read more

Tuesday 12th September 2006 Today were heading to the DMZ, unabbreviated the De-Milerterized Zone. This was the main reason for us stopping off in Hue. The Ben Hai River served as the border between North and South Vietnam during the war and 5km either side of the river was the DMZ. It spread the entire width of Vietnam, from the Loas border to the South China Sea. Ironically, it became one of the most militarized areas ever. It was a few ours north of Hue so we took a tour to check it out. We visited several areas, namely the sight of former Khe Sanh combat base, ‘The Rockpile’ and Dakrong Bridge. We also got to observe, how high up on the mountain tops despite efforts of reforestation, the top of the mountains remain bare of ... read more

We took a short day trip to see the De-Militarized Zone or what was left of it after the Americans had finished! It was interesting to see the Vietnamese version of how the events of the war of the North against the South unfolded. The DMZ stretches for around 5 km either side of the Ben Hai River. This river is the official border between the North and the South of Vietnam. It is quite interesting how petty it used to get between the two regions. The North would paint the bridge one colour, then the South would re-paint it another. This continued back and forth until they agreed to actually divide the bridge and paint each respective half their preferred colour. Other ways in which they would compete were: building and rebuilding flag towers in ... read more