DMZ - or "Zed" If You Prefer!

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Well, at long last our streak of beautiful weather came to end, as all good things must. Tuesday and Wednesday it did nothing but pour down a thick, cold, blustery rain that chilled to the bone - and the temperature dropped at least 40 degrees, if not more. Ill-prepared for that drastic of a temperature swing, we spent Tuesday doing the thing most normal people do while on vacation - we relaxed for a change! I slept 'til 11am and spent several hours working on the blog, while Jeremy was still sound asleep at 2pm, if you can imagine. At last my hunger outweighed my desire to stay warm and dry, so I dragged hubby's lazy butt out of bed and off we marched to a nearby cafe' for a comfort-food lunch of burgers (not half-bad, but certainly nothing like burgers back home!).

After a bone-chilling lunch, we discovered a beautiful little spa attached to a 3-star hotel next door. Although our last spa experience didn't go so well back in Nanning, we decided to give it another go, as we had absolutely positively NOTHING better to do on such a miserable day. So we signed up for two massages and were ushered into an actual spa, complete with plush towels, steamroom, sauna, pool, private massage rooms, soft music, waterfalls...the works. For about the price of a value meal at McDonald's, we lounged in the warmth and enjoyed real oil massages (they call it "Vietnamese style" massage; but in reality it was pretty Swedish with maybe just a touch of eastern work in there). Have I raved about the head tapotement yet? It's essentially a light karate chopping performed all over your scalp and forehead - the first time a therapist did it here I was a little bewildered, as typically in the west we work very lightly on the head and scalp. Here they dig right in, knead, beat (gently), stretch the scalp by tugging your hair, hit pressure points...oh, it's so heavenly. I could go on for hours, but I don't want to be a bore.

Dinner was later on at DMZ Bar (again), as it's the closest thing and the wind and rain were turning frigid. More amazing chocolate mousse, yum!! We attempted to go to sleep early, since we had to catch a 6am tour the next morning, but instead we got caught up in uploading our videos and putting together our "Bizarre Foods" blog - which we hope you all enjoyed, by the way! Next thing we know, it's 1am and we're still up editing videos. Ugh. Wednesday was gonna be a long day...

Which it absolutely was. The weather showed no signs of improving as we trudged, half-asleep, downstairs to board the bus that would take us on a full-day tour of the Demilitarized Zone, about two hours north of Hue. Usually I don't EVER sleep on buses or planes (I'm too lanky to get comfortable), but that morning we both nodded off and pretty much slept all the way to the town of Dong Ha, where we stopped for breakfast around 9am (typical Vietnamese breakfast is either an omelet wedged into a French baguette, or noodle soup with beef or chicken). Then came the long and rainy drive into the DMZ (our guide went back and forth between "zee" and "zed," the British pronunciation of "z"), across the Ben Hai River that divided the north and south during the war (which, by the way, is known as the "American War" here), and to the Vinh Moc Tunnels on the coast.

I won't bore everyone to death (myself included) with a run-down of the war, but for those of us who weren't around for it, here are a few outstanding facts that were brought out by our guide. The war went on for 21 years, from 1954 to 1975, though America's presence was strongest from 1962-1972. Ho Chi Minh was the Communist leader of northern Vietnam who had eradicated the French occupation and wanted to unify the country; Diem was leader in the south and wanted no part of it. The Ben Hai River, running along the 17th parallel, became the dividing line and saw heavy action from both fronts. Some estimates say that an average of 10,000 tons of bombs and other ammunition were dropped in every square kilometer during the war. The North especially was bombed heavily, basically leveling anything standing (or living), and to this day there are many visible craters along the roadside and in the forests. Another horrific thing to learn about was "Agent Orange," a chemical spread to burn up the land that, over 40 years later, is still causing terrible illnesses, birth defects, and abnormalities among the people living in the area (apparently many Americans were affected by it, too).

Hence, the villagers of this area nearest the battle line resourcefully dug "underground cities," basically, with everything they would need to sustain themselves while the war raged outside. There were tiny kitchens, meeting rooms, ammunition rooms, even a maternity ward, where 17 children were actually born and raised for the first years of their lives. The Vinh Moc Tunnels are very well-preserved almost entirely in their original state - which means about 5 feet tall and just barely wide enough for a westerner to squeeze their shoulders through (crouching, of course, from the low ceiling). I tried, I really did, to go inside, but about 50 feet in I felt that hysterical suffocating panic sweeping in, and I raced out. I did really well in the caves in China and Ha Long, because they were enormous and well-lit, but walking into a warm, damp, barely-lit opening smaller than I am just wasn't going to happen. Our guide was super-nice about it and said that many have a similar claustrophobia and have to wait outside - which I did. Under a little canopy, in the pouring rain, for half an hour while everyone toured the tunnels...it's maddening that I've suddenly developed this fear of dark confined spaces (they never bothered me until last year)...but it appears the phobia is here to stay, unfortunately. Oh, well. No spelunking for me.

Anyway, I digress. Jeremy went through the tunnels with the group and snapped a few shots; then we all got back on the bus and drove an hour back into town for lunch. Soggy and still exhausted, we set out for Khe Sanh Combat Base, about 50 miles due west and almost on the border with neighboring Laos. This base saw a pretty bloody battle in 1968 - 10,000 Vietnamese (mostly civilian) lost their lives in a matter of days. There's not much there now except a tiny museum and a few aircraft and tanks, but it was a sobering visit nonetheless. At least the rain had lightened to a drizzle, so we were able to walk around outside for a short period before getting on the (long) bus ride back to Hue...all in all, it was a 13-hour day in the cold rain. Not one of our better days, but hey, what can you do?

Well, to answer that question, we did what anyone who has been in the freezing rain all day should do - we got off the bus and headed straight back to the spa, where we sat in the steamroom and slowly got circulation back to our extremities. Then Jeremy signed up for another massage, while I opted to try a 45-minute scalp massage (since I'm so enamored with the head work here)...ah, pure aromatherapy headache-easing bliss.

While waiting for Jeremy to finish, I got into a very interesting conversation with my therapist and the girl at the front desk...their English wasn't the best, but we did manage to communicate somewhat. When they found out I was a massage therapist, too, they got ridiculously excited and fired away a million questions about what the profession was like in the states. Then my therapist announced that their monthly salary was...are you ready?...$50. A MONTH!!!! That's about $1.75 a day, base salary, whether they do one massage or eight. Granted, they get the occasional tip - maybe fifty cents or a dollar here or there. I was floored; I mean, I just felt like a royal JERK right at that moment. Then they asked (as is quite common here and not to be considered rude) what a massage costs in the states and what I earned doing massage there. I tried to skirt the salary question by telling them that a massage in a nice spa would run anywhere from $100-$200, to which they literally almost fainted and could hardly speak for several moments. Then they asked again, nicely, about my salary, so when I gave them a rough estimate (as gently as I could), they almost died (again). Jeremy's therapist came out at that moment and they filled him in, and he too was in total shock. They asked if they could come home with us and do massage in the states, to which I laughed and replied, "Of course! Hop in my bag!" We ended up tipping them more than we paid for the actual massages; not a sympathy tip, but just a genuine "thank you" to them for their hard work and amazing attitudes.

It's funny, we certainly don't make much by American standards, but it's overwhelming to think that most of us in the states probably earn more in one year than these people will earn in their entire working life. And the beautiful thing is, I think that most of them are content with that, with what they have, even if it is comparatively modest with our western lifestyle. We've seen so many little old men and women hunched over rickety old bicycles, barefoot and in tattered clothing, slowly making their way through town with a load of fresh produce to sell...and yet, they have the biggest smiles you've ever seen. It's amazing how travel puts your life into a whole new perspective...

But anyway!! Enough philosophy for one day. We are currently sitting in Ho Chi Minh City, but I'm going to save today for the next blog and wait to get a better overview of "Old Saigon" (so far, so good). More to come from our final stop in Vietnam!

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Comments

[Marion]

Amazing.. and thank you!
I find it amazing to see these pictures and know a little history on how they viewed the war. The “American” War. To know my father was in the Army and fought in the Vietnam War, and know that the chemical they used “Agent Orange” was a very nasty chemical indeed. They notified all the war veterans that there children born after the war or after they came home should be cautious too. I can’t really remember what my father said to me when he called about it. I will make sure I ask him again. So thank you very much for sharing this. This right now is my favorite blog. Be safe and keep us the amazing work. Marion

[Matt Wood]

you got it right
Amy, You got the names of the two types of helicopters right. Hope you guys are having a BLAST over there. I am so jealous it isn't even funny.

[Matt Wood]

Agent Orange
Amy, Agent Orange was actually a pesticide, to kill bugs. What it did though is something called BIO-AMPLIFICATION. Basically, it gets on the grass, a small herbivore eats it, and gets a larger dose of Agent Orange, then a small carnivore eats the herbivore, getting an even LARGER dose. On up the food chain it goes. It is then stored in Fat Cells... so as people started to starve in the war, they burned fat, and it become soluble in their blood, affecting birth rates, abnormalities, and everything else. It was just a pesticide though. Meant to keep the mosquito population down for American soldiers so they would not get Malaria... and it DID do that. In fact some countries in the world STILL use it to this day. -Matt

[Aerogers]

Thanks Dr. Wood! :-)
Thank you for the explanation of Agent Orange. As our tour guide had an extremely thick accent, we only caught about half of what she said, so I tried to piece it all together as best I could. That makes perfect sense though! Maybe if I wasn't a college drop-out I would've learned that too lol. We are having a blast; wish you could join us! Maybe next year in NZ...

[anonymous]

Very informative, I did't even that the war was THAT LONG!!!!!!!!!