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Published: November 24th 2008
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17.11.08
Km travelled 17982
We've been sleeping almost all night. It means it wasn't that bad at the end. When I open my eyes we're still one hour from Hué. We're all still half asleep. When the bus parks, in a place that looked like anything apart from a bus station, we grab our bags and get off. A young guy wearing an helmet is holding a sign with my name and the one of the hotel. I wave at him and he helps us picking up our stuff and put it on a van. We jump on and in few minutes we're at the hotel. We are shown a spacious room with two double beds for 15$. It's perfect. We settle in. we can have a shower and get ready. It would be nice to have some rest but we want to make the most out of the day and, in case, come back a bit earlier. First thing, we need to feed our stomachs and close to the hotel we find a nice café where to have some breakfast. The streets are packed with men offering us tours on their cyclos or motorbikes. We can't walk a
meter without being stopped. It takes a while to get away, they talk and talk, and show us pictures and books with people's comments on their service. Doesn't matter where you're from, they have a comment from a compatriot, even if you're from Burundi!
It's very hot and the air heavy and sticky. We cross the Perfume River and head to the Citadel. A big part of the city is enclosed within these walls. Inside there's a sort of citadel within the citadel, the Imperial Enclosure. It's there that we're heading. We first have a walk around, following the path between the wall and the moat. Myriads of dragonflies fill the air and a bright green covers the water. At the end we get in front of the Ngo Mon Gate, the main entrance facing the Flag Tower.
We enter and start our visit. Not much has been left after the wars with American and French, and some of the buildings are under reconstruction. I wouldn't recommend a visit at this stage, most of the area looks a bit crappy, between a construction site and an old amusement park. Also the heat was unbearable and we had to stop quite
often to take a breath. The Emperor's Reading Room seemed to me the most interesting building, even thou unfortunately is not accessible inside. Outside it still shows interesting mosaics, something that we haven't seen in similar buildings.
In the early afternoon we can't bear the temperature any more and we head back to the hotel to get some rest.
We get out again when it's already dark and a bit cooler.
We have dinner at the Japanese Restaurant. Lonely Planet recommends it for its cheap prices, amazing food, and the great man behind it, Mr Koyama. We meet him before the end of the night. It's all true. You can check the story behind it at www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/jass/.
You should have seen Michael's face while he was eating. I guess heaven looks like this to him!
We decide to go for a tour tomorrow to visit the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), so we book it the hotel. Apparently there's only one seat left on the bus so one of us will have to sit in the aisle on a pillow!
Unfortunately at the end of the night Michael realizes he's lost his cell phone, which obviously doesn't make him very happy. We
search everywhere in the room but nothing.
18.11.08
While all around the dry season has finally come, here in central Vietnam the rainy season is starting. It will rain 24/7. Today is the first day. The alarm didn't ring and Michael wakes me up at 6.10, when we're just in time to get ready. After 10 minutes we're in the hall waiting for the bus to come and pick us up. Mike is still pissed off for having lost his cell phone. A man standing at the desk starts talking to the girl at the reception clearly referring to Mike. When the girl asks us if we lost anything in the laundry, our immediate answer is yes, the cell phone! Now Michael is a happy boy, with his cell phone back in his pocket!
After twenty minutes we're collected and put on the bus. Even thou we're both sitting in the aisle, we are given two small stools to sit on. It takes a couple of hours to reach the DMZ where we're finally going to have some breakfast. We have some time to socialize and I meet Claudia, a Swiss girl travelling with her friend
Miriam (in the meanwhile chatting with Mike and a British guy, Matthew). They're going the other way, coming from Cambodia, so we exchange advice on the places we've already visited.
After the stop for breakfast, during which we meet other people over an omelette, for some reason there are two seats available for us, so at the end is all fine.
This day is clearly not a trip to any spectacular place, but to a place where history has recently left its mark. For this reason I don't think there's much to say about what we've been doing. I'd rather share with you what we heard, what we've seen, on where the scars of this land come from. With no intention of telling you all the things you can easily find in quite a wide literature about the War. For those who don't know anything, briefly the DMZ was born at the Geneva Agreement between France and the Vietnamese governments. It was supposed to be an area around the the border between north and south to allow French troops to leave the country, until next political elections to be held in 1956. the border having no political value. During the
American war it ended up being one of the most heavily bombed areas and seeing the bloodiest battles.
Nowadays in this area 5 to 7 people every month are killed by unexploded ordnance.
In these hills the jungle has been replaced by small young trees given by Australia after the devastation caused by the use of Napalm, defoliants, agent orange and other chemicals used by US, with support of Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Thailand. For generations people will carry in their blood traces of these chemicals, causing cancer and genetic diseases.
We walked the Tunnels of Vinh Moc where villagers of the area found shelter to escape the bombing for 6 years, all of them surviving the war, including 17 babies born inside the tunnels. But apart from all these basic notions about the war which I'm sure most of you already know, or I hope so, maybe not many of you know, on the other end, that Vietnam rice fields are owned by the government in the from of cooperatives. A field is assigned to every family and they can do with it whatever they want, even subletting it to the free market. Of every profit coming
from this 30% goes to the government and 70% to the family.
Due to the fact that, as I said, in central Vietnam the rainy season starts now, there are only two rice crops a year, instead of three like the rest of the country. Dry rice is farmed on the mountains and has only one crop a year.
We're back at 6.00pm and to join a good cause we have another delicious dinner at the Japanese Restaurant.
Tomorrow morning we'll take the train to Nha Trang with the hope of heading towards drier days.
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Bruno
non-member comment
Un pianeta pieno di Normandie. Splendido diario. Non mi perdo una parola.