The DMZ

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Well today we got off to an early start at 8am, this was of course after we had manged to have about 6 courses at breakfast!!!! Love buffet breakfast.

Our guide An is very nice, and amazingly he has spent a year in NZ at Otago University studying English. So he was very excited to have a couple of Kiwis to escort around.

It is the rainy season in the middle of Vietnam, and they are not kidding, it has been raining since we got here and will continue to do so until we leave. We are really going to experience all four seasons on this trip, we are looking forward to the summer part of the trip.

We headed up the highway to the DMZ, the 17th parallel where Vietnam was divided under the accord signed in Geneva. We first headed to the Vinh Moc Tunnels, these are the tunnels that the villagers hid in while the US B52 bombers were annihilating the area. We went down into them and they do say not to go if you feel claustrophobic at all...well I was doing fine until An said that last time he took people through the tunnels the lights went out and he got lost. My heart rate went up and I was getting ready to run and then realised we were heading out so calmed down a little. I should tell An that in future he should keep that gem of information to himself 😊 We at least got to spend sometime out of the rain!!! After the war the villages used the bomb craters as their rice paddy fields, and that basically is all that there is in the DMZ now.

We then headed to the bridge that separated the North from the South, Hien Luang Bridge - the bridge is still standing but is mainly used by tourists to cross from what was North Vietnam into South Vietnam. It was really amazing to be at such an historical place, even though guess what it was raining.

We then headed to the Citadel at Quang Tri, this was were the US dropped the equivalent power of 7 Nuclear bombs on the area. There was a Citadel there until 1972. They had rebuilt part of it as a memorial to all the men and women that lost their lives in the American/Vietnam war.

For dinner we headed to the Mandarin Cafe, An told us that when we get there to ask to see the owners photos. His name is Mr Cu and he is an amazing photographer. We brought some really great prints of him for $2USD each. He also threw in two for free and signed them.

The computers are old at the Hotel and struggling to find one that will load up the photos, will try again tomorrow or may have to wait until we get to Hoi An on Sunday.

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