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Published: February 2nd 2007
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Uncle-Ho Memorial
Rory and Ho - this was located on the road to the Vinh Moc tunnels. Day 245, 31st January
Cam Xuyen - Gateway to Annam - Dong Hoi
Our goal today is Dong Hoi. A place where we can book into a cheap hotel and get cleaned up before visiting the Vinh Moc Tunnels. Our sleep was disturbed last night by riverboat people who were up very early shifting riverbank sand from one place to another. They didn’t seem to notice six tents camped next to their place of work.
As we rode off, the wind was behind us and the road was damp. Toby had another puncture, and he was also back to his problem he had back in China - breaking spokes on his back wheel. We joke that it’s because he’s the only one in the group that’s actually putting on weight! Another lesson to be learned here is not to cycle with 28-inch (500mm) wheels - cos you can’t get the spokes out here!
Our dreaded mountain pass, “The Gateway to Annan”, turned out to be nothing more than a hillock. But a beautiful hillock at that, with super views north and south to sandy beaches. At the bottom of the south side of the hill, we decided
Rory in Tunnel
Just to give you an idea of the size of these places that folks had to live in! to chill-out for an hour on the long white sandy and very un-spoilt beach. How often can you have a huge beach to yourself and only see your footsteps in the sand behind you?
The rest of the day was spent motoring along flat roads with ever larger palms either side, until we reached DoHoi at about 4pm. A motorbike rider showed us the way to the cheap and very shabby Dong Hoi Hotel. It had no hot water and no flushing bog! There were some US military personnel staying there who we began to chat with over beers. They were here to find the remains of American soldiers from the Vietnam War. Apparently, there are still thousands missing out there in the countryside. What a job! Later on, we eventually gained our appetite, ate, then went bed early.
Total Miles: Todays Miles: Average speed: Time on bike:
Day 246, 1st February
Dong Hoi - Vinh Moc Tunnels - DMZ at coast
It’s our eighth month together now and we still haven’t beaten the crap out of each other, yet! There’s about two months to go before we reach Singapore - hopefully. Our planned
Ho-Chi-Minh Banknote
He smiles at us from every note... early start this morning didn’t materialize. After breakfast, I posted a letter to Kathryn, and then we had to wait for Toby . He decided that he needed to go to the bank to get some money, this took an hour.
We eventually set off at eleven. At our first café stop, a flustered girl appeared on a motorbike and went straight to Tobes. After about 10 minutes of hectic conversation, money was exchanged, and she left. Afterwrds, we realised what had happened. The girl was the bank teller who had served Tobes. She had given him an extra US$800 by mistake and had realized later and came desparately searching for Tobes. Luckily, she had found him and the matter had been cleared up. It could have been very costly for the girl - what would Toby have done when he realized later? He continued in silence…
It rained a little on the way to Vinh Moc Tunnels. We passed a monument to Ho Chi Minh on the way there and all posed for photos. The tunnels were a really strange experience. We parked up our bikes safely and a local guy guided us through them with a
Local girls
stop to watch Stephane repair his tyre. torch telling us how families had lived underground for years during the war. While the Americans had blitzed the nearby DMZ and the coast, people survived underground, hundreds of them. They had their own schools, hospitals, and tiny little rooms which were no bigger than a car in which they had to eat and sleep. I bet the smell would have been awful too! The men even went fishing by night via a small hole in the cliffs. What they must have endured is beyond my realms of imagination…
Afterwards, we headed into the former DMZ. The landscape was still pock-marked by the heavy bombardment during the war. There were bomb-craters everywhere. Along the beach we saw many excavations in the dunes where bodies were still being dug up. We continued to the Ben Hai River which was the original demarcation line between the communist north, and the capitalist south. Nick and Rory decided to camp here while the rest of us dissapeared to a nearby hotel. The hotel was built in a kind of 1970s style and looked very spooky as it was surrounded by trees. At 6pm someone came, turned on the lights, and let us in
Puncture stop
Stephane's thin tyres fell victim quite often on Nam's roads. to the empty place. They don’t see many travellers here I think!
Total Miles: 11117.64 Todays Miles: 60.33 Average speed: 13.8 Time on bike: 4:21
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Tot: 0.443s; Tpl: 0.029s; cc: 27; qc: 103; dbt: 0.1452s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb