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Hue & Dong Ha - May 11 - 12
Only stayed one night in Hue and didn't do or see much. This was just a stopover for the tour to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) which we booked for the next day. Anna (german chick) and I decided to take the overnight bus to Hanoi instead of the train, which is what Merika and Sebastien were doing. We saved ourselves time and money by doing the bus. The DMZ tour was okay. The guide was good. She was very knowledgeable and spoke good english. I just didn't think we would be spending the day on the bus. We visited the Khe Sanh Combat Base where in 1968 a huge battle took place between the Americans and North Vietnamese, killing thousands of people, including many civilians. A memorial with pictures of the seige was erected, a couple of reconstructed bunkers, bomb shells, and aircrafts were on display. The base is now surrounded by homes and coffee plantations situated on a plateau. Next we headed for the Vinh Moc Tunnels but on the way we stopped at the demarcation line, the Ben Hai River splitting North and South Vietnam. The tunnels are
larger and taller than the Cu Chi Tunnels near HCMC but are not made bigger for tourists. They network of tunnels span 2.8 km with 3 levels from 15 m to 26 m deep. The North Vietnamese lived in these tunnels for 5 years. I don't know how people could live underground for that long and especially babies that were born in the tunnels....that cannot be healthy for a newborn to not have natural sunlight. There were 7 tunnel babies, 6 which are still alive. The DMZ tour was alright but I do like the historical type tours because even if it's shit, it's still a good thing to see.
Anna and I got dropped off at Dong Ha to wait for the Hanoi bus to pick us up. We had lots of time to kill before the bus arrived at 8pm (4 hours) so we walked to the market, bargained for 2 mangoes, still overpaid, then searched for some internet and that was way overpriced too so we didn't use it. Instead we opted for a cafe to chillax. The guys that worked there were cool cause I busted out my Vietnamese book and we were trying to
communicate with it. Hehehe I love that book it brings smiles to everybody's faces. We went to go by some baguette sandwiches but of course they didn't have the food vendors that had the veggies. So we figured a restaurant would have what we were wanting. Man, it took us like 20 mins to describe what we wanted, using the book, because they didn't have baguette sandwich on the menu. They had bread and omelette but hard to explain, "yes want this but without egg but with cucumbers, tomatoes, and cheese." Ha. They finally figured out what we were wanting and brought us baguettes and cut up veggies so we could make it ourselves. Fine by me. The bus came and we were watching everyone file off the bus. It looked pretty damn packed! The chick from Toronto and the 2 Chileans who I met in Hoi An got off the bus too. They said that the bus was full, they got the last seats. Anna and I looked at each other and were like "sheat." I've heard some horror stories of
open bus tickets where people had to sit or lie in the aisle because they overbooked. I thought
maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing since it was an overnight bus and lying down would be more comfortable than sitting in a chair. But lucky us (surprisingly) two people stayed in Dong Ha and we got better seats than the others who were stuck in the very back. The bus ride was alright. Couldn't really get comfortable the first half cause I was on the aisle seat but after we stopped around 1am for a pee break, I switched with Anna and got the window seat.
Oh ya I totally forgot to mention earlier on our way to the DMZ, we stopped at Marble Mountain but that isn't the highlight......before getting back on the bus, Merika and I went to the washroom and cracked up when it was basically a shared washroom. It was equivalent to guys urinals with semi privacy....but we had toilets😊 If you paid more you could have gotten a door with your toilet. Hahaha. I remembered that cause this place where we stopped at 1am was same same but different (no privacy and communal squat). Slept, well tried to the remaining time until we were 50 km from Hanoi.
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Anna
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Sapa
Hi Lindsey!Sapa is a real good place,but unfortunately pretty touristy.Bargain,bargain,bargain... I bought 2 blankets for 20$... The tracks are wonderful, but it keeps rainin all the time :(( The people are very nice, but there are a lot of problems (prostitution!!)I hope everything is allright with your China Visa!!Greetings!!Anna