Blogs from Quang Tri, North Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia

Heute mach ich mich auf nach Dong Ha, wo ich idealerweise am Abend ankomme. Morgens finde ich heraus, dass die Information, die ich im Hotel bekommen habe, nicht komplett akkurat ist. Um neun kommt ein Bus, der nach Thanh Hoa fährt, ich kann das Motorrad mitnehmen. Ein Mann steigt auf das Dach des Busses und wirft ein Seil hinunter, das zwei Helfer unten am Vorderrad der Motorrads festbinden. Dann zieht er am Seil das Vorderrad hoch, die beiden helfer steigen ein Stückchen auf die Leiter und halten das Motorrad links und rechts, ich halte es hinten. So heben wir es zu viert auf das Dach des Busses, wo der Mann es gegen irgendwelche Kisten, die dort schon festgemacht sind, anlehnt, und es festbindet. Damit ist es wohl Transportfertig. Ich zahle 600.000 Dong für den Transport von ... read more

Na dnes sme si zahovorili celodenny vylet po demilitarizovanom pasme /DMZ/. Toto oddelovalo severny a juzny Vietnam v case vietnamskej vojny. Videli sme vela roznych vyznamnych kopcov, mostov, taborov, riek a podobne. O vietnamsku vojnu sa nikto z nas velmi nezaujima a preto nam to po case zacalo cele nejako splyvat. Najvatsi dojem na nas urobili tunely Vinh Moc. Tieto si vykopali ludia, ktory v tejto oblasti zili a nechceli sa odstahovat, ako ukryt pred bombami. Chodby boli uzke a mazlave a zit v nich asi velmi prijemne nebolo. Kazda rodinka mala svoju komorku, plus spolocne priestory. Momentalne zije asi 16 ludi, ktory sa v tychto tuneloch narodili. Ako sme sa tiez dneska dozvedeli vietnamci pochovavaju svojich mrtvych na dvakrat. Najprv ich pochovaju tradicne do zeme, vedla cintorina. Po troch rokoch ostatky vyberu a kosti ocistia ... read more

Up early for a tour of the Demilitarised zone (dividing line between north and south Vietnam between 1954-75) We visited one of the American army bases, passed very many cemeteries and stopped off at a few other locations along the way including Murray Hill places where both sides hid out. Some of this was part of the Ho Chi Minh trails. We also visited the Vinh Moc tunnels where for 6 years Vietnamese people lived underground. They carved the tunnels by hand over 3 levels. The caves are amazing, we walked through some of them and it was pretty cramped. I could just about stand up in some places and had to crouch down in others. A bedroom was literally just a space big enough to sleep in carved out of the rocks. They lived in ... read more

We were up dark and early and out the door by 6am for the DMZ tour. I know little about history in Vietnam or the Vietnam War, as my formal education taught me nothing; I was always too overwhelmed to study it on my own. We met our group and drove for a few hours in the cool, misty morning air. Our plan was to start north of the DMZ before lunch and the southern part after lunch. It's a strange feeling, driving over a line you can't see, but that you know used to be so significant. We would have missed it if not for the small flags marking it on the side of the road. We went to a small museum with some Viet Cong tunnels. There are three levels in the tunnels: the ... read more

For those who are unaware what the DMZ is (as i was before visiting the place) it stands for De-Militerized Zone which is 1 of the most heavily bombed areas of Vietnam during the American War. I say American war as this what the Vietnamese call the Vietnam war. It makes sense i guess for them to call it the American War but takes a little getting used to. Firstly i should explain that we had arrived in a small cafe in a small town, 15mins away from where the DMZ border is, for breakfast as we had been on the night bus to Hue and were not to far away from the city. As we were eating our breakfast the shop owner asked everyone on the bus if we would like to take a tour ... read more