Blogs from Quang Tri, North Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia - page 2

Happy Father's Day “Don’t worry about it” The words of the hostel front desk clerk in response to our question as to whether or not they frequently lose power. This is what we thought of upon awaking to a hot and stuffy room at 6am. The sun rises early here, around 5am, and it never really cools down that much at night. Most likely because of the humidity. It didn’t really matter much on this particular morning since we had to be ready by 6:15 in the lobby for our tour bus to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). We had visited the DMZ between North and South Korea and learned so much more about the conflict than we had ever learned in school. Its not that we weren’t familiar with the Vietnam war, yet we both did ... read more

Coming Home - Back to Dong Ha After our week in Hanoi and our trip to Sapa, we flew to Hue, and took a car up to Dong Ha. We planned on spending two weeks in Dong Ha teaching at Le Quy Don Gifted High School, where we taught back in April. We were excited to be back in town, but were nervous too. I think our expectations were high. We had such an amazing experience the first time here. We were driven to our hotel, Huu Nghi, which we were told had rooms for $12. I checked out their website and it looked fine. When we showed up, I was shocked. The hotel had two buildings, the older one in the rear, which was on the website, and a brand new fancy hotel in ... read more

To DMZ or not to DMZ "Whatever you do don't do the tour of the DMZ, man - it's not worth it. You'll just be stuck on a badly air-conditioned bus for hours on end." So said the jovial Canadian guy I met on the island of Koh Phi Phi in Thailand. I didn't tell him that there no was way I was going to miss the DMZ - regardless of how tedious a bus journey. I'd studied the Vietnam War at university and it was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the entire war - I wanted to see it. War, war and more war If you're like me Vietnam is not just a 'country' but a war. Somewhere in the recent past twenty five years ago the US of A was ... read more

I stopped in Dong Ha to access the DMZ. The main "attractions" would be the old Khe Sanh base and the Vinh Moc tunnels. I'd heard about the DMZ Cafe arranging good tours to these places so I was on a lookout for them. When I got off the train I got the usual touts harassing me. I shook'em off and headed into town on foot. I guy with a motorbike stopped and claimed he was from the DMZ Cafe and could take me to a good guesthouse. Sure... I still let him pick me up and we went to the guesthouse. Unfortunately I was overcome by the usual lazieness, not wanting to haul my baggage around anymore, and accepted the room and the tours that were obviously not the DMZ Cafe. As usual the sights ... read more

Dear Patrons, Welcome to our news letter. The Staff at Different Perspectives try to bring a clearer picture of current events effecting China and Asia. Although we believe the international media driven primarily by the western world's interests is bringing the public events as they happen we at Different Perspectives are independent and non biased without an agenda for prestige or monetary profit. We simply feel the western world may be somewhat isolated from news that is local to our office here in Beijing, China. We hope you enjoy the news from a different perspective. Wednesday August 27, 2008 Quang Nhai, Vietnam I got going early enough to have coffee at the local shop and pack before making my way by way of moto-taxi to the bus station. Today I would embark on a journey north ... read more