Hue and the DMZ

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From Hoi An me and Chris headed to Hue. Hue is fairly quiet in comparison to Ho Chi Minh city although its way more busy than Hoi An. As with Hoi An, the weather is shocking, tipping it down all day. My pack-a-mac had given up the ghost so I had to buy a more sturdier version which suprisingly for the $1 I paid for it, was good work.
Hue is famous for its Citadel, which is the walls to the old city. Within that is the imperial city which was built by Emporer Gia Long in 1802. Its based along the same north-south axis layout as Bejing's Forbidden City. Allegedly. I'm now currently at the point where I'm really templed out and to be honest it looks great, but I think I'm done with this stuff. Me and Chris decided that we would play up and I did the camo Ninja stealth sketch.
The following day we went to the DMZ or Demilitarized zone. Under the 1954 Geneva Accords, Vietnam was split into two parts along the line of the 17th parallel. The idea was meant to be to unite Vietnam with the pending elections in 1956. The DMZ is 5km wide and troops from the communist north were meant to retreat to the north and the soldiers from the south were meant to retreat to the south. This was all well and good but unfortunately soldiers from the north decided that they wanted to support their mates, the VC or Vietcong, who were supporters of the communist south, so they came down using the Ho Chi Minh trail, a set of jungle routes into the south and through Cambodia and Laos. The south decided they weren't happy with this so they did what any normal country would do and called the Americans in. Hence the war we're all so familar with.
The DMZ is a bit of a let to be honest. Basically about 20km of fields, some with water filled shell holes. Its fairly green now although in the past it was napalmed and attacked with herbicides so for a while nothing would grow here.
Along the route we took in the Rockpile, a 230 mile high hill which the Americans used as a Artillery base and the Ho Chi Minh trail which is now basically a road with a bridge along it.
From here we went to the Khe Sanh base. This was an American base which in the early hours of January the 21st 1968 was attacked by the NVA, beginning a battle that would last for nine weeks. The US would attempt to bomb the NVA out of existance, with little success, the US eventually abandoning the base. The NVA sustained horrendous casulties but successfully achieved their objective of diverting American resources away from the south in the build up to the Tet Offensive.
The base now is a car boot sale of rusting American tanks and Helicopters with a museum thrown in as well. Its ok.
We then went to the Vinh Moc tunnels where during the American bombardment of the DMZ, over 1000 people sheltered, sometimes for weeks on end. Taking two years to build the tunnels eventually housed a school, living quarters, clinics and a maternity ward where 17 children were born. This wasn't as bad as the Cu Chi tunnels for walking around in, although like the Cu Chi tunnels it does make you realise how hard it was during the conflict. After that we headed back to Hue, where we met Evan again, the Aussie from Nha Trang and got the night train to Hanoi.

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Photos

The Rockpile, DMZ tour
Used by US forces as an Artillery base during the American War