Singing in the Rain

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7 August
This is the second entry but due to searching the internet and faffing with google cache for lost entries it’s considerably shorter than I anticipated.
It’s stopped raining. It started raining on Friday night and continued pretty much until this morning. The rain over Friday, Saturday and Sunday was like the heaviest British rain you can imagine doubled. We (of course) went out in it and at one point found ourselves knee deep in water in a few of the streets. It wasn’t that the streets were flooded per se, it was just that there was so much water it couldn’t drain quick enough! People were pushing their motorbikes though the water with the exhaust and engine submerged. There was even one guy whose motorbike still worked and was tackling his way through the water when a large 4x4 came along, creating waves which simply swept over the bike toppling and submerging it. I doubt it worked very well after that. There’s also been plenty of thunder and lightening and people have been calling it a sea storm though I think it’s a tropical storm. It’s been in the news as well: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6932650.stm
It also says in that article “A new tropical storm with wind speeds of 72km/h (45m/h) was reported to be making its way along the central coast of Vietnam” so if you don’t hear from me in the next few days...!
This weekend, apart from wading through torrential rain, we went on a tour to the DMZ, the Demilitarized Zone north from here. We though this would be a good idea because time was spent largely in a bus. It worked out rather well in the end because whenever we stopped the rain breaked for a few moments and we were able to get out and take a few pictures. The Vinh Moc tunnels were pretty good and rather small, even for me! Customary to Vietnamese health and safety laws they weren’t really lit and there were no rails or anything like that (which to honest makes it all so much more real). We also managed to loose our guide which perhaps wasn’t the best of ideas but oh well! When we escaped we ended up on a lovely beach that kind of reminded me of England, whether it was the rain and overcast skies, the rocky shore, the cooler weather or the big waves I don’t know. That reminds me, its cool here! It’s finally gone below 30C which is nice although now everything is damp, even things which have been nowhere near the rain seem damp. The air itself is heavy, especially when the rain stops and it feels like it’s clamming up your skin or even slightly suffocating. I’m not sure which weather I prefer. My jumper got some use the other day for the first time! I got a bit cold the other night so whipped it out. I have discovered (from aircon units) that anything below 26 or 27 is now considered cold and a jumper is required. Anyway, back to the DMZ. I had quite an enjoyable day overall and took a few naps on the bus journey in places. We also went up to Khe Sanh, a former American military base in the mountains. There were some pretty fantastic views from here! Mist tumbling over the hills and conical hats bowed to the rain. We passed through some ethnic minority villages where people lived in wooden houses on stilts. I think they said we were only 18km from the border with Laos at one point.

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Photos

Motorbike rain
It got deeper than this at one point

Vinh Moc Entrance
An entrance to one of the tunnels

Vinh Moc Stairs
Descending to one of the deeper tunnels. The only lighting was that little bulb at the end. This was taken shortly after we lost our guide.

Lisa and I
The tunnels were dug by hand and weren't particularly high. The other girl is Lisa, an Australian volunteer here

Beach Vinh Moc
The beach that several of the entrances opened onto

Bridge
Famous bridge, forgotten what it's called. The river separated north from south for 2 years during the war.

The Rockpile
Stunning scenery! The Rockpile was a helicopter base during the war.

In the hills
More rain up in the mountains and someones house. This is near the bridge