Tour of Duty

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I'm extremely excited to announce our next family adventure. When our children were younger our holidays have always been in 'safe' places. However, this trip is designed to take my sons' travelling experiences beyond the theme park and into the next dimension of independent travel. This will be their first foray into a third world country on a "planes, trains and automobiles" odyssey. It's my first foray into a Communist country and it's ambitious and I'm sure, at times, I'll be despised, but it is a sacrifice I am prepared for in order to teach my sons about the world in which they live.

Next month we are about to achieve in two weeks what the American's (and later Australian's), didn't manage in nearly 20 years during the Vietnam War.... an intense advance from HCMC (Saigon), across the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) north towards Hanoi. This journey is also, in part, a tour of duty to pay tribute to Poppy Pete, my husband's biological father who is a Vietnam Veteran. Exactly 45 years ago he was a Private in the 17th Construction Squadron with the Australian Army where he was sent down Viet Cong tunnels with a rifle and a piece of rope tied to his leg. This country hated him, this war defined him and 44 years later, this war killed him along with his demons.

Poppy Pete would have been proud of our little Army Cadets so I have decided the northward advance will be executed in disciplined military style, complete with backpacks interspersed with some R&R at China Beach along the way. It will be a planes, trains and trekking odyssey but despite the backpacks we won't be exactly roughing it. We will be 'flashpacking' due to the celebration of our 15th wedding anniversary whilst on the trip. My backpacking days of cockroach infested budget hostels teeming with rats are all over for me. Watch this space....

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