Hue

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"Hello my friend!" qoute from one of our tour guides as he welcomes us into the Khe Sanh former US military base, and I think it is safe to say this sums up the Vietnamese attitude towards us "the classic tourist".

The day started well with a 6:15 wake up call so we could fire out of our hotel at 7. Boy howdy what a bus ride, 3 hours just flew buy as we were either lulled to sleep by the rumble of the bus or became glued to the countryside via the windows. At 10 in the mourning we stumbled out of the bus and rubbed our stiff joints as we were pied pipered to the now war musem at Khe Sanh. I think it gave us a real insight into the tough lives the Viet Cong faced while fighting for their country.

It was a short hour and a half to our next stop which just so happened to be lunch, and to our relief abit of comfort from home with some chocolaties up for sale at our lunch stop, piped full of sugary goodness we got back onto the bus for a brief hour and found ourselves stepping onto the bridge of freedom and crossing the seventeenth parallel with a real sense of awe as the guard towers still loomed from either side of the waterway menacingly.

After another quick hour and a half we stepped into a time warp to the Vinh Moc Tunnels were we again got a great insight into the Viet Congs way of life, its not everyday that you get to wander 20 feet underground not a good experience for the clauststrophobes in the group, but for the Viet Cong back in the war times it would have been everyday and it would have been a struggle and I think it trully hit home for a few of us as we found the maternity wards and the meeting rooms in a spaces not quiet as large as a broom cupboard, if the Viet Cong read Harry Potter the cupboard under the stairs would have seemed like paradise.

A quick 3 hours bus ride to the city where we chowed down and graffitied up the famous DMZ bar were we got to see the 2008 tour groups writing on the wall, a short walk home and a good nights sleep ended the day for us.

"Peace begins with a smile."
Mother Teresa

Yours trully Geoff and Seamus

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