Huey and the News

Hue is a strange town - the old capital of Vietnam. It was bombed heavily in the American war and there are great holes and lakes in the middle of a street where the bombs fell. A guy that we met lost his father in the war and took us on a tour to see the main sites.

He also showed us old US bunkers and tanks and after an hour or so opened up and we talked about how all people - Vietnamese or English (for example) have so much in common. We have the same needs - to be loved, to provide for our families etc. We agreed that more cultures should meet like this so none of us assumes we are better than any other.

The city is surrounded by a wall built in ancient times (don't ask us when as the Vietnamese haven't cottoned on the concept of information signs etc.) There is a huge Citadel and many temples and pagodas around. Starting to get a bit 'templed out' though now.

To learn a bit about the American war we took a tour to the DMZ - de-militarized zone which was anything but. It was designed to be a safe haven in the middle of the country where no fighting was allowed, but became the location for some of the most brutal fighting of the 10 year war.

Walking down the tunnels that the Vietnamese had dug was a sobering experience. Villagers lived in these for years, terrified that a bomb would drop on them. It was so claustrophic and descended for four floors. Seventeen babies were born down there and the rooms that families lived in where 6' by 4'. Amazing.

Apparently about 10,000 US and Vietnamese soldiers were killed at Khe Sanh. Today it is just a coffee plantation, but in it's day was the Americans biggest base and the site of their biggest defeat prior to the Tet Offensive. Strange to stand in such a peaceful place where so much terror and blood was spilt in the name of... I don't know what.

Kenh Ga, Tam Coc and Ninh Binh

Our experience of hiring a motorbike so far has been fraught with danger, so in our normal adventurous spirit we hired a bike for 2 days to go to Kenh Ga and Tam Coc near the town of Ninh Binh.

Tam Coc is described as Halong Bay in the rice paddies and it certainly lived up to this reputation with amazing limestone cliffs popping up in the miles and miles of rice paddies. We hired a lady to take us down the river in a small boat which she rowed with her feet. The river wound past the limestone cliffs and through three caves. Absolutely beautiful.

Kenh Ga was a bit more low key. After running out of petrol in the middle of a rice field, a young guy hopped on his push bike and cycled a km to get us some petrol and we were soon on our way again. An older man greeted us at the river and hurried us onto his boat ($8 - a bit pricey we thought, but too tired to care at this point). We sailed through a floating village and arrived at a small community with a catholic church and little else. Sam got mosquito repellent in her eye half way round and it was soooo hot, but certainly a good experience.

Ninh Binh itself is un-accustomed to travellers and hadn't even got a cafe/restaurant. After many strange stares we were accepted with open arms when a local offered to buy us beers at a local bar. After a couple of hours we staggered back to our hotel and slept all afternoon in our gorgeous ensuite hotel room ($15 a night).