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It seems blog duty is never far away and this time it's up to (a slightly smug) Dan to inform you we've arrived at the beach. I'm sure you're delighted to hear it, especially with all the rain and all. Mui Ne is an idyllic place just north of Saigon and we've been blessed with clear blue skies and thankfully non-pebbly beaches. As a result, the factor 50 is out but I'm still not sure it's equipped for an Englishman's skin.
There's a strip of mostly expensive and classy resorts which reminds me nostalgically of Paphos in Cyprus but there are a couple of budget places and we managed to find a cute hotel by the name of Hiep Hoa, for a reasonable 11 USD a night. Not a bad feat considering we arrived at around 4.30am. Luckily, most budget hotel people in Asia tend to sleep in their reception areas so it wasn't a problem when they heard Beth - for some crazy reason - say "ooh, 'ello" in her strangest comedy carry on voice. Anyway, it's great to be here after a hellish couple of journeys (keep reading for more info) and also feels very good to stay somewhere for 4 nights instead of the usual 2 we seem to average. I think it's a well chosen spot since word on the street and our Rough Guide (a refreshing change from the sometimes overly prescriptive Lonely Planet) deterred us fom visiting the other main beach spot of Na Trang, where I'm pretty confident we would've encountered the booze-cruisers and some more discoboats. Why more people don't stop off here is a bit puzzling.
So other than chilling out on the beach reading about Papillon (a poor man's Monte Cristo?) trying to get away from the beach, there's not much to report from here so I'll update you with the bit between Sapa and here..
Around lunchtime on our day of departure from Sapa, I bumped into 'Quynh' our motobike driver/guide from two days ago. On complaining about his tired legs from a game of football yesterday, we started talking about the beautiful game. In next to no time, I'd informed him "I am good" to which his eyes lit up. Next thing I knew, I'd been called up to the adjacent Royal Hotel's footie team for their big match against Sapa United a few hours before our train back to Hanoi. Having not played or exercised for quite a while and with the adrenaline starting to flow I thought why not? Shortly, the team bus (!) had arrived and I was handed my very own fake Man U shirt. I guess there had to be a catch. Turning it around, I discovered the hallowed number 6. Obviously, they'd decided to give this Englishman the same number as the greatest English football player of all time, Bobby Moore (tell me if I'm reading too much into this). Adrenaline continued to flow when we arrived at 'The National Stadium' and I saw a pitch - clearly not the actual national stadium - with sporadic patches of grass. Lucky I had Beth next to me in the front of the coach who helpfully settled my nerves on seeing quite a large crowd, most wearing Vietnamese Army hats, with the words "you better not mess this up"! This was going to be an incredible experience. And then someone told me I'm not allowed to play.
Unfortunately, Sapa United detected I wasn't a local and one of them invoked the rules and regs which prevented me, or other pesky foreigners, from playing. Disappointed, I understood and Beth and I just stood on the touchline watching a match consisting of a lot of enthusiasm and much less skill. Reminded us a bit of Ginger Mike's Gold and Black Army. Despite not being allowed on the pitch it was immense fun to get away from the khaki goretex tourist crowd and be part of an everyday experience.
Arriving back into Hanoi at 6am the next day, we thought everything had gone according to plan when we managed to book a ticket to Dong Ha, at 10am that very morning, which is smack in the middle of the country and near the former De-Militarized Zone during the American War. This was hard sleeper and we were pleased at being able to save a few more pennies this way and having squeezed onto the train. How little we knew! Whilst our 'hard sleeper' back from Sapa was a little cramped but relatively comfortable, the train to Dong Ha was horrendous! Not only did it arrive late into our destination at 2.30am meaning the whole sweaty day on the train, it certainly was 'hard' sleeper and gave us a good impression of what prison might be like. Squashed into the top bunk of 3 on either side, the heat was stifling. I looked up at the pathetic fan whirring around and felt like I was in the beginning of Apolcalypse Now. Unfortunately, the real drawback was the bench we were laid on. I described it as a beach mat on a desk but I think Beth conveyed its real lack of comfort when she said it was "like sleeping on a shelf".
The last time we go hard sleeper in Vietnam I think, but then we had to get on that train if we were to see the DMZ and there were no other seats available. Having got to sleep about 3am we clambered out of bed early to get oursleves on a tour of the DMZ. Despite being cream crackered, this has to be one of the best tours we've done and it's the first time since being away that I felt I'd learned something intimate about a country. Some of the experience was uncomfortable, learning about the trauma of war and it was quite ghoulish seeing some people selling actual US Army Dog Tags which had once belonged to soldiers. Nevertheless, the day was fab and we gained a feel for some of the history, which neither of us knew much about anyway, that can't be easily be gleaned through books or TV or even films. Seeing the 17th Parallel which cut the country in two and a moving statue to families separated during the war was atmospheric, as was visiting the site of the battle at Khe Sanh were the US got booged down and distracted prior to the Tet offensive by the North Vietnamese Army in the South. Witnessing a landscape only recently recovering from chemicals and littered with bomb craters was also telling. However, the highlight was visiting the complex of civilian tunnels at 'Vinh Moc' which we were able to clamber through. The tunnels were used, in similar fashion to the the Ho Chi Minh trail over land in the west, to covertly maintain the sea supply line on the east of Vietnam, to the Vietcong operating in the South using guerilla tactics.
Anyway, this is long and starting to become an abridged history of the war! We promise to try and upload some photos of China and Southeast Asia when we reach Bangkok. Must get back to the beach..
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