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Arrived in Hue after a cramped night on the sleeper bus. I managed to grab the lasdt bed, whilst Chris was forced into the back made for 5 people; Chris was the 6th! Once we got off the bus, we were hounded by people offering us rooms but we already had a place in mind, of course. They were very insistant and about 4 of them followed us for a good couple of roads before giving up. Not the greatest welcome at 7am after a 12hr bus ride! We finally found the hotel we were looking for and had a great room at the top, complete with it's own balcony.
We thought we would rest a fair bit this day, but ended up doing the major sights as were keen to make some time. We visited the Citadel, which was pretty cool, despite how damaged it was during the wars. It was good to see it starting to be restored-it must have been ana amzing place. There was a scale modal showing how vast it would have been and made us very keen to go to Beijing to see the Forbidden City (one day!).
DAY TWO-DMZ TOUR
We booked a tour to the DMZ. Our guide, Mr Troung, served in the war, fighting for the South Vietnamese Army. He was a great guide, informing us of both sides of the American war, and gace us a real understanding of the country and its history, along with the divide between the North and the South. Our group was small, 5 in total, including a lovely older Irish couple. It was pouring down with rain, but we got to see some really good stuff.
The Vinh Moc tunnels were astounding-a amazing feat of tunneling, with 500 people digging out the soft mud. It's amazing to think whole families lived down there for 5 years-even 17 babies were bron down there! There were rooms for a classroom, a hospital and even a nursery. We met one of the men who was born in the tunnels and he was deaf due to the amount of bombing.
Mr Truong took us to see some unexploded bomobs-a surreal experience. There are still so many uncleared bombs and landmines in Vietnam, causing around 1,000 deaths a year and injuring about twice that many. It was an eye-opening experience, where we learnt a great deal. It also made us aware how we have never visited the war graves in France-we really should.
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