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Saturday 5th November
We had made no plans of where to go next and we had to check out the hotel today so with the help of the hotel staff we decided to head to Hue. We opted for a 1 hour flight over the 16 hour bus, we had time to pack and it was straight to the airport! The flight was fast although there was a local lady quite violently vomiting for most of the hour! (So glad I had my ipod in my ears!!) We arrived in Hue around 5pm and went straight to our hotel where we were quite lazy and just watched TV only venturing out for some dinner - which was rank - Joe ordered Lasagne (he always tells me not to let him order Lasagne as its never as good as Mum's but he didn't listen!!)
Sunday 6th November
We decided to do a tour of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (a dividing line between North and South Vietnam as a result of the First Indochina War.) During the Second Indochina War (popularly known as the Vietnam War), it became important as the battleground demarcation separating North Vietnamese territory from South Vietnamese territory.
We were picked up from our hotel at 6.30am and taken for breakfast. Then we drove for about 3 hours and our first stop was the Khe Sanh Combat Base - it was a United States Marine Corps outpost in South Vietnam used during the Vietnam War. The airstrip was built in September 1962. Fighting began there in late April of 1967 known as the "Hill Fights", which later expanded into the 1968 Battle of Khe Sanh. U.S. commanders hoped that the North Vietnamese Army would attempt to repeat their famous victory at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, and the battle ended as a failure for the North Vietnamese Army. The defense of Khe Sanh became one of the largest sieges of the war and commanded heavy international attention in the media one of several climactic phases of the Tet Offensive. On July 5, 1968, Khe Sanh was abandoned, the U.S. Army citing the vulnerability of the base to enemy artillery. However, the closure permitted the 3rd Marine Division to construct mobile firebase operations along the northern border area. In 1971, Khe Sanh was reactivated by the US Armyto support Operation Lam Son 719, the South Vietnamese incursion into Laos. It was abandoned again sometime in 1972. In March 1973, American officials in Saigon reported that North Vietnamese troops had rebuilt the old airstrip at Khe Sanh and were using it for courier flights into the south. As of 2009, Khe Sanh Combat Base is a museum where relics of the war are exhibited. Most of the former base is now overgrown by wilderness or coffee and banana plants. It was interesting to see photos from the war and abandoned helicopters, tanks and planes.
We then drove another hour where we stopped for lunch.
After lunch we visited part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail then crossed the Ben Hai River into North Vietnam to visit the Vinh Moc tunnels. - During the Vietnam War it was strategically located on the border of North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The tunnels were built to shelter people from the intense bombing in the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone. The American forces believed the villagers of Vinh Moc were supplying food and armaments to the North Vietnemese garrison on the island of Con Co which was in turn hindering the American bombers on their way to bomb Hanoi. The idea was to force the villagers of Vinh Moc to leave the area but as is typical in Vietnam there was nowhere else to go. The villagers initially dug the tunnels to move their village 10 metres underground but the American forces designed bombs that burrowed down 10 metres. Eventually against these odds, the villagers moved the village to a depth of 30 metres. It was constructed in several stages beginning in 1966 and used until early 1972. The complex grew to include wells, kitchens, rooms for each family and spaces for healthcare. Around 60 families lived in the tunnels; as many as 17 children were born inside the tunnels. The tunnels were a success and no villagers lost their lives. The only direct hit was from a bomb that failed to explode; the resulting hole was utilized as a ventilation shaft. Three levels of tunnels were eventually built. We were able to walk through parts of the tunnels! I could stand up through most of it. It was amazing to see the tiny areas of where families lived!
Then we had a long drive back to Hue. Overall it was a long day with a lot of time spent of the bus but we both felt we learnt a lot about the Vietnam war. We showered and headed out for dinner - we only made it to the restaurant opposite our hotel as it was absolutely lashing down!
Monday 7th November
We had a lazy morning today watching TV and packing our bags. We weren't being collected from our hotel till 1pm and it was still lashing down with rain. Luckily the bus collected us from our hotel as we'd of been soaked. The roads were starting to get flooded and the guy at our hotel told us it was just as well we were leaving today as lots of rain was expected and buses probably wouldn't run for a few days. It took about 4 hours to Hoi An and it was still raining! The bus stopped at another hotel so we phoned the hotel we'd booked and they came to collect us. We got settled and ran over the road for dinner - as it was still raining!
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