The DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) is an area of no-mans land about 40km wide along the 17th parallel that was set up in 1954 when Vietnam was partitioned into a North and South region in accordance with the Paris Peace Treaty. During the Vietnam war, it was the front line between the communist North and the South supported by the USA (and more than 50,000 Australian troops and additional forces from Thailand, New Zealand and the Phillippines). Many of the US forces were stationed close to this region and the nearby towns of Hue and Da Nang. Therefore we decided to explore this area which is full of history. Because it's a bit of a way from Hue and the areas of interest are very spread out, you need to get a guided tour. The simple way to do it is to join a tour bus with a 'sanctioned' tour guide who wil give the Party line of the 'glorious liberation' from the forces of imperialism. We'd had this line from all the museums we'd been in so far and decided that we didn't want to join a bunch of tourists anyhow and we also wanted to see a different side. Therefore we sought out an ex-South Vietnamese soldier who was based in the DMZ and was attached to the 101st US Airbourne division doing dangerous recon work. He offered more personal tours of the region, not in a tour bus, but on the back of a motorcycle. This sounded much more adventurous so we hopped aboard the back of two motorbikes at 7am and set off humming the tune to 'Riders on the Storm'. Little did we know at that stage the prophesy of this!! Our guides' story was a sad one. Taking a very dangerous job of recon, he was paid very well by the US - $5,000 a month and commanded a team of 25 soldiers. However after the war, he was sent to a 're-education' centre for nearly three years to learn about the new glorious ways. His house and all his savings were taken from him and on his release he worked as a cyclo taxi driver for 19 years in order to earn $200 to buy the motorbike that he now uses for tours. We were told that if the police stopped us, we had to say that he was only a driver, not a tour guide as he was not considered a reputable person to discuss the events of the war. Although the DMZ doesn't exist in it's old form any longer, we were able to visit many of the abandoned areas and buildings from the war. One bombed out church still bore the scars of grenades and machine gun fire. A buddhist monument was built along the road of highway one to commemorate the 3,000 people who were killed by the North forces when they temporariliy took Hue in 1968. Our next stop was the Ben Hai river on the 17th parallel. It was here on either side of the banks that the opposing forces squared off against one another. In an quest for pyschological domination, each side would build a giant flagpole with their flag on it, only to be outdone later when the other side built a larger flagpole - and so it went on. As we crossed the river into what was formerly North Vietnam, the next stop was the Vinh Moch tunnels. These are a series of tunnels which extend from the coast in a westerly direction towards Laos and the Ho Chi Min Trail. The reason the tunnels are here is that off the coast is a small island where the USSR and China would deliver weapons for use by the North Vietnames forces. From the island, they would be transported to the tunnels where they were transferred into Laos so they could be delivered to the VC forces fighting in the South. It is estimated that 130,000 tonnes of weapons were transferred through the tunnels. These tunnels are different to the Cu Chi Tunnels near Saigon. The Cu Chi tunnels were used for concealed fighting whereas the Vinh Moc tunnels were for weapons storage and transportation. As a consequence, they are quite a bit bigger and deeper (upto 75ft underground) which allows them to be much cooler. Carol didn't fancy the idea of being a tunnel rat, so Chris set off armed with a torch to explore the myriad of tunnels. Many fighters would live almost permanently here and 17 babies were even born here in a small maternity area. The tunnels have there own wells for water and small livinig areas. We then set off for the three hour trip back to Hue and enjoyed some fantastic scenerly as we drove through the small roads raised above paddy fields where heards of water buffalo were at work ploughing the fields and people planting rice. For the entire day, we didn't see another white face and especially out here on the road less travelled, we were a novelty as people and kids came running to wave to us. However, with less than half of the journey home under our belt the weather took an unexpected and dramatic sudden turn for the worse. A huge tropical storm came out of nowhere and the sky turned an angry black almost instantly. Sheets of rain pounded into our faces like bullets. We had nowhere to take cover so we had to press onwards towards Hue. As we did so, enormous bolts of lightening rained down all around us. These are the type that are not just in the sky, but which arc down to earth and persist for two or three seconds. Bolt after bolt lit the black sky all around us. The blasts of thunder sounded like we were in the middle of the war which had visited this very countryside thirty years earlier. For an hour and a half, we pressed on, hoping that we wouldn't be struck by lightening which Thor himself must have been throwing from the heavens. The back of a motorbike was not the place to be - we remembered humming 'Riders on the Storm' as we left Hue and how it seemed to be true now. Eventually we reached Hue where some of the streets were a foot under water. We were wet beyond belief and so relieved to back at our hotel. Our drivers got a big tip!! This journey has to rank alongside the force 10 storm we were caught in at sea, whilst in the Antarctic, as one of the memorable journeys of this trip. A boiling shower and a hearty dinner had us feeling better. Next stop is Hanoi in the north, where apparently dog is considered a delicacy!