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Hayley & Holly On Tour 2006
Ok so the picture is of Japan but since there is a shortage of Vietnam pics on here we're making do, at least til we manage to upload some more of our own!
Today has been a very interesting day indeed. We got up at 4.45am and went on a tour of the DMZ, about 3hrs North of Hue. We went to Dong Ha and had breakfast and then headed straight to the Vinh Moc tunnels where about 300 North Vietnamese civilians and soldiers spent 4 years during the American war. Holly couldn't wait to get in there but I was a little more reluctant, both really glad we did it though. They have been preserved extremely well and not altered at all for tourists, they remain as they were 30 years ago. We could just about stand upright in there, took about 20 minutes to walk right the way through, passing by family rooms and even a maternity ward (17 babies were born down there). It's quite cool down there considering, but a little too claustrophobic for my liking. Our guide was a local man who was 7 when the war began. He learnt most of his English from the American soldiers whom he spoke of highly. He remembers clearly having to leave his home when the war began and returning to utter destruction some years later. It was quite eye opening to hear him speak, he told us over 3 million Vietnamese people died during the ten years of war, and 58,000 American soldiers too. Many of whom didn't want to fight at all.
After the tunnels we had a nice lunch of spring rolls (keeping the comparison going, today's rank no.2 so far) and vegetable rice. With nice full tummies we headed for the Ben Hai bridge (whoops probably wrong!) which devided North and South Vietnam from 1954. The original bridge is no longer used but they have kept it in memorial. Later we headed well into Central Vietnam and ended up about 20km from the Laos border along the old Ho Chi Minh trail which was used by North Vietnamese soldiers to transport weapons etc to the South during the war. The scenery is absolutely stunning, worth three hours on the bus.
The only down side was one stop in an 'ethnic minority village' around the same area. It is actually inhabited by people from Laos but is still in Vietnam. We spent 10 minutes here and were told to look around the village. All the children rush to meet the bus and then take up suitably cute poses for pictures. Then they beg for money, slap your legs and point at your money belt. I'm guessing this is not their first time. Still, we hurried back on the bus and enjoyed the scenery a little more!
Just had our last dinner out in Hue before moving on to Hoi An at 8am tomorrow morning, so we needn't be up until 6am (bit of a lye in then!). We heard lots of people on the bus today saying that Hoi An is nicer than Hue so we're pretty excited as we've really enjoyed it here!
Thanks for all your kind messages, so pleased people are actually reading this!
Missing you all, lots of love
Hayley & Holly
xxx
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