We were up for breakfast at 6.30 this morning and then picked up at 7 for our DMZ tour. This is basically a tour around the key places that fall near what was the border between South and North Vietnam when the two were separated. This was a zone where military troops were banned from. However, there is still quite a lot of history surrounding it from the war.
Our tour didn't start off too well, as we pulled over after half an hour and waited around for an hour without being told why. Eventually a taxi pulled up with two girls who had been forgotten about and they joined us on the bus and we finally set off! We drove to Dong Ha where we picked up the woman who was our tour guide for today. Our original plan was to book a private tour with a war veteran, but she was actually really good and knew her stuff!
The first place we stopped was something called the rockpile, which is a big mountain only accessible by helicopter that was used for US communications. After a quick stop here we had another brief stop at an ethnic minority village. This is a small community of people who still live a simple, rural lifestyle. It was quite interesting to find out how they live in a country like Vietnam without modernisation.
The next place we visited was across Dakrong Bridge to see one of the routes on the Ho Chi Minh trail. These were roads used by both the North and South for transportation during the war. The scenery around this area was incredible, with hills and valleys in every direction as far as you could see.
Our final stop before lunch was Khe Sanh Combat base. This was a U.S. Military base which is now a museum with helicopters, tanks and planes on display. The inside had lots of interesting photos and information about the war.
After lunch we headed for Highway 1, which involved crossing the bridge over Ben Hai river. This river was the official dividing point for South and North Vietnam and marks the DMZ zone for both sides. Once across the bridge we headed for the Vinh Moc tunnels. This is one of the massive underground tunnel structures where Vietnamese people lived for around 6 years to escape and protect themselves from the war above. As we walked through it seemed unbelievable that people actually managed to survive and live in the conditions there. It does make you respect the Vietnamese's will and determination to survive. This was definitely the highlight of the tour.
Our final stop was a cemetery which mainly holds the graves of unknown soldiers. It was quite emotional to see all the unpersonalised gravestones and unclaimed bodies that are housed here.
After this we headed back to Hue, giving us plenty of time to finish packing now and organise our bike for tomorrow. We are both really excited about our trip down to Hoi An, which we will probably leave at about 8am for. With a long day ahead of us we are having an early night to get some rest.