DMZ and other Vietnam sights

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

A long day of driving.  Got ready this morning quickly and finally got to check facebook (its blocked in Vietnam and I haven’t been able to change the settings on my netbook, but the hostel has).  I got picked up for breakfast with my tour and when I walked into the restaurant, what do you know?  There was John.  Oh great.  I was grateful that other people were on the tour but couldn’t believe I was going to have to spend 12 hours with this guy.

Khe Sanh

Me in the Vinh Moc tunnel

•          1.5 hour drive to get our guide in Dong Ha before heading along Highway 9 to Rock Pile, a 230 meter high pile of rocks which once had a US Marine Corps lookout on top and a base for American long-range artillery nearby and basically looks like a small hill. 
•          Our next stop was Khe Sanh Combat Base, the site of one of the most famous battles of the war, to explore the small museum, reconstructed bunkers, a few captured American aircrafts and a red dirt strip which was the landing area.  It felt surreal to be on the site where between 200-500 Americans, 10,000 North Vietnamese troops and uncounted civilian bystanders died from machine gun fire, explosions of 1000kg bombs and more.  As we stood there and listened to our guide recount the story and talk about the uniting of Vietnam it made me wonder what we were doing here.  Why do we (as in the United States) continually involve ourselves in other conflicts?  I’m not saying that we should be isolationist, but I think of our current involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and I question what we should be doing.
•          Drove back to Dong Ha for lunch (where I had an order of spring rolls) stopping on our way at Dakrong Bridge on the Ho Chi Minh trail.
•          Crossed the 17^th parallel, the official marking of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), an area which received some of the fiercest fighting of the war.  The DMZ was the creation of the 1954 Geneva Peace Accord, which divided Vietnam into two spheres of influence, separating Communist from Capitalist 
•          Vinh Moc tunnels.  The tunnels provided shelter to families in the heavily bombed village, apparently for six years and are more spacious than the Cu Chi tunnels.  We crawled around in partial darkness through all three levels and came out on the Bien Sea.  Beautiful views.  Then back in to see more of the tunnels.
•          Drove across the Hien Luong Bridge – Ben Hai River.  Once the iconic border crossing between North and South Vietnam, Ben Hai now has two bridges: a modern one bearing Hwy 1A and the reconstructed pedestrian only Hien Luong Bridge, which replaced the wartime bridge destroyed by American bombing in 1967.  At the southern end of the bridge, is a reunification monument with stylized palm leaves.  The northern bank of the river is dominated by a reconstructed flag tower and the Museum of the 17^th Parallel and Dreams of Reunification.

We ended up getting back at 5pm as opposed to 7pm since our group was small.  I wasn’t sad to say goodbye to John and chose not to exchange contact information.  The hostel served free beer from 5-6pm, so I grabbed one before heading to the hot dorm room to do some work on my netbook.  Finally showered before grabbing dinner downstairs at the hostel.  Oddly enough, I ordered a Chili dog because I’d seen someone eating it the day before.  Sat with some people after dinner before calling it a night.  An interesting day of war sights.