Lukey and Louisey's Round-The-World Adventure

Love you long time GI...

The last couple of days have been huge so I'll start with today (because it's fresh) and work backwards. Today we had a 6am start (START not wake-up) as we were heading out to the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ). Breakfast was included, so our first stop after picking everyone up was to a restaurant for some banana pancakes. We made stops at Doc Mieu Base, Hien Luong Bridge over the Ben Hai River (where they spilt north and south VietNam back in the day) and the museum and tunnels at Vihn Moc. The tunnels were absolutely amazing. We had the opportunity to go down into the tunnels and actually see how intricate and complex they were. They had a maternity ward for god's sake! At first Luke and I were a bit scared that we were actually going into the tunnels, but once inside (and once you had gotten used to the smell of BO) it was mind-boggling. As Luke kept saying throughout the day "They [the Americans] were never going to win the war!". Also, a piece of advise: don't proceed if you are claustrophobic. It is so dark and pretty tiny. It would be so easy to get lost down there. We stayed down for maybe half an hour and exited out the beach side and got some pretty fab views of Cua Tung Beach. We were also bombarded with people trying to sell cold drinks and water. But you get that a lot here. On the way to the tunnels we also walked pass trenches and craters left by bombs. An amazing place.

Next was lunch then a long journey into the mountains to visit the Rockpile (a US lookout during the war). We could only see the mountains as our guide assured us there was nothing left there (you can only access the actual lookout via helicopter). You could see areas around the mountains that had absolutely no vegetation because it had been blanketed with Agent Orange. Then, we moved on to Dakrong Bridge and the Ho Chi Minh Trail and were greeted with close to a dozen adorable children chanting "Money, money, money, money, mmmmoooooonnneeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyy" to any white person who walked by! They were gorgeous if not a bit cheeky, but a bit of cheek never hurt anyone. Our last stop was the Khe Sahn Combat Base (a strategic combat base the US held... Cold Chisel wrote a song about it.) and that was interesting. There was a museum with lots of memorabilia and photos and outside there were bunkers, helicopters and other war stuff to look at, leaving a lasting impact. We all boarded our bus completely drained and were delighted when our guide informed us we had a three hour journey back to Hue!!

I think it is safe to say Luke and I are glad we stayed an extra night to go to the DMZ. Incredible. Absolutely recommend it if you are in the area.

And we did all this after yesterday's absolutely chockers day! The day before, we went on the City Tour and saw plently of Hue's interesting historical sights. In a nutshell we saw the Minh Mang Tomb, the Khai Dinh Tomb, people making incense, the Citadel (and within here we saw the Forbidden Purple City, the Flag Tower, Ngo Mon Gate, some Massive gold fish, Thai Hoa Palace, the Nine Dynastic Urns and some pretty incredible temples.), one of the Pagodas and finished off with a dragon boat ride across the Perfume River. My highlight of the day was probably the Khai Dinh Tomb which had all this breathtaking ceramic pictures and paintings (words don't really do it any justice... ok maybe just my words. I'm tired so shhh). All the materials made to build the tomb and the artworks were imported from France and China. It took something like 29 years to complete! And you can totally see why. The roof had paintings of dragons all across it and apparently the artists painted it entirely by foot! As you do! Again, a massive day.

So as you can imagine we are both exhausted. I think we got some pretty good shots along the way so hopefully I can get them up so you can see what I'm fussing about! Tomorrow we have another early start as we take a bus tour down to Hoi An. I'm pretty excited because there is supposed to be some fantastic shopping there! Tailors and everything! I think we are going to just send some excess stuff home... So I can make the most of it all! ;)

posted by Louise and Luke @ 12:42 AM