February 11, 2007
Rest Day Dong Ha: DMZ Tour by motorbike
Mr. Tinh from the DMZ cafe is at our hotel at a little before 8am. He has brought our guide and a second moped driver for our tour today. Our guide is a veteran from the war, served on the South Vietnamese side. He was a NCO master Sargent and acted as an interpreter for American troops. He is 64 years old and spent three years in a "re-education" camp after the war ended. He tells about his brother who was a Colonel who spent 13 years in "camp" until Reagan worked something out to get him to the USA. He now lives in California.
We start with a ride, first North then West and inland. At one point we leave the sealed road, head down some dirt trails, then walk about a kilometer up a small hill. On top is a small concrete bunker. This place was one Con Thien fire base for the US Marine Corps. Except for the bunker there is not much evidence for this, the wooden barracks, trenches and sandbags are all gone, any metal hauled away by scrap metal collectors. This area was heavily bombed and parts are still considered unsafe. Other places have been regraded and planted with rubber tree saplings.
We walk back to the mopeds and ride to Trung Son National Cemetery where tens of thousands NVA and VX casualties are buried. We then ride a dirt road back to Highway 1 and go to the bridge across the Ben Hai River. This was the demarcation line between North and South Vietnam, now days only the North Vietnam flagpole remains. A new bridge was built for highway 1, we walk across on the old one.
Next stop is into Northern Vietnam, we visit the tunnels of Vinh Moc. We walk about a kilometer through the tunnels, three levels deep to 27 meters below the ground. These tunnels are the real thing, only the entrances have been rebuilt and some lighting has been installed. The walls and curved ceiling are red sticky clay that feels wet and spongy. At the deeper sections water that has dripped down the walls collect in a narrow trench along the side of the tunnel.
At one point we exit on the beach of the South China Sea, then we enter through another tunnel. Our guide has a flashlight and that's a good thing. We head back across the Ben Hai River, stop for lunch and make one more stop at another US base, Doc Mien base. A disabled tank body with only its turret still attached is laying on an embankment beside the road. We walk a few hundred meters through some low shrubbery to a concrete bunker not much to see here again most has been hauled away for recycling.
We get back to Dong Ha at 2pm watch TV and have dinner at the restaurant near the bus stop.
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