The DMZ

The next morning we headed over to the "DMZ Café," as we had previously agreed, to meet our guide. The plan was simple. I would ride one motorcycle and Debra would ride behind the guide. The reason for this was that I felt that she would be safer with someone who regularly carried passengers. This also gave her a better tour as she was able to ask questions while riding.

There were also two others on the tour. They were also riding one motorcycle each. The bikes on this tour were small Yamahas', similar to the Honda utility bikes seen all around the world. We also wore helmets as there is a helmet law on the highways, but not in town, in Viet Nam.

The first place we went to was a rubber plantation. This plantation is in area that was entirely deforested during the war. While most of the ground had been smoothed, there was a single crater that was left intact to give visitors an idea of what the landscape looked like.

From there we went to the Marine Firebase Charley. This was one of a long string of bases that ran the width of the country. As in most of the old war sites, there was very little left, in this case there was a single bunker and at a different place, a large, thick concrete wall. It was about a 30m square and about 1m thick placed on one edge with some triangular concrete supports. It looked like it was intended as a blast wall to protect something.

The trip to the firebase had us riding down several narrow roads and finally stopping in another small plantation. From there we walked along a narrow foot path to the base. As this was intended to be both a defensible location and an observation point, the view was excellent.

From there we rode to a section of the Ho Chi Min trail. I was very surprised by what I saw. I had a mental picture of a trail, as I think of a trail; instead, it was a paved road. It had been built by the Cubans. The bridges, such as the one we visited, the Ben Tat Bridge, were destroyed by American bombers; but, it was clearly a narrow, paved, road.

As I understand, after leaving Viet Nam, it does revert to being a dirt road and there are sections of trail. There are also sections of trail as it bypasses bombed sections. But overall, it is a road.

From there we visited one of many war memorials that are along the DMZ, the Truong Son National Cemetery. Most of the graves at this memorial were for the "Heroes" and "Masters;" or, those who took part in the, unwinnable, battles and operations against the Americans and French.

After seeing these memorials Debra and I were left with a question, where are the South Vietnamese soldiers buried?

We were told that the families were notified of the locations of their bodies and were given the opportunities take the bodies and place them in their gardens. The cemeteries were then used for used as sites for public works, such as schools and hospitals.

Then a last comment was made that set me to thinking. The comment was, "After all, they lost war." The thoughts went along the line of, how is it possible that they lost the war. If they were members of nation X and nation X was restored then all members of the armies of nation X were, be definition, soldiers for nation X. There can be no, "they." If it is possible for there to be a, "they," then it is incumbent that there truly were two different nations and people. At that point I started paying attention to other things and realized that there is still a lot of North-South "issues" and resentment that remains to be resolved. They are not loudly stated, but it still seems to be a sore spot.

From there we took several back roads in our trip to the beach. I was shocked to realize what a narrow country Viet Nam was. We traveled over half the width of the country in a short ride.

Our next stop, in route to lunch, was the Hien Luong Bridge that spanned the Ben Hai River. This river formed the temporary border, along the 17^th parallel between the North and the South, based on the Geneva Agreement of 20 July 1954. Along with buildings devoted to allowing meeting between representatives of The North and The South, and a French bunker, there was also a grand sculpture depicting a woman and her children waiting for their father to return to the south. This reflected the number of men who lived in the south and traveled to the north for training and weapons before returning to the south, and their homes, to wage war against the French and the Americans, at night, while going about their normal business during the day.

Lunch was eaten outside, under a cover, with hammocks to lie in after our meal at the Cua Tung Beach. This is the first beach that I had seen in my trip to Asia and it was a beautiful beach. The water was clean and there was no trash or litter to be seen.

As is the practice in Asia, we remained there for several hours avoiding any activity in the middle of the day. I have to say, I did not order as much as I would have because, simply, the prices were not written on the menu; but instead, were to be negotiated while ordering. Having been cheated with similar situations, in China, I was very shy of the entire approach. As it was, the prices were a bit high, but considering the environment, reasonable, not too high. But, as I said, before I ordered, I had no way of knowing. They would have gotten more of my money if they had just told the price up front.

From the Cua Tung Beach we rode to the Vin Moc Tunnels. This was a large tunnel complex that became the home of over 5,000 soldiers and their families during the war.

It was here that we did something that we were not quite supposed to do. We went on a self guided tour.

We were told to duck into one of the entrances and have a quick look and come back out. Well, we ducked in, and kept going. By doing this we were able to visit nearly the entire tunnel, including many sections that most tourists never see. We saw many of the exits that gave us access to, yet another, beautiful beach.

After close to an hour of exploring we returned to the entrance, by a surface trail. Our guide was a bit frantic. He was sure that he had just lost his tourists. He was very concerned that the sections that we went into were narrow and had no overhead lights; that we were limited to our torches for light and safety.

I do understand his point, I am also glad that we did it. After we all reassembled we followed the normal tour that started with a visit to the museum on the site and then went to a small section of the tunnels that were wide and well lit. This "tourist" section forms less than a quarter of what is really there. The tourist section is interesting (even though we had already seen it on our "self guided" venture) but there is a lot more. Remember to bring your own torch.

From there we headed toward the remains of an American tank, there was really very little there, anything salvageable was already stripped. We then walked to yet another US and French base. It also provided a good view from the top of the bunker. However, the bunker itself, the one we were standing on, was not clearly visible and I asked if the one we were on was similar to another that was near by. The guide misunderstood my question and said that we could not walk to that one because the German landmine clearing company was not finished and it was not safe to walk to it, yet another reminder that when walking in SE Asia, STAY ON THE PATH!

From there we rode back to Dong Ha, returned our motorcycles and took an evening bus back to Hanoi.