UK - China - Vietnam Hanoi - Dong Ha, Central Vietnam 29 November 2006 I am currently lying on a lime green flowery nylon bed sheet, with a rat, cockroaches, and geckos as company. Doesn't that sound appealing? We're in another 'cheapie' for the night – under GBP 3, in a place called Dong Ha - 12 hours south of Hanoi.
There is a reason that we're staying somewhere like this: it's not that we like to live 'a life of grime' – tomorrow we have booked ourselves into a luxury 4* hotel for two nights in a place called Hue, which is a couple of hours south of here. Well we're hoping it’s going to be luxury anyway, as things here aren't always as they first seem to appear, for example: The Halong Bay tour. So fingers crossed on this one. Where I am at the moment is a town called Dong Ha and it is in Central Vietnam and when Vietnam found itself engulfed in the war, central Vietnam was the scene of the heaviest fighting around the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). Some Dong Ha History
 | | Angkor Wat in Cambodia |
After today's motorbike tour that we took, I am now much more knowledgeable on the awful war that took place here, over 30 years ago now. We had hired a guide and then the three of us took to the back of a motorbike each for a day of history. But before the history lesson began, we were shown where rubber comes from – do you know? It's from trees. Silly old me didn't know this, so I found it quite interesting. Hundreds and hundreds of rubber trees and in neat parallel lines, with a spiral carved around them from the top of the tree to about half of the way down. A small cup is then placed at the bottom to collect the rubber that drips down the tree. Good stuff hey.
 | | Beautiful scenery |
In amongst these trees, we were shown a B52 bombsite crater – it was huge and I hate to imagine the scene when it had blown up. After having our short science lesson, it was time to hop back on the bikes and head to an area where the Americans had a base during the war. It was on top of a high hill, which gave them good coverage of the land around them. Whilst up there, we went into an old concrete bunker and you should have seen the amount of bullets holes that were in the walls – scary! I tried to picture myself in there whilst they were all being fired – what a horrible and terrifying picture in my mind that was. All around this area were rusting hand grenade, bullets, and shrapnel – all used of course. Next we were shown to the site of an unexploded B52 bomb, but don't worry, what would have made it explode has been removed by a local by just using a hammer. Our guide told us that many locals used to do this – some were lucky and managed it successfully, while others unfortunately didn't... National Cemetery On the agenda next was to visit the National Cemetery and Park. It felt rather odd being here, surrounded by all the gravestones. So many of the people that died in the war were never identified, so many of the gravestones don't have name on them. So in memory of this, a park was built for those people - so that when a full moon occurs, the spirits of these people are able to leave their graves and visit the park. You're probably wondering how they do this – well, in each gravestone a hole is left in the top – so the spirit is able to leave and enter through this hole. Spirits who have no family left on Earth can also go to this park – I thought that this was a lovely idea.
 | | Nay travelling light |
We were soon back on the bikes and heading towards the Ho Chi Minh trail – which is where supplies used to be distributed along during the war. But because people knew this, it was a bombing target site. The last place to visit was the Vinh Moc Tunnels. These tunnels were built due to the massive ariel and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam in 1966. Just north of the DMZ, the villagers of Vihn Moc found themselves living in one of the most heavily bombed and shelled strips of land, so they had to do something about it. They had the choice to flee the area or begin tunneling into the red earth clay which they were surrounded by. And that's what we visited today – a 2.8km maze of tunnels, ranging on three levels from 15m to 26m below the ground. An enormous Viet Cong base was established down there, along with accommodation for the civilians and their families who had built the tunnels. It was slightly creepy being down there – to think that whilst all the people were living down there, there were bombs being dropped right above their heads. They were so small and cramped – I had to walk with my head down most of the time and it was so dark as well. They now have a few very faint lights down there, but luckily we had a torch with us as well, otherwise we would have been blind as bats. Whilst visiting, we were the only people in the tunnels, so that made it even more real. The rooms in which the people had to live were tiny – 6 x 3 ft – barely enough room to sit, let alone live comfortably. But it was keeping them safe from what was happening above, so that is all that mattered. From here we headed back to out hotel and our guide informed us that we had covered 140km that day – wow!
 | | Close friends in a faraway place |
I am now finishing off this piece whilst it is hammering it down outside. Luckily that rain held out till we got back home on our bikes. Tomorrow we are heading to Hue for our two night of lavishness!!!! So more from me then! Bye x Click on the link below to read the second part of Rachael's latest diary: | 
