After catching the night train to Hue from Hanoi, I quickly realized that I might really like Hue. For those not in the know, it's pronounced 'whey.' As I walked from the train station, I realized that Hue was a lot smaller of a town than Hanoi, which was great for me. After finding an awesome hotel for $10/night, I struck out for a quick walk around the area and to find some food. I quickly realized that the constant buzz of 'motobike?' would be in my ears since there seemed to be dozens more motobike drivers than tourists. I did manage to get in quick tour of the forbidden city before tiring out and heading back to the hotel to rest. On my way back, I did stop off and booked a DMZ tour, which was to start early the next day!
At 6am I was being picked up and taken out to the former Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, the former border between North and South Vietnam, which is about 90-110 kms from Hue. The early morning proved to be more than I could handle as I forgot to get extra batteries for my camera. Upon trying to take my first picture of the day, my camera quickly shut off and told me to change the batteries. Darn the luck! I will say that there were some cool scenery shots, but not really much left of the DMZ. Mostly there were empty fields where battles took place and unless you were a bit of history buff, you started to get tired midway through the day. The treat for me was a quick stop off at the Vinh Mouc tunnels. Unlike the Cu Chi tunnels outside of Saigon, these tunnels are a little less touristy and haven't been widened for us western tourists. It was a neat, if scary experience to see just how small the tunnels were and gave me more appreciation for just how daunting an experience it must have been for the tunnel rats during the war.
More later......
Love, peace, and soul.
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