(10.5.30.08 Noble House, Room #305. Cat Ba, Vietnam 6:15pm)
Later that afternoon (9.22.08) we arrived in Hue. I made my way through the hordes of people trying to get me to stay at their hotel or give me a moto bike ride and found my way to the backpacker area. It was a small alley with about 8 different guest houses. I walked from house to house trying to find the best rate, taking advantage of the fact that it is slow season. I was able to find A/C rooms for 8USD at most and non A/C for 6USD, however at one guest house I found a room next to the lobby with no AC, and no windows for 4USD. It had a fan but was literally a sweat box. I walked to an internet café to check emails and shipped off a box of presents back to Maui. I went back to Sinh Café and booked a tour of the DMZ (Demilitarization Zone) for the following morning. It was an all day tour which cost 20 USD. This is the area that some of the fiercest fighting took place in the N/S Vietnam War. I set it up that the bus to Hanoi would pick me up at the end of the tour, rather than me coming back to Hue since the DMZ was about 2 hours north of Hue. Returning to my room I called Cang, Thai and Nhi, the CS’ers I had been corresponding with. The three of them already knew each other and they brought another friend, Yen, from one of their English classes to meet me at the guest house. They took me out for dinner to a small house way down a maze of alleys to have Com Hen (Rice Shell) and Bun Hen (Noodle shell). Both dishes consisted of pork rines, peanuts, spices, vegetables and of course “shells”. At first I thought they were saying “Snails” but when I drew a picture of a snail they laughed and corrected me. Through a lot of picture drawing and hand signals I later found out that “Shells” is either oysters or muscles. After dinner they took me out for Nucc Sam Dua, which is milk flavored with ginseng and pineapple. They all had me write in their books the Hawaiian words I had taught them and they wrote in my book. Cang then took me back to my guest house. It was sooo hott in my room I slept with the door open all night.
I woke up at 6am the following morning (9.23.08) to check out of my room and grab breakfast before the tour. On the way to the first sight I realized that I had left my passport at the guest house. All guest houses make you leave your passport at the front desk til you check out. The thing is, at 6 am neither I nor the guy I woke up to check me out, were awake enough to remember that I needed it back! I quickly called the guest house, as soon as I said “Passport” they said “OH, Tim Lara! Yes we have” I got the bus driver to sort it out that they would take it to Sinh Café and they would have one of their bus drivers bring it to me before I left for Hanoi. A couple of hour bus ride later we pulled into a restaurant for breakfast. We were met by our “English” speaking tour guide here as well. Once back on the bus she explained, in broken English, the intenarary for the day. I could barely understand what she was saying and looked around the bus to see if I were the only one struggling. Blank stares from all the passengers re-assured me that I wasn’t. I felt bad for those that English was their second language, because I was certain that they weren’t even picking up on the bits and pieces that I was able to understand. Our first stop was “the rock pile” we pulled off the road and the guided pointed out a mountain in the distance and explained that this is where the Americans set up a surveillance camp. Five minutes later we back in the bus. Our next stop was a bridge over the river that divided the North from the South. This bridge was also the beginning of the “Ho Chi Minh Trail” which was used to smuggle supplies and weapons during the war. Our next stop was Khe Sang Military Base, which has now been turned into a museum. From the literature in the museum and what the tour guide told us, this was a strategic and vital base for the Americans and South Vietnamese which was overtaken by the North Vietnamese after 6 months of heavy fighting. I was told by others on the tour that it didn’t go down exactly as it was being portrayed by the museum and tour guide. Apparently movies like Hamburger Hill and other Vietnam War movies are about this battle. There were two men walking around the grounds of the museum selling artifacts from the war that they had found with metal detectors: US dog tags, Vietnamese medals and bullets. I bought a Viet Cong medal after much hassle from the guy to buy something. We got back on the bus and had an hour and half bus ride back to the same restaurant for lunch. The next 4 things on the itinerary were a joke. She pointed out a tank and bridge on the side of the road as we drove by on separate occasions without stopping. Then we stopped at a large statue in memory of the Northern Vietnamese fighters. The final stop on the tour was tunnels just north of the DMZ where an entire village lived for 6 years. There were three different levels underground and many chambers for sleeping, giving birth, community room, bathing. We were given a 25 minute tour of the tunnels and at one point joined by a man that grew up in the tunnels. An hour bus ride took us back to the restaurant that we had eaten at all day and I got off to wait for my bus to Hanoi. Two hours later the bus showed up and low and behold the driver actually had my passport!
