At 18.06 our soft seat is waiting for us. Dirty as usual, infested with cockroaches, as usual.
7/30
We arrive in Hue at about 6.00 and a taxi (47 thousand dong in two) takes us to our hotel, the hotel Nino, booked in advance with a simple email. We have room 402, cost 25 USD. We did not pay anything in advance.
It is a typical Vietnamese house, tall and narrow, tiny rooms, steep stairs. The managers are exceptionally warm and kind. At any time of day, for any reason we pass through the reception, they give us something to drink, water, tea, delicious fruit smoothies, and the first day an unexpected breakfast which was not due. They give us a lot of advice and tips. Obviously we book with them all excursions. We breathe a very cozy and familiar atmosphere here.
We decide to deposit our luggage, and leave immediately to visit the city, 12 USD, including lunch (but not entry fees) and minivan. I am particularly glad that we reach the royal tombs by bus, and not by boat. A boat would be more scenic, but then there would be the problem of reaching the entrances to the monuments. They are quite far away from the river, and then the only option, other than running because of the limited time, would be to rely on mototaxis .
The bus groups tourists from many hotels, we will visit 3 royal tombs, 80 thousand dong each for the entry. We visit Minh Mang, Tu Duc and Khai Din, perhaps the 3 most famous. Minh Mang has beautiful gardens, but my favorite is Khai Din, because of the rich interiors
We stop at some souvenirs stalls, and then we see a match of Kinh Van, a Vietnamese martial art
After an excellent buffet lunch, the tour continues to the citadel (80 thousand dong), badly damaged by the bombs, and very recently restored,
and finally to the Thien Mu Pagoda. We come back to the city by the river.
Hue is a city full of hotels, restaurants and shops. After a not memorable dinner at DMZ bar, 90 thousand dong, we immerge in the heart of the commercial area, for the first purchases.
Since the next day we have to get up very early, we go to bed not too late
7/31 DMZ and 17th parallel
18 USD, paid and booked through our hotel. We leave at 6.00, and stop for breakfast in the same restaurant as yesterday. The temperature is cooler than usual. The tour today involves a long trip, and this is the reason why many skip it, but I’m glad I went. We visit Rock Pile, the Hien Luong Bridge, which marked the border between north and south Vietnam, the Dakrong Bridge, where a monument celebrates the beginning of Ho Chi Minh Trail and then the base of Khe Sanh, where a long battle took place in 1968 . Here we find a heavy rain, some remnants of war, and a small museum.
The pictures are impressive, I can read the heat, the thirst, the pain, the fear in the faces depicted.
The guide, a very competent woman, gives us a history lesson. The Vietnam War, but this time I do not see it in a movie. It is not only here at Khe Sanh, but in the mutilation of now elderly former veterans who ask for money at the bus stations, still wearing helmets or parts of their uniform, or in the malformations of very young lottery tickets sellers, victims of the orange agent.
Defoliants and herbicides used during the war continue today to harm the fetus, and despite the lost legal battles, and imposed sentences, the US or their multinational manufacturers have never paid damages. These unlucky creatures, some of them little more than vegetables, are totally on their families charge. Only a few associations of former American soldiers have provided practical help.
After lunch, and another hour on the bus, we find the sun at the Vinh Moc tunnels, Only a small part can be visited, but it’s already enough for me.
The tunnels are bigger than the Cu Chi ones, and only in a couple of occasions I have to lower my head not to bump it on the ceilings, however, I feel a sense of claustrophobia, observing the “family rooms”, cubes of a few square meters where families were confined, and what about the childbirth room? I feel reassured, emerging in an open space facing the sea, and breathing fresh air.
8/1 From Hue to Hoi An
Roberta takes a taxi to the airport, and I, along with an American, one for the train station