Our Tour Through the DMZzzzzzz

  When faced with the hard task of doing what you want or doing what your partner wants, sometimes not being supportive pays off.  I say that now, knowing that our decision to go to the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) was the wrong one but hey, now I know.  After spending 12 hours on a bus, listening to not so interesting war history, we made it to the famed Vinh Moc Tunnels .  Since my Husband is a closet cave fanatic, the whole reason for our 12 hour excursion was to visit the tunnels but in the end, they weren’t as exciting as the Cu Chi tunnels outside of Saigon.  Maybe if you’re an extreme war history buff, a tour of the DMZ would entertain your intellectual side but for me it just served as a reminder that all the produce I eat is tainted with Agent Orange and that I absolutely loathe guided tours.  Here are the points of interest we visited…. 

OOOOH, AHHHH…this is the Rock Pile.  Yep, the Rock Pile.  Basically, it is a mountain top that American troops occupied during the war.  It was only accessible by helicopter, and was used as a lookout due to it’s great vantage point.  The most interesting part was seeing the before and after shots.  The before being lush and green, the after, completely void of any vegetation for miles in every direction, thanks to the extensive use of defoliants such as Agent Orange.  Nice.  I think we drove 3 hours to see this.

Then we stopped at a bridge that marked the beginning of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.  Wow…I will remember this moment for the rest of my life.  Another 2 1/2 hour drive to this sight.

A war cemetery, the majority are unknown soldiers, this really helped lighten the mood.

Finally, the tunnels we have driven for hours to come see.  Look how excited Dan is…isn’t he cute:)  Below is a picture of the Maternity Ward in the tunnel complex, over the 9 years the tunnels were in use, 17 babies were born.

In an effort to avoid shooting myself in the foot to speed things along, I got Dan to participate in a modelling shoot.  This is his best picture. He He.

  Hmmmm.. Another mistake was our decision to go on this 12 hour tour that was mostly spent driving right before we were to hop on a over night bus to Hanoi - another 12 hour bus ride.  OK, we have experienced bus rides that were close to 24 hours, so that was no biggie and we figured, why not get it all out of the way in one pop and torture ourselves that much more?  So, after a short 2 hour stop over in Hanoi, we jumped on a bus, then a boat, then another bus to take us to the island town of Cat Ba City on Cat Ba Island, in Ha Long Bay.  So, all in all, we spent no short of 30 hours sitting and waiting in transit.  To think, a year ago you couldn’t have gotten me a Greyhound to Vancouver to save my life, now I wouldn’t think twice about it.  I tried to document a routine bus trip in pictures and considering the length of our trip, I believe I was quite successful.

Oh packing, yet again…. The bane of our existence.   If I could pay someone to pack my things and ship them to my next destination, traveling would become so much easier.

Store our bags along with all the other backpackers doing the same thing as us.  Off to say goodbye to yet another group of great friends… Seriously, when will the goodbyes become easier?  Hey, I guess we could start hanging out with shitty people, now there’s an idea  :)

We have to wait at this random bus station in the middle of nowhere for how long?  Seriously- seriously??  This is the part I hate, I sit there and try to calculate the exact last moment I can wait to go to the washroom before I am in for the long haul.

Awe… This is us right at the beginning- 12 hours in and we’re not so happy.  Making friends on a bus ride is always a huge risk- they could talk for hours, and hours and hours. Luckily the friend who took this picture for us was awesome! Thanks Nguyen!

Dan doesn’t look too bad considering it’s midnight and we are now sitting at a bus stop cafeteria lit only with fluorescent bulbs.  It never fails that after 5 hours of trying to fall asleep you manage to ignore the uncomfortable seats and bumpy roads and drift off into a slumber only to be abruptly woken up moments later and carted off the bus for a midnight snack.  Lovely.