Scott Fletcher
I decided to have a rest in Hue after the ride which was a great idea in retrospect!
A lot of people have been asking me where I have been and where that is in the world. So I have made a map of my adventure so far, the maps over here are pretty dodge but this is as good as I can right now
Scott
I traded in my crappy bike that was unsteady for one whose speedo did not work.
Well the DMZ is the De Militarised Zone which was established around 1954 and where a lot of the war started. Rob(first in Cambodia then Hoi An) decided to come along for the ride which was good because it made it a lot more fun than it would have been on my own. We decided first port of call would be Khe San then along the south of the DMZ. I decided to ride towards Lao to a town called Aluoi, then up to Khe San. The DMZ was roughly a five mile zone either side of the Ben Hai river around the 17th Parallel. On the way to Khe San we went through some amazing country, the valleys were amazing as well as the hills. The thing that really got me was that people were living in little shacks and they had a satellite dish for great TV reception!
The first stop was Khe San a major American base during the war, this was a huge thing for the Americans apparently they were extremely worried about another Dien Bien Phu, where the French were wiped out and lost about 10000 men. So Johnson the American president was obsessed with not losing the position, apparently they had over 5000 aircraft and over 6000 soldiers on the ground pummeling the surrounding area. This was quite surreal country, when we were riding along it was weird thinking about the fighting that would have gone on in these hills. This was real jungle, you would be lucky to see 2 meters in front of you, it was that dense. The hills were sheer as well, it is surprising the Norths soldiers were able to be anywhere and everywhere in these conditions.
The battle of Khe San never really eventuated although it was a major position for the Americans. I read a quote that said something like “Losing Khe San is like losing nothing, because there is nothing here to begin with.” This is to true, there was nothing really there, the terrain was awesome, rolling mountains and valleys but not a lot in between, it was as thought they created a center of activity from nothing. There was nothing left of the base, although they had a memorial and some helicopters etc. Apparently the Americans destroyed everything that could possibly be used in a propaganda film when they left in the late 60′s. Now it is a coffee and tea plantation.
This was about 200km into the journey, next stop Camp Carroll which was about 40km along. This was up the top of a hill but there was nothing there once again but a memorial. We had a loot around. It was strange because apparently they were supporting Khe San with artillery so that is a long way away. I saw some artillery which could fire 32kms which is amazing and scary. After this we went a town for the night which was good.
The next day it was time to cross over the border of the DMZ into the north. First stop was a Vietnamese war cemetery ‘Truong Son’ which was pretty sobering. I do not like cemetery’s at the best of times and this was not better. This was made up of support staff, whether supply, clerks, anti aircraft, construction etc, they were not directly fighting on the front. All their tombs say ‘martyr’ as well as their name, rank, date of birth and death. From here we went to have a look at the Ben Hai river which was at the center of the DMZ.
After Truong Son cemetery it was time to go and explore Vin Moc tunnels, these are tunnels the Vietnamese dug during the war to escape the air raids. They are similar to the ones that I went to in Ho Chi Minh city, but better. There were two great things about these, they were in near original condition and you could explore some of them yourself. The other major difference is that the Cu Chi tunnels were used actively fighting the war, and this was a village just living underground. We were taken down a lit section by a guide which was good, they showed us the maternity room (17 babies were born, 16 still alive) various bomb shelters on the three levels. The first level is about 7-9m underground, 2nd 15m, 3rd 23m underground. One amazing thing was that I would not expect any green plants to be growing 23m underground but there were around the lights. We went through about 150m of tunnels that were lit and they were showing us around. After this I borrowed a torch and decided to go exploring about 300m. These tunnels would make a grate movie setting, with some monster chasing people around. They are pithc black, curvy and tight, I managed to find my way around from a map I had taken a photo of.
After Vin Moc it was time to head back to Hue, going over the bridge that joins the North and South. On the way back we were caught in the worst storm I have experienced while I have been over here, it was crazy, I could not really see the road at all, I could barely see the white outline of the side of the road and just followed that, very hectic and very wet by the end. That night was the full moon, it did not go red over here and the camera did not take a great photo of it. That night I met up with Katie for diner, and it is never a good idea to just choose something at random and getting a fish head.
Photos of DMZ
Well after a large night on the rice wine I woke rather later than expected and not feeling as fresh as I would have hoped. Katie was going to ride down south to Hoi An, and I was going to go to Danang then west and up the western border. The ride started hot and there was a particular road that I was hoping to take that went through Bach Ma national park. As far as I can figure this is another mythical road, so we ended up going down the highway most of the trip. There was one saving grace being the Hai Van pass where all the mountains go into the sea and you are driving along amazing cliff faces with amazing corners zig zagging their way up the mountains. On the highway was when I started to notice that my bike was not that stable unless the ground was perfect. When you pass through a town they have horizontal white bumps on the road to slow you down, which are fine on most bikes but on this bike the back of the bike seemed to keep kicking out to the left. This became quite pronounced and worrying, the chassis must have been slightly bent and the wheel slightly out of alignment, so when it lost traction it jumped. This is quite scary when you are going at 70km and the back wheel suddenly jumps 10cm to your left.
That night I ended up staying in Hoi An again and it was lucky to because there was a full moon festival. The center of the town was blocked off to all traffic, all the lights turned out and only lit by lanterns and candles. This was an amazing site, and so many people milling around it was a mad house. This is when I bumped into a guy I met in Cambodia Rob, I was walking past a restaurant and heard ‘Scott’. We ended up having a few drinks then going out for a fun night on the town.
The next day I wanted to ride up to a hill station called Ba Na Hill station, in a basically a flat coastal landscape this was around 1250m high so it would be a good climb if it was easy to find. First I rode to Danang then asked ‘Bow Nyoo’ (how much) Kilomete Ba Na, this worked surprisingly well, they told me turn left in 5km, after about 4km I asked again and they pointed to the actual road which is always a bonus. Ba Na was about 40km outside Danang through some lovely countryside and also some really dodgy roads. When I reached the bottom of the hill station I need to buy another ticket and walk four meters to have the ticket ripped by someone else, job creation if ever i saw it but i suppose share the wealth.
I could not see the top of the mountain and it seemed to rise out of nothing which was pretty impressive, when I went through a gate before the bridge the guy stopped me and pressed my horn a few times to hit home that I would need it, and I soon found out why. After the bridge the climb started that lasted over 10km which I was pretty impressed with. It was a climb through some of the fiercest jungle imaginable, and the sheer slope was immense, there would not be any danger of falling though because of the dense jungle. Some of the corners were over 180 degrees where they bent back on themselves totally blind with a climb of about 8-10 vertical meters in maybe 20m. The views were amazing but hard to capture as it was quite misty. I was quite lucky as I only passed other cars on some straights which was good, sweeping s bends through the jungle with a slight climb.
When I was almost at the top there was a huge cable car that went across a valley up to the summit. I decided to take this for some variation, although i would have been nice to ride it as well. It was quite funny when i rocked up to the office, the cable car was not going and they were doing maintenance on the cars which was a little nerve racking. After waiting about 10mins for them to finish I was off until about half way it felt like we stopped and all those thoughts that go through your head were very comforting. After a while i realised we were still moving and it was just slow because other cars were at the terminal. When I was at the top it was a little colder and nice and fresh. The views were magnificent, I would see up and down the coast about 40km even though it was hazy.
On the way down it was much faster and my brakes were not the best but it all ads the fun right?? I had my trusty helmet held on with some twine so she’ll be right. I was heading back to Hue and passed along the Hai Van pass again and saw some great flowers where i could test the Macro on my camera! I made it back to Hue by a little after 6 and met up with Rob whom I was going to ride to the DMZ with the next day or two.
Check out the Keyring on my room key for the hotel
Well nothing like a 7am bus from Hoi An to Hue. On arrival it was quite hot and I wanted to drop off my bags, I found a great place down a dead end lane, it was quite and had a nice garden and only $5! As it was to hot to do much I read up about Hue and found out a lot that I had no idea about.
Well after it cooled down a little it was time for a walk, I was on the south bank of the river and most of the historic sites are on the north, so I walked about 2km across the river and then to the market. This market was the same as every other market. Lunch was good, with some beef noodle soup, a funny drink and some prawn rice paper rolls. Then I walked towards the eastern side entrance of the citadel to have a walk around. The fortress is huge with a 10km perimeter, a 30m moat, and wall about 2m thick and pretty high. When I walked in it was surprising to see what was inside, it was a mixture of a town and a rural area with some rice paddies, and lakes where people were fishing. I walked around there was not a lot of individual things that were overly special that afternoon as I left the rest of it for the next day. There is an inner Citadel which was where the Emperor lived, more like palace grounds and I ended up playing soccer with some kids before walking home.
That night I went out for a few drinks and played some pool which was good, finally starting to get my touch back.
On Thursday I walked to the Citadel again towards the Imperial enclosure, the heat was stifling but thems the blows. The enclosure was good but doing it self guided was a little boring. Maybe because of not knowing every little detail, or maybe it was not the most thrilling thing and I was right. The flagpole and the Citadel itself were very impressive, huge structures that were started in 1804. After walking around for about four hours it was getting really hot and about 2pm so I went home for a rest. I spent the rest of the day reading and relaxing followed by a few beers.
Friday came and I hired another bike as I wanted to go a little further than my legs wanted to carry me, there were a Tomb of Tu Duc which was amazing. The emperors used to start building their burial enclosure long before they were going to be knocked off or die. Tu Duc had 104 wives but never had any children, the women must have been barren. The whole complex is surrounded by a huge octagonal wall, and inside were lush gardens, a lake, several temples, several tombs for wives and relatives and other ‘stuff’. When a king dies usually the next king writes about his accomplishments and adds this to their tomb, Tuc had different ideas he wanted to write his own, so on a 20 tonne stone tablet brought from 500 miles away he wrote about his achievements and failures, and named his tomb ‘modest’. Weird thing is that he was never buried there.
Later that day a New Zealander I met Katie and I decided to go to the beach. We knew roughly where it was, and ended up going through the country side on dirt tracks for about 20km, then had to get on a little local ferry across a river with the bike, over a massive sand dune, through a cemetery to the beach, about 90mins all up. The water was warm although pretty dirty and it was already getting dark. The trip back was much more eventful, we just caught the last boat back (had to call them back as they already left). The guys on the boat were all drunk and were sharing their beer with us. Then driving back along a goat track in the dark was interesting so we stopped for dinner. The dinner was good but everyone from about 3 houses in every direction came to watch us eat it was quite funny with almost no language in common. We ended up getting some rice wine with dinner, and some to take away. Back in town there was a festival because it was the coming up to the full moon, so we had a good look around. We spent 20000 Dong ($1.50) for 1 Liter of rice wine, and two dinners. It was to easy and a great night out.
