FootLoose in Asia This journal is primarily for family and friends to follow our progress on our SouthEast Asia adventure through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and possibly Malaysia and Myanmar (Burma). Hopefully there will also be some useful information to others planning a trip to thease areas.

Hue, Vietnam – 11 to 13 February, 2007 Once again we were picked up early at our hotel to be shuttled to the terminal for yet another bus trip. The trip from Hoi An to Hue was only about four hours, so we thought that was bearable. The bus trip was uneventful with no real surprises and we arrived on schedule. We didn’t book a hotel before leaving as we were scheduled to arrive in the early afternoon. On arrival however there were a number of moto and tuk-tuk drivers hanging around the office wanting you to go to their hotels, so instead we went into the agents office an booked a hotel we had previously heard about. We were then whisked off by taxi to the hotel which was only a few blocks away. After booking in, we headed out towards the river to find a beer and somewhere we could sit down and plan the next couple of days. We found a small café as soon as we reached the river, so sat and had a beer there. The café seemed to be the docking point for all the dragon boats in town, and we were surrounded by tours wanting us to take a river tour on their boat. We could see the Citadel in the distance, so decided to visit that in the afternoon as it is one of the major attractions in town. We walked two or three kilometers to it, and spent the afternoon wandering the grounds. It is a huge place, but much of the royal purple city area in it was destroyed by American bombs during the Tet offensive as the Viet Cong were using it as a strong hold. We left the Citadel worn out, and headed back across the river to find a place for dinner before returning to the hotel. While crossing the bridge, a street vendor peddled by with his cart of Bun Bos, so we opted for a snack. A Bun Bo like a dumpling that is steamed and it is usually filled with a mixture of pork and vegetables. As we were munching on them while crossing the bridge, D came upon a surprise in her Bun Bo. It was a small egg that was hard boiled. It was a whole egg, and about the size of a quails egg, but who knows what birds nest this came from. On the way back we passed a travel agent, so decided to stop in to see about flights to our next stop as well as information about DMZ tours. At the bus from Hue to Hanoi was about fourteen hours, J was not about to take the bus. Instead we booked flights to Hanoi, a nights hotel in Hanoi, an overnight side trip from Hanoi to Halong Bay, and another nights hotel in Hanoi on our return from Halong Bay. Along with this we booked a car from our hotel in Hue to the airport and from the airport to our hotel in Hanoi. This turned out to be a mistake as you will hear later. The one thing we didn’t book was the DMZ tour for the next day as we were undecided what to do. The main tour is a 12 hour trip leaving at 6 AM and covers almost 400 kilometers, and we were not sure we wanted to do that after so many early mornings and long bus trips. After booking our travel, we went on to dinner to discuss the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) tour options. One of the waitresses happened to have a second job at a hotel that booked tours (all hotels book tours) and she gave us some information. In the end we opted for the 12 hour tour and went to the hotel to book it. It was then off to bed for an early wake up call the next morning. The bus for the DMZ tour at 6:00 AM as planned, after a few stops at other hotels, we headed north on highway 1 towards the DMZ. The tour plan was to visit key sites near the DMZ along both highways 1 and 9. About 1 ½ hours later, we mad our first stop by a roadside overlook from where we could see the “Rockpile” in the distance. This was a US artillery spotting site during the war. From there we continued on to visit Dakron Bridge which crosses the Ben Hai River that was the actual demarcation line and where the previous Ho Chi Minh Trail crossed and is now a highway on the other side. The next stop was the Khe Sanh Combat Base that became a large US Marine base and was the site of one of the most controversial battles in the war. The fourth stop was the bridge over the Ben Hai River in the midst of the DMZ. The final stop was the most interesting and was the Vinh Moc Tunnels where the entire town lived underground for over five years because of constant US bombing of the area. These tunnels are located along Cua Tung Beach, and are in an ideal setting if you disregard the many bomb craters that still remain just meters from the beach. On our return to Hue, we were dropped off at the front door of our hotel right on schedule at 6:00 PM. It was a long but interesting day. To top off our night in Hue, we went around the corner to a pub/café for a quick bite to eat and a beer. While there we ran into another couple who had been on the boat trip in Nha Trang with us. They were an older couple who “adopted” the young Aussies and Brits and kind of looked after them on the boat. They began to call the gentleman “Legend” because he showed them how to crush a beer can on his forehead. The woman was called “Mom” because she was cleaning up after them. It turns out the man was a Brit who was a golf pro. He had sold up everything and was traveling the world. The woman was from Cambodia, but she has lived in Arlington, Virginia, so we are almost neighbors. They had just met a few weeks before and had been traveling together, but that evening they were going different ways as she was heading to Cambodia, and he was heading to Hanoi. It turned out he was scheduled to fly out the next morning on the same flight we were on, so we all called it a night to be up for the flight. We had a car booked for the airport and it showed up at 6:30 as scheduled. What wasn’t scheduled was that after we were loaded and ready to take off, without a word a local woman who was heavily made up and jeweled jumped in the front seat. She evidently hitched a ride to the airport at our expense, but we just figured “this is Vietnam”. Next stop Hanoi.