Hue, Full of history and memories of war

Hue is a quaint little town, overfilling with historical sites. We arrived by sleeper bus. That in itself is pretty cool! It's a charter bus with beds! It looks comfortable at first until you get in. They are clearly made for short Asians because our feet were cramped after the first 5 minutes and our heads hang off the end! We did meet some other travelers and were able to share a few laughs. As we were leaving town, our driver decided to drive through a construction site for some reason and we thought we were going to fall out of our bed! We were literally hanging on!! I was crying because it was such a funny concept!

The first day we rented a motorbike and decided to drive around ourselves. Alex was driving and I was on the back of the bike with a map out, trying to figure out where the heck we were. A man flagged us down and said that he had a few hours so he would show us around the King's Tomb and Pagoda. We took him up on it. First we went to the Pagoda. It was ornately decorated, with Chinese pottery and figures of Buddha that were hundreds of years old.

Next we went to the King's Tomb. It was amazing how good of shape the stone carvings were. We walked along the moat and came to a tall gate with a pad lock on it. That area is blocked off to tourists because there are still live rounds in the area. We stayed clear of that! There were also 2 lightening rods that stood tall, we were impressed that this was taken into account so long ago.

Our friend Mr. Dung spotted a buddy of his who was cleaning a pellet gun and sharing a giant cucumber with some teenage boys. They invited us over. Mr. Vin invited Alex to take a few shots with the pellet gun. Being from Texas, Alex couldn't refuse. He laid out 3 bottle caps about 30 feet away. Bang....bang....bang. Bullseye! Alex was a pro. (It's all that video game playing!) Because of his excellent aim, we were accepted and invited to join the group. After a game of suraides, (only our guide could speak English) Mr. Vin suddenly said "Shhhh!!!" grabbed his gun and ran off to the hundred year tree near by. He shot, and down fell a beautiful green parakeet, it's heart still thumping. One of the boys grabbed the bird and started pulling it's feathers out one by one in frond of us. Then he ran off into the distance. Just then rain fell from the sky, and we moved undercover, next to the King in his Tomb. Ten minutes later the boy returned with a cooked bird. Mr. Vin pulled off a leg for Alex and the breast for me. He gave us a pinch of spicy salt and we were expected to eat the bird "for good luck." I must admit, after I got over the initial shock, it did taste delicious. I just needed to get past the sight of the beautiful wild parakeet who once lived in the tree....

We waited for the rain to stop with a few bottles of rice wine and hopes that someday Mr. Vin and Mr. Dung would visit us in Texas. They made an appointment to meet us at our wedding...they have always dreamed of visiting the states but had no money to afford the ticket. Mr. Dung had fought next to American solders and drove Doctors around during the war. He had great respect for Americans.

After the rain slowed, we followed him back to his home in the countryside. He wanted us to meet his daughter. She was studying English at university and dreamed of being an interpreter. She was about my age and spoke perfect English. His wife served us fresh fruit on the front patio and then asked for a donation for the daughter's tuition. We knew something like this was coming but we were happy to help since we knew it was going for a good cause.

The next day we rented a bike again and followed another guide 170 km north to the DMZ. The demilitarized zone was the border line between the north and south Vietnamese. We passed several historical sites, including Hamburger Hill. We took a short swim at the beach and quickly learned that in these parts, we were Canadian. Next we marched under ground to the Vihn Mock tunnels. Hundreds of people lived underground for years. There were three levels, complete with family rooms (maybe 4x4) a nursery were babies were born, supply rooms and security posts. We had to duck down as the tunnels were only 5 feet tall in some areas. They were made of thick clay and protected hundreds from the bombs that fell overhead. You can still see the intentions in the land after all this time. At the 17th parallel there is a memorial on the South side. It's a statue of a woman standing next to her children. She is looking off into the distance for her husband who has gone to war. The nothern side has about 100 loud speakers pointed directly at the south. They were used to spread propoganda across the border. There is still a lot of tention in this area.

Going there and back we managed to get 2 flat tires. Good thing there are small stands that repair them for $2 about every mile or so, so we were never far from help. Only an hour and a half left and we would be back in the citadel of Hue for sunset.

From there we left on short sleeper bus to Hoi An.