Vinh Moc tunnels
Johan awoke in the early hours of his birthday to tell the bus driver that we would get off earlier than the rest at a place an hour or two north of Hue called Dong Ha. This little town is very close to the Ben Hai river, the border between former North and South Vietnam. At about 5:30 a.m. we got off the bus in the middle of nowhere. Two other travellers decided to alight there as well. A local, wakened by the noisy bus, opened his shop and proceeded to call someone on his phone. The guy on the other end could speak English. A while later he arrived on his motorbike to our rescue. As soon as we agreed to check out his hotel 4 other motorbikes appeared from out of nowhere to take us to what would be our hotel for that night (and for 1 or 2 hours of shut-eye that morning too).
We hooked up with the same travellers (the only other travellers in town as far as we could see) and the same hotel tout and headed off through the rain (luckily we chose the car option over the motorbike option) over the Ben Hai River in the direction of the famous Vinh Moc tunnels. 500m North and south of this border river was declared a demilitarized zone (DMZ) where no fighting was to take place during the war. Needless to say - lots did take place here, but we were on our way to take a look at the fascinating tunnels. These tunnels were excavated in North Vietnam to serve as living quarters and bomb bunkers during the last 6 years of the war after the village at the same site was destroyed by heavy bombing. It is one of many similar tunnels throughout Northern Vietnam.
The Vinh Moc tunnels are 2.8km in length and have a few exits that exit right on the beach and others that open up higher in the hills. During the occupation of these tunnels, which are amazingly small, 300 people lived here and 17 babies were born inside. There are also countless other underground tunnels throughout the rest of Vietnam.
The rest of day was for resting. The next day a direct bus would take us out of the cold rainy weather of Vietnam and back into sunny, friendly, peaceful and relaxing Laos.
We hooked up with the same travellers (the only other travellers in town as far as we could see) and the same hotel tout and headed off through the rain (luckily we chose the car option over the motorbike option) over the Ben Hai River in the direction of the famous Vinh Moc tunnels. 500m North and south of this border river was declared a demilitarized zone (DMZ) where no fighting was to take place during the war. Needless to say - lots did take place here, but we were on our way to take a look at the fascinating tunnels. These tunnels were excavated in North Vietnam to serve as living quarters and bomb bunkers during the last 6 years of the war after the village at the same site was destroyed by heavy bombing. It is one of many similar tunnels throughout Northern Vietnam.
The Vinh Moc tunnels are 2.8km in length and have a few exits that exit right on the beach and others that open up higher in the hills. During the occupation of these tunnels, which are amazingly small, 300 people lived here and 17 babies were born inside. There are also countless other underground tunnels throughout the rest of Vietnam.
The rest of day was for resting. The next day a direct bus would take us out of the cold rainy weather of Vietnam and back into sunny, friendly, peaceful and relaxing Laos.
<< Home