The DMZ (23/2/14)

So today I went on the DMZ tour that I booked last night at the hostel. I had to be up at 6 to get breakfast by half past to be ready for the bus at 7. It turned up bang on time, an 8 seater, with only two people inside. This is a busy trip I said as I got on. But the bus stopped at a few more hotels and was soon full. Still not a bad size I thought. At our last stop the organiser on board told everyone to get off as this bus wasn't big enough now. So we did, and we waited and then a 50 seater coach arrived. And by the time everyone had been picked up it was full. I was now part of one of 'those' tour groups that I always take the piss out of. This didn't look promising. I ended up next to a bloke, Sam, from Tasmania. We got talking and ended up chin wagging most of the day. He's a motorbiker too and so that filled a lot of conversation time. It took us a while to get near the DMZ but once there we visited various places of importance which the guide explained. Her English was good but not great so I didn't catch some of the things she said about the places we visited and I'll need to look then up later, but what I did hear was very interesting. We did the typical tour things, she stood at the front of the coach talking on the microphone and when she told us to we all looked out the coach at what she was pointing at and took photos. Sometimes we'd all get out and take photos. I felt like a Chinese tourist. Our stops included points on the Ho Chi Minh tail, the start of the DMZ, some places that the Americans used as bases including a museum on one of them, the border that used to be between north and south Vietnam, some memorials, the national cemetery of all the Vietnamese that died in the war, and the Vinh Moc tunnels. The Vinh Moc tunnels are where a village literally moved underground to get away from the constant American bombing. It's amazing what they managed to do to survive. The tunnels are taller than the ones used by the Vietnamese in the south during the war but they're  still pretty cramped. It was good to have the guide because a lot of the things I would have passed by, had I done the trip alone on the motorbike. The wide expanse of flat land covered in paddy fields that I rode through yesterday was apparently the DMZ which is why there isn't much there. There were quite a few bomb craters pointed out to us today and we were told the Vietnamese now  call them 'free fish ponds from the Americans'. We got breaks during the day including a chance for lunch and all of them, somehow, were at the same restaurant. So this one restaurant got a visit 3 times from one coach party. If that happens daily they must be raking it in. There was still a lot of time sitting on the coach though and we didn't get back to the hostel till quarter past 7 at night so it was a really long day. I caught up with the two Americans in my room and then headed out to dinner with them. Stephanie had messaged me so we went to the restaurant, where she was with 3 other women, and joined them at their table. It was a vegetarian restaurant and the food was really tasty. We all had a sweet craving after the meal and so went on a hunt for a bakery of some sort. They're actually very hard to find in Vietnam but we found a cake shop and settled for that. I had 2 slices, a cappuccino sponge cake, and an Oreo sponge cake. Both very good. After that we all went back to the hostel and we said goodnight to the girls and the American lads went to the room but I stayed in the bar to chill for a bit with a beer. I went up after to pack ready for my early departure in the morning. I was aiming for a 7 o'clock get away to see a pagoda locally before heading to Hoi An. We'll see how that goes in the morning. Shower and in bed by 11. Night everyone.