Born to be Wild in the DMZ

DMZ...... DMZ..... repeat after me dee ehm zee. Canadians, Brits and Aussies, please don't say dee ehm zed...... sorry it just sounds lame.

Dee ehm zee...... dee ehm zee.......

Anyway, so here I find myself in Hue, Vietnam (pronounced "hway") near the 17th parallel, and the former DMZ, Demilitaritzed Zone. The war and its memories are all around us, yet there is little physical evidence of it. You just feel it.

The first thing to note is that here the war is referred to as the American War. That alone is very telling. All the wars here took place in Vietnam, so that is the way to identify the particualar one that we are too familiar with.

Hue itself, is a beautiful little town located on the Perfume River. And yes, it is as pretty as it sounds. Our hotel is perhaps the nicest we have had on this trip, and signs note that the hotel has won a number of awards.















All around us are things that we associate with the war.... Danang, China Beach, we are just inside what used to be South Vietnam. And yet everything seems so nice and normal here. The Americans lost the war, communism won, did the domino effect happen??? I don't know, but the point is, there is no sign of it now, and you are left wondering what it was all for. It is a beautiful part of a beautiful country, the people are nice, and seem happy and normal. They are not rich, but everyone seems to have a lot to eat, and entrepreneurism is alive and well, everyone owns a little shop, cafe or bar. The only thing missing is American multi-national corporations........ hmmm, maybe that's what it was all about.

Anyway, we went to a couple of historical sites here, including the tomb of a former Nguyen emperor. Just after that, a dozen guys on motorcycles picked us up, and we all went on a two hour tour of the countryside.















We zipped along on the back of the motorcycles, the drivers doing an excellent job of both thrilling us, and keeping us save. We zipped along back country roads, through spectacular scenery, over dirt trails, down the narrow alleys of villages, racing along highways back towards the city. I think the highlight was as darkness fell, we zipped along in formation over the tops of rice paddies, trying not to smile too much and get bugs in our teeth.

Several people remarked it was the highlight of the tour so far, and I cannot disagree. My third time on a motorcycle, and all three were on my around the world trip.