Hoi an

Well, we arrived in Hoi An today after 3 day adventure. Where i left off before, the next morning Tai and his brother Top came to pick us up 9am to show us around Hue before lunch and setting off on our journey. They took us first to the american bunkers overlooking the Perfume River. This had an amazing view and as top said, i can see why it is now a romantic spot for couples.We then went to two Pagodas within Hue, one was interesting to see as we saw the monks singing and praying, of which they only do two times a week. The other was even more interesting as it holds the car, of which many years ago while the war was going on, a monk drove his car to Saigon and set fire to it, burning himself to death, all for freedom. After the pagodas, they took us to the tomb of Tu Duc built in period of 1864-1867 for use before and after his death.Tu Duc had the longest reign of any Nguyen monarch and although he had over 104 wives and lots of concubines... he never had any children.The heat was intense so we didn't spend too long there. Tai and Top then took us for lunch in a local restaurant where we were served rice paper springrolls and fish sauce.. Starting to get the hang of chopsticks now!

Once we had eaten we set off down Highway 1 topwards the DMZ (de militarized zone) where we would stay for the night. Thisis the area where north and south Vietnam were once divided and where the fighting first took place before moving south. Since 1975, over 5000 people have been injured or killed in the DMZ area by mines etc left over by the war. After two hours or so riding, and a very sore bum later, we arrived at our guesthouse for the night, right next to the beach. Charlotte and i were so hot we decided to go down to the sea and have a swim,  which wasw nice until a load of men started coming down from the cafe beside our guesthouse with a videcamera.. We quickly decided to get out and made our way back to our room to shower and get sorted for dinner. At 7pm, we met the boys outside, and with our table sat under the stars with a view of the sea , we watched the yellow moon rise and ate a meal of rice, squid, tuna, omelette and green veg. Tai kept trying to pile food onto our plates, thereis only so much i can eat and rice fills me up quick! but was nice that he was making sure we had enough to eat. haha. We then ate dragon fruit for pudding and sat around witha  cold beer talking and listening to bob marley. Was a slightly surreal experience but one i think i will rememebr for a long time. The family, who's house we were staying in started dancing, the dad and son were up. was nice to see :)

Next morning we got up for 7am and had omelette for breakfast (again!) After the boys tied our rucksacks safely to their bikes we were off. Stopping shortly after at the Vinh Moc tunnels. This is where a coastal village literally moved underground in response to the bombing and war.It took them a year to build by hand and The tunnels have 3 levels with the third level being 30m below the ground. It also had 13 exits onto the sea of which were used to get vital supplies in from the sea, albeit a risky procedure.There was a guy in the grounds who was actually born underground during that time, He couldn't speak at all but cme up to us to shake our hand. Just shows how friendly the Vietnamese are.
After the Vinh Moc tunnels we visited the Truong Son National Cemetary where North Vietnamese soldiers who died along the Ho Chi Minh trail are buried. There are five zones of which the soldiers are buried in according to their province.What really hit home ,was the majority of the tombstones were nameless. I mean literally all of them bar a few. Someone somewhere has no idea to this day whether their loved one survived or not. That must be horrible! They also took us to the bridge- on the way onto the Ho Chih Minh trail -where North and South Vietnam was actually divided by the river. . It was a very long day riding yesterday , we reached our hotel at 1pm after riding through rice paddies and eventually up into the mountains where the climate became much cooler. At 6.30pm that nice we went for dinner, local made pho soup. We sat down in thh cafe and in front of us was put a stove, plate of raw thinly sliced meat, mushrooms, shrimp, noodles etc. The pot of boiling soup was put on the stove to which tai and his brother added all of the ingredients to cook. Within maybe10 mintures or less the meat was cook and shrimps pink and so we ate. On return to the hotel we all retired to bed.

This morning (feels like last week) we got up again for 7am and guess what we had for breakfast.... omelette! and set off down the road as today was to be a long day..(boy does my bum feel it now) Not so much sightseeing to be done just the road but the views were spectacular. Loved every moment of it. Swooping round the bends on the mountainside was amazing. Can't really describe it to you without the pictures. We had to stop at a point where there had been what looked like a recent landslide. As it wasn't safe for us to stay on the bike being very slidey, me and Charlotte got off to walk across... The mud was a little bit deeper than expected and my foot got sucked down taking my shoe with it. After fishing my shoe out i opted for going barefoot (i was going to get muddy anyway) . Once across, the boys were waiting patiently for us, and had great amusement at the state we were in.. particularly me!. oooh well!  Back on the bike barefoot, shoes in hand Tai promised there was a waterfall further down in which we could wash and to which we did.  An hour or two down th road we stopped at a pinapple farm for a bite to eat. The fruit out here is amazing. I don't normally like pineapple at home but out here it is so sweet and juicy i love it! And off we went again. I was so glad when Tai said we were only 15km from Hoi An as i was starting to lose all feeling in my bum from sitting so long , although very fun.  They dropped us off in our hotel and left us for an hour before meeting back up with us again so we could pay them the final amount for our trip and  write reviews for them in their books.  I feel bit sad that this adventure has ended, only wish we could have gone with them longer as they are two great great guys. Maybe next year i will come bcak and do a 9 day tour with them. That would be awesome!.

So for now and maybe nxt 3 days we are in Hoi an. Halways down Vietnam now pretty much. Time is going so fast!!