The DMZ

After a 3/4 day trouncing through Hue on bicycles, we made the decision to do a demilitarized zone (DMZ) tour. The typical (and inexpensive) tour bundles you up into a big tourist bus, whisks you off to a dozen sites, and sends you back home over a 12-hour period. We were hoping to find something a bit different.
So we found Mr. Trung. He was a South Vietnamese officer who basically worked for the US army for 8 years during the war in their intelligence department. His knowledge of the war and the operations surrounding the DMZ was incredibly impressive. We reviewed him on TripAdvisor, so we won't go into what we liked/didn't like about him here :-).
The trip overall was a difficult combination of impressive, depressing, and important. So many people died for what seems like absolutely no reason. The ingenuity, and lack thereof, demonstrated on both sides is what was most intriguing.
Our itinerary:

• Hue to Horrible Highway: this is where an enormous ambush on US caravans occurred. The subsequent airstrike killed countless civilians. There is currently a buddhist shrine at the site.
• Church: Because of pressures of the Catholic church, the US did not bomb this church, and as a result, they failed to take the church by small arms after a month of fighting. There is an incredible amount of visible damage to what remains of the church.
• Vin Mon Tunnels: Entire city under the ground, including a maternity area (around 15 children were born in the tunnels). Although the entrances are clear today for tourists, it's easy to see how these tunnels were kept camouflaged.
• Museum: Lots of crazy propaganda - and incredible artifacts that the fleeing US army left behind.
• Fire Base: Unfortunately nothing more than a rock pile, because the US blasted it away after the retreat.
• Ben Ha River: The dividing line of north and south. Reminiscent for Eli of seeing the thin line between east and west Berlin.

Of course we had to throw in some transport setbacks - our driver's car got a flat tire on the way home. 2 hours and another driver later, we made it back to Hue.