Red Fox to Happy Seal... Come in Red Seal, this is Red Fox... kkksshhhhhh... kkshhhhh...
Well, I can't read my own bloody blog, it's the will of Kummunasim, something about certain words like, "Damn you, Cursory!", and humming writes, shouldn't everyone get to write about humming? Anyways, maybe I'll edit some of the spelling on my last couple posts, I open the page, then it just closes and says the server is not available. Sometimes, it's no problem.
So, I decided to go to Hue, it wasn't that good. It's got the population of Saskatoon and just not a lot to see... not really cheap and the hotels were a little run down. I arrived in Hue at 6pm last night, and at 6am this morning, I left for the DMZ (Demillitarized Zone) and then on to Hanoi.
last night, I looked at some hotels, dropped my bags and then looked for a motorbike. I asked a rickshaw driver and he said he had a real nice one, I hopped in his rickshaw. For 45 minutes, he peddled me over a bridge, past a palace, and into... the slums. Everyone was staring at me as we rode down the street, it was definitely 'local town'. Anyways, I was ready to bail off the thing at a moment's notice as we went down smaller and smaller alleys. We wound up at his house, 5 minutes later, I had a bike and a crowd of observers. He told me crude directions to get to the river so I could get ' home'. I went at it, but the bike kept stalling at the intersections when I stopped, I tried to get back to his place, but everything looked the same. I saw a 'convenience store' (display case with chips and shampoo), and went to borrow a phone to call him. There were 5, 60 year old Vietnamese men drinking beer. I had left my phone, passport, hotel card, Lonely Planet Book, everything but my wallet at the hotel as it was going to be a 5 minute trip for the bike, lol. They offered me a seat and we tried the phone, it was busy. An hour later, still busy, I bought some beer from the shop owner to add to 'the pot'. We had finished off 10 bottles and so, I bought 5 more.
They had come up with this really easy drinking game, since their English was very limited, they only knew one game. The game is called, "Cheers!" You need 6 players and lots of beer, the first (quickest) player says "Cheers!" and everyone has to drink, the second player (randomly chosen by divine intervention) says "Cheers!" followed by the rest until the glasses are empty. Everyone wins another glass of beer!!!
Anyways, a couple hours later, this woman shows up wanting to help me, is she the guys wife? She has her son and daughter, maybe 15 and 6 years old. She wants me to take them to find the owner, close to my hotel... oh, and I have to give her son money... Ummmm, not going to be taking minors to the city and giving them money, that's got rotten worms written all over it. She wanted to testy the bike and wanted the key... hmmm, I started it for her and showed how it quit, she wanted to see under the seat, key please... I opened the seat so she could see the gas. The guage said 1/4 tank but she offered to fill it up for me, no. I told her not to worry about it, I would sort it tomorrow with the owner (her husband I
think?). I finished my beer with the guys and probed my way to my hotel.
There were the 5 guys and the shopkeeper when I arrived and 73 spectators when I left, kids, parents, oldies, gradually built up as the men shouted, "Cheers!"
Ok, drove past the river, over the moat, along the palace, over the moat, over the big river, along the river, to my hotel. The next morning, at 6am, I hopped on a bus to the DMZ and arranged to return to Hanoi, not the place I originated. I called the motobike guy and he was more than happy to come drop off my money and pick up the bike, no argument or b.s. Since I was already on the bus, I told him to keep the money, there was really no way for me to get it anyways and it's only $5 for the two days, some for me, a lot for him. I did however, leave my iPod at the hotel as I rushed out, plugged in at the frint desk. Its on it's way here with the bus to take me to Hanoi... well see.
The DMZ was cool, the Viet Kong had dug tunnels under the ground like a little city along a river marking North and South Vietnam. They lived and fought from there for 6 years, fighting off the French, Americans, and South Viets (I think). We went to a bunch of crap in the morning, a war museum, cool tanks and choppers, then a bridge, some war statues and stuff. Had lunch and then went to the tunnels. I had been chatting with an Aussie and a Canadian, we really wanted to get into the tunnels. The group saw a bunch of info and then we went into the tunnels, they were dark. One guy had a torch (flashlight) as the little bulbs on the side weren't much. Anyways, the group got ahead of us as we were taking pictures and all the
arrows directing us where to go were written in Vietnamese! We got "lost" and found some cool stuff, there were 13 exits in the maze and one ventilation shaft, so we were feeling ok. We found the group again, but couldn't determine if the group followed the arrows or went down into the tunnel marked "Bomb Shelter". It was a 45 degree incline (decline? 'cause it goes down) and had a damp clay slope, one guy went first and we waited to see if he could get back out... we were already 3 meters underground and the shelter was another 5 meters. He managed to get out and so we decided to send him back down and follow him. It was very slippery, but really cool. A tiny little space, but I guess it would be ok in an air raid. Hehehe, the clay was very slippery trying to get back up, there had already been 4 trips down and one back up, on the stairless slope... adding to the slippage. We clawed out way out(not easily) and decided that maybe the group DID follow the arrow. We caught up and then did some more exploring, the ceilings are 5.5 feet high, so are the Vietnamese, my back was sore. Then I took a bus to here as I will wait for the bus to Hanoi.
I met a really nice girl from Israel on the bus, she had come to Asia for a couple weeks, but was told to extend her stay as Middle East problems. She was in the Israeli Air Force for 2 years, and told me alot about living in Israel. She's off to Laos for 3-4 weeks and we didn't get a chance to swap emails, she was looking for a pen when they called to change busses, whatever, maybe I'll see her in Laos.
I'm going to0 be on a bus for 12 hours soon, to Hanoi, then get my visa extension and my Laos visa... then maybe to Hulong Bay and Sapa, then to Laos. Life is strange, but good.
