Missing… Presumed Having A Good Time

I’ve found a little slice of heaven!  I only wish I had arrived when Hoa first opened his doors in 1994. Vietnam’s backpacker trail is so set and easy to travel with buses picking u up from you hotel and dropping you off at their friend’s hotels. I decided in order to see a bit more of the real Vietnam, I had to get off the cities in Vietnam that start of H or D and decided to go to the infamous China Beach near Marble Mountain . All I had was a telephone number, a bad address and a map that had the wrong location marked to find Hoa’s Place.  So as I boarded the bus, I had no idea where to get off or how to find his place except the assurances that everyone knows Hoa’s Place, which everyone did.  I walked about 20 feet from the corner where the bus dropped me off before a girl on a motorbike asked me if I needed a lift.  “No worries, no charge, Hoa’s my uncle”.  Apparently everyone is somehow ‘related’ to Hoa, but not really.  Sort of like in the same sense that everyone in China is my Uncle or Auntie.  China Beach as many of you may know from the cheezy TV show is where the GIs went for RnR during the “American War” (as they call it in Vietnam). And I’m sorry to say, but Robert Duval in Appocolypse Now was wrong. Charlie DOES surf! I arrived shortly after a major Typhoon had just passed thru the area and the waves were WICKED as were the rip currents. I’ve never experienced anything like it. The Rip tide was so strong that just standing knee deep in the water almost caused me to get sucked out to sea. I had to do all I could just to keep my footing. It took 2 days before I could go into the water to do some body surfing. The almost empty white sand beach, surf and beautiful sunsets from atop Marble Mountain   were not the things that made this place so great. The best part of this area was Hoa’s Place.   He and his family run a 2 room guest house with a restaurant where Mom cooks a family style meal every night at 7pm and they feed you til u stop eating. As it’s quite easy for a 2 room guesthouse to be full, Hoa passes the overflow on to his community and the guesthouses nearby. I think if it were not for Bob’s wedding in Bali, I may still be there today.  Hoa’s Place reminded me of my old place, Villa Torino, in Ft. Lauderdale in that it was less than 100M to the ocean and that I felt so much at home there.  Travel began to slow right down even though I knew I only had 3 weeks in Vietnam.  So I’d like to say Thank you for a wonderful time and your great hospitality to the Hoa Family.  I hope to see you again next time I’m in town.

I decided on my way back from Halong Bay that I wanted to go to a town in Central Vietnam called ‘Dong Ha’ because it was the closest to the 17th parrallel and convenient to visit some of Vietnam’s former DMZ sights. Apparently, it’s not on the backpacker trail. When I asked the Aussies, that run Hanoi Backpackers, and know just about everything about Northern Vietnam they said, “you want to go where?” They couldn’t even give me a price for a train ticket, but assured me that it could be booked. The train is scheduled to leave at 7pm. At 4pm, there still was no ticket. I was beginning to get worried especially with all the other stuff that the hostel had told me about the “sights” around Hanoi. Eventually, the ticket came and I got on the train early. This was a very good thing because the train pulled out about 5 minutes early. So, on the 3.5 hour bus ride back from Halong Bay, I came up with this very aggressive plan to take an overnight train to Dong Ha, about 600KM south, get there at 6.45am and hire a motorcycle guide to take me around the DMZ, then catch a bus to Hue and find a place to stay. The train was OK.  A bit cramped and there was a little boy in my compartment that took a liking to me.  Every time I left the room he came running out after me.  He was very cute, but he made me miss my nephew even more.    Amazingly, the plan worked almost without a hitch, except… The train got in at about 45 mins late, but the guide was waiting for me in the rain. So now, I’ve booked a full day around the DMZ on a motorbike and it’s pissing down rain. I had some breakfast and talked to Kwoa, the guide, who was 11 years old when the war started and 18 when the war ended. He said he was drafted and in training when the war ended. It was great getting to talk to him 1 on 1 instead of the average tours with 50 people on it. He told me that it didn’t matter to him who won the war. That for most people it was only important that the war was over. “Politics is for other people. For us, it only matters that there is no more fighting”. Despite all the rain and the insane traffic driving on both sides of the road  , it was a great day all in all visiting a few former American bases and outposts, the TS cemetary, where I saw thousands of unknown soldier’s graves    The NVA and of course the VC didn’t have dog tags so identifying the bodies were almost impossible.  But the highlight of the day was the Vin Moc tunnels. These tunnels were amazing.   In some places the unaltered tunnels were 6ft high and as much as 60ft deep, 3 levels including: a maternity ward, family rooms, weapons storage, kitchen and food storage and 1 toilet for emergencies while the Americans were bombing. Although the guide, who was about 5’10” pictured above, was 2x more expensive than all the others it was well worth the $17 for the personal tour which included breakfast and my bus ticket to Hue. 

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