Dear Friends,
I must tell you about another day which proved very cathartic. My
mate, Des, & I were staying in Hue - an ancient city on the central
coast of Vietnam, and we decided to hire our own driver and guide to
take us along the former DMZ - previously the border between North
and South Vietnam. This was indeed a wonderful day for us.
First we went inland to within 20km of the border with Laos, way up
in the highlands, where we met the people known as Bru - one of the
Montagnard Hill tribes. The main reason for coming up here was to see
Khe Sanh, the site of terrible battles and destruction. The mountains
in this area are very beautiful and we also saw nearby the famous
"Rock Pile" and "Hamburger Hill".
These mountains had all been devastated by Agent Orange, but I was
unaware that after 1975 the Australian Government had made a gift of
thousands of our Eucalyptus trees in order to re-forest them. I can
only hope that it was an appropriate tree to use, and wonder why a
local species was not cultivated.
It was when we were visiting the Museum at the DMZ itself that about
30 Vietnamese women of our age (around 60) walked in wearing all
there medals. By speaking with these women I learned that they had
been Viet Cong Heroines. We took each other's photos, exchanged email
addresses and had a wonderful hour of so together. We are all just
people after all.
From the DMZ we went to the tunnels east of there on the coast. A
whole village lived down here way under ground until the war was
over. 17 babies were even born in the maternity ward down there.
Heaps more stories to tell
David in Ballarat
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