OK, so I am not eating any more street vendor food. You got that? No More!
There weren’t any restaurants near to my hotel, and the price of the room didn’t include breakfast. So I thought I’d give the little noodle shop next door a try. I mean, what could go wrong?
Well, I’m sure those of you who have traveled on the cheap in developing countries know the rest. So I’ll spare you the unsavory details. No more! I mean it! Really!
I could have wandered down to the main drag in Dong Ha to find a proper restaurant. But I was in a hurry, you see. I wanted to ride up in the mountains to see Khe Sanh, where the U.S. had a fire base in 1968. And the forecast called for rain in the afternoon. So I got up early in order to beat the rain.
Khe Sanh was on my itinerary because Defense Secretary McNamara had this brilliant plan in 1968 to interdict the Viet Cong supplies going down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, so he and General Westmoreland sent 6000 troops and 5000 aircraft to this hill near the village of Khe Sanh in the northern highlands to set up an American outpost there. In January 1968 the North Vietnamese Army attacked, and the result was the bloodiest battle of the war.
For 75 days the base was besieged, with the North Vietnamese raining long-range mortar shells down on the Americans and attacking the perimeter of the base, and the Americans bombing the holy hell out of the nearby jungle to try to lift the siege. More than 100,000 tons of explosives turned the countryside into a moonscape, and more than 500 Americans and 10,000 Vietnamese died in the carnage. The battle made the news worldwide, with television pictures of the base being resupplied by air while under constant attack.
It seems obvious in hindsight that the attack on Khe Sanh was a diversion to distract attention away from the impending North Vietnamese Tet offensive in the south, during which the American embassy in Saigon was briefly occupied and the city of Hue was captured and held for 23 days. And after 75 days the siege of Khe Sanh was lifted, though by July of 1968 the Americans decided to abandon the base.
Oops. Oh well. Never mind.
Anyway, the road up there, Highway 9, is one of the best mountain roads in Vietnam, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer. So I thought I’d go check out the place and get my tax dollars’ worth.
It was indeed a nice, twisty, well-designed road, and for about 70 km I practically had it all to myself. The temperature dropped as I ascended, but the rain held off.
After about an hour and a half of riding I started looking around for the village and the expected turnoff to the base. By now I have come to not expect signs announcing the name of the village, so I just waited for a road heading north from one of the few villages I passed through. None came.
Suddenly I was at the Laotian border. What the? How did I miss the turnoff? I backtracked for a few kilometers, but that didn’t seem right either. So I turned back and asked some people standing by the side of the road, “Khe Sanh o dau?” (Where is Khe Sanh?) They pointed uphill. So I rode back up and got to the border post again without seeing any turnoff.
That’s when I realized that the presumed border was actually the pre-border customs checkpoint, and I hadn’t actually reached the village of Khe Sanh yet. D’oh!
I rolled through and found the village about 3 km beyond the checkpoint, but missed the turnoff because it wasn’t marked. Then, after reaching the end of the village, I turned back and found the turnoff. But then I rode past the exit to the base site itself. It was quite frustrating, but I wasn’t going to ride all the hell the way up there and miss seeing the place.
Finally I located the tiny rusted sign that marked the exit and rode onto what’s left of the base. Not much, it turns out. There’s a small museum there with pictures of the glorious liberating forces, etc., etc. And a couple of helicopters and other hardware that the Americans didn’t destroy before they abandoned the site. And the airstrip is still a barren strip of red clay. But that’s about it. There’s a coffee plantation there now. Not much to see, really.
The Airstrip at Khe Sanh
So I walked around a bit and then rode back down to Dong Ha, where I turned south to Hue.
Hue is the old imperial capitol of Vietnam, from which the Nguyen dynasty ruled for a few hundred years. It’s quite a tourist attraction these days, with several five-star hotels and it supposedly has the best food in Vietnam.
Inside the Forbidden City, Hue
My budget didn’t cover five-star accommodations and my stomach wasn’t up to fine dining, so I probably didn’t experience all that the place has to offer. But I certainly enjoyed what I did. For $25 I got a very nice room at a mid-range hotel, the kind of place that would cost you at least $200 in any major American city. And the food I had was good, and definitely worth additional exploration.
During the Tet offensive in early 1968 the North Vietnamese Army occupied Hue. And when the South Vietnamese Army was unable to dislodge them, Westmoreland sent our boys in to do the job. It was 23 days of house to house fighting, and between the two of us we managed to do a lot of damage to the imperial city. Some of it has been restored, but much of the Forbidden City within the citadel remains in ruins. Where once opulent palaces stood, now there’s nothing but vast swaths of grass.
But hey, at least we freed the Vietnamese from communist oppression.
Oh. No wait. Never mind.
By noon I was back on the road south again, this time for my first rest stop of the ride: Hoi An.
Hoi An
Hoi An Schoolkids
After the Thu Bon River, which flows through town, silted up, nearby Da Nang took over as the big port in the area. And Hoi An slipped into backwater status. This may have saved it during the American war, because it escaped notice. So now it may be the finest place to visit in Vietnam.
Not only is the town itself a delightful place, the nearby Cham ruins of My Son (or what’s left of them, same old story, I’m afraid) are worth a brief visit.
One of the Aussies from the Ha Long Bay trip had recommended a hotel in Hoi An, and it was a great tip. I’ve got a nice top-floor room with all the mod-cons, as they say, plus a balcony overlooking a pasture on the back (quiet) side of the hotel. They even put rose petals on my bed. And last night I had the best meal I’ve had since I got to Vietnam at this tiny wharf-side restaurant run by a very dissolute-looking Swedish guy. Grilled Tuna, Squid, and Shrimps on a skewer with three dipping sauces of various fiery intensities, chased down with a gin & tonic and a large Tiger beer, and finished off with passion fruit ice cream with a vodka-mango sauce and cookies.
Oh my, was I a happy guy? Go ahead, take a guess.
Cham Ruins at My Son
For my money so far: Hue and Hoi An. The places to see in Vietnam.
Well OK, Ha Long Bay too.
Tomorrow I’m going to get back on the bike and head inland again. My plan is to get as far as Kontum in the central highlands, with a stop in My Lai, where some American soldiers herded between 75 and 150 villagers into a ditch and machine-gunned them. Then they rampaged through the village, with gang rapes, tossing grenades into bomb shelters, shooting fleeing civilians, executing wounded women and children, and other atrocities. Lt. William Calley was the only person convicted of a crime (though there were three infantry companies in My Lai that day), but he was later pardoned. There’s a memorial and museum there that’s supposed to be worth seeing. Though I’m sure I’m not going to enjoy the experience.
Geez. This is becoming the American War Crimes tour, isn’t it?