VIETNAM

Crossed the border at Lao Bao and got met by the 'mafia bus man' as named by Marte (a girl I am travelling with at the moment). Overcharging of foreigners is part of life in Vietnam. As most travellers say though, we wouldn't mind sometimes being charged twice as much but it isn't always just that much but way more!! Anyway annoying minibus man was bargaining, then a local bus came so I went to get that but he had obviously got to the lady and she said I would have to pay $6. Completely ridiculous but nothing I could do - she was aggresively adamant. So I ended up in the minibus. Apparently I'm not the only one that has happened to!! So my crossing into Vietnam was 'fun'. I didn't want to feel too stressed though as a lot of travellers in Laos had mentioned that it was stressful in Vietnam. Mind over matter?

The scenery on the way to Dong Ha was beautiful and I enjoyed that, though the driver was a maniac! When I got there from among the swarm of motorbike taxi riders there was one who spoke good English, so I went with him and he took me around the corner to a cafe where I could buy a bus ticket to Hanoi. I ended up doing a tour of the DMZ with him for $10, as my bus left at 7.30 pm and it was only 3.00pm. We went to Doc Mieu Base, an old US army base where there was an old rusted tank. Most things have been taken away by people to sell as souvenirs. We then went on to Hien Loung Bridge on the Ben Han river which was the marker of the 17th parallel with the DMZ stretching for 5km in both directions. There is a memorial to the (N) Vietnamese soldiers who fought in the war. It was surrounded by muddy grass where water buffalo were grazing. Finally we went to the Vinh Moc tunnels where the people from the village of Vinh Moc had lived for 6 years, completely unknown to the Americans. It is an amazing venture that they achieved there.

The countryside was beautiful. The land stretched out in flat brught green rice paddies where there were people planting rice and wearing the typically Vietnamese conical hats. There were a lot of girls on bicycles all wearing hats. Many of the women also wear scarves or towels around their faces tied up behind their hat. The people were all very friendly and there were a lot of waves and hellos., not just from the kids. It was nice to ride along village roads where people were working in the fields or walking home from them with carts and animals and bundles of foliage. It was a pleasant real introduction to Vietnam - border towns excluded!

On the way back to Dong Ha the lingering light of the set sun glowed a soft yellow under gently stormy clouds. The muted light and mistiness created a soft horizon where the light bouncing off the water lying in paddy fields painted an ink tint on an image in black and white. A picture that sticks in your soul.

Binh (the motorbike man) took me to buy thread to fix my bag with and they charged me a very good price. While I was getting it he popped home and goy me four bananas. Very kind of him. I waited for the bus for a while and then shared the back seat with a Swiss couple all night to Hanoi.