We changed our plane tickets yesterday to have another day in Hue. We got a driver (and car) and a guide to take us on Highway 1, a road stretching the entire length of the country and passing through the Demilitarized zone (DMZ). The stretch of highway on both sides of the DMZ is known as "The Terrible Highway" and there is a long checklist of sites to visit along the way: Our first stop was at a church, or rather the skeleton of a church. Spotted with bullet holes and devastated by grenades, 500 Communists were cornered inside by the South Vietnamese Army and the US Army. Though incredibly outnumbered, they refused to surrender and even tied their own feet together so that they couldn't flee. Next stop: the US Doc Mieu Fire Base, now a plot of land with a few bunkers visible through vegetation and bomb shells every few feet. It wasn't scary at all when our guide casually informed us that all of the holes along the narrow path were from land mines and that there were still live ones yet to be uncovered. I guess it's on the to-do list. #3 on Highway 1 was the Hien Luong Bridge spanning the Ben Hai River, basically forming the 17th parallel. Half of the bridge had been painted red, the other half yellow - to symbolize the divide between the regions and ideologies. I watched a few Vietnamese boys jump off the 25-foot bridge and was tempted to join them, but then decided not to pick up any diseases within the first 2 weeks of my trip. Maybe next time. And the last stop: the Vinh Moc Tunnels. Unlike the ones in Cu Chi which were built for the army, these were dug by and dug for civilians. An entire village underground, nearly 75-feet deep at points. Like rabbit holes. Also unlike Cu Chi, these actually had some breathing room (in fact 17 babies were born in the tunnels). And there were no bats. Or booby traps. Yet despite the higher ceilings and our guide repeating "Hit head" every 5 seconds (meaning watch my head not commanding me to do so), I have a nice bump as a souvenir. I've come to realize that the guides that show people around these war sites haven't memorized what they know from textbooks, but are actually sharing parts of their lives on every tour. I watched Mr. Hiep's eyes tear up as I asked about the war (which was more like prying in retrospect), and then our guide today told us how his parents were in constant hiding and he witnessed his grandfather be buried alive. The lady we bought sodas from after we came sweating out of the tunnels had been forced to live in them for 3 months before joining the army. Everyone has a story. We got back to our hotel with some time to relax, refresh and reorganize before our flight to Hanoi (where I'm writing from now). Our last domestic flight. I can't believe that I've been here for less than 10 days. The Cu Chi tunnels seem like weeks ago (3 days), and Mui Ne years (just 1 day before that). And with about one week left, there's still a bunch to come...

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