The night bus from Da Lat took a pit stop here for the toilet and a bite to eat. It's in the middle of nowhere but it felt so beautiful here with the moist cool air and the mountains. If you look on top, the bus doubles as a Fedex delivery truck. You can feel this weight begging the bus to fall over on all the sharp turns. Better than the stories I heard of pigs getting loaded into the luggage space in the bottom I suppose.
When I asked around the backpacking community at Hue Backpackers I heard of the citadel, many tombs, and some temples. I didn't hear any reviews that were a must see. I decided I would skip all of these purely tourist activities. Living on the road you find that you don't want to do this kind of stuff every day.
Instead:
I went for a beautiful run through the parks along the Perfume river.
I rode the bike around the citadel and all of the backroads saying hi and getting sneak peaks into the lives of all of the locals.
I made friends with a server at one or the restaurants and she took some friends and I to play football with the locals. They were really good. I was not.
The last day I got a motorbike with a big group and we went to a paradice beach bar with good food, cheap beers, and lots of beach toys including beach vollyball!
On the way up north we crossed the 17th parallel and stopped at the Vinh Moc Tunnels. about 600 people lived in these tunnels to hide from the bombs that were being dropped during the war. a network of trenches were made to connect many other networks of tunnels. The Vinh Moc tunnels housed only civilians. Families of 6 would stay in rooms only a couple of square meters big. The deepest part of the tunnels are 23 meters underground. Climbing throughout the tunnels makes you feel like an ant. The walls of the cave are simply dirt, no supporting stones or wood.
(Behind me, a room for a family of 4-6 people)
The next stop is Phong Nha to explore some of the most beautiful caves in the world.
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