Hunting Uncle Ho, The 'Bears Vietnam Journey
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From: Tasmania
"OK Joy, your five minute headstart is up. Here I come, ready or not!"
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Ha! A couple of good ones there guys! There have also been a few email entries - but as they are not CBR forum members are not in the running for the Grand Prize - unfortunately. But more on this later when Mrs SB shall announce the winner - and we will list all the captions entered.
It is later than the 31st October forum time isn't it? Bit hard to tell here, we didn't even know what day it was this morning
Cheers, SB
It is later than the 31st October forum time isn't it? Bit hard to tell here, we didn't even know what day it was this morning
Cheers, SB
Last edited by Sebastionbear1; Nov 1, 2012 at 09:11 AM.
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Day 24 Khe Sanh - and a little drier than the last 2 days.
It was still a little drizzly early on, so we answered emails, bought some food for the day from a little shop across the road, had an 'oplet' (omelet) breakfast in the hotel restaurant and roughly planned our day.
Our intention was to do a farm stay with an expat Aussie and his Vietnamese wife at Phong Nha - just out of the National Park, but unfortunately they were full up for the night we would arrive, so via a number of emails, we got the low-down on the road and we are still going to visit them on the way through.
His advice to take extra fuel for the bikes and bottles of Vodka (bribes?) for the Park Rangers was a little disconcerting.
We decided to have the chains tightened and oiled before leaving so went to ask the guys in a little motorcycle repair shop across the road from the hotel where the head mechanic owned this piece of 2-stroke history.
Didn't hear it run though
Once the correspondence and tomorrows itinerary was completed (~ 240 km on some of the best motorcycling roads in the world!- Ho Chi Minh Highway West), we took off for the Khe Sanh Combat Base which was only 3 km north of the town we are camped at.
The 77 day seige of Khe Sanh Combat Base and battles around the base went from the end of January to early July 1968. About 500 US troops were killed and tens of thousands of NVA and even more civillians during the bloody battles in this part of the country which is just below the 17th parallel which was the DeMilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating South from North Vietnam. Battle of Khe Sanh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia We had watched a documentary on the seige and related battles and could identify relative hills and parts of the base. When the US withdrew from the base on the 6th of July, it was with a scorched earth policy, not a thing remained standing nor useful to the enemy. The NVA flag was hoisted on the remnants of the base on the 9th of July 1968.
The base is not easy to find and the sign pointing to it is off the road and hidden by foliage from one direction.
$1 AUD each for entry and we spent the next couple of hours walking around the site and looking at the museum.
Aircraft debris (mainly helicopter) is everywhere
The museum is interesting with the winners' (overall) perspective very dominating. The vistors book has few western entries and a few of those are from Khe Sanh Seige vets with poignant thoughts.
US weapons including the M16 assault rifle
The communists weapon of choice - the ubiquitous, long-lived, virtually indestructable AK47 with folding stock.
Outside the museum, there were more captured aircraft
The Chinook and..
Huey in apparently very good condition for a static display.
And some in not-so-good condition
There were recreations of the US trenches and bunker systems used during the seige.
A Hercules waits........
Deactivated ordnance abounds - as apparently does unexploded ordnance. In mid August of this year a 500KG unexploded bomb was dug up and disarmed in Khe Sanh.
The semi-trailer of the Vietnam war skies - the Hercules.
We didn't find too much small arms cartridges but this piece intrigued me.
Light alloy with a knurled bobbin - no idea myself as to what it is from.
Scouring the ground for artfacts we found this little dude
Not being a Herpetologist, I can't identify him, but he was cute
More tanks and APC were plinth mounted.
In all it was definitely a worthwhile visit, but as the guide book said, Khe Sanh is somewhere you go - on the way to somewhere else.
When we returned to the hotel we took the bikes over to the mechanic and had the chains tightened and oiled - all for $1.50 AUD, then had a humerous time at the petrol station enticing the guy filling the bikes to really fill the tanks to the brim for the long journey tomorrow. It was almost a circus by the time we had finished.
A walk in the afternoon had us looking in the Honda showroom and......
Viewing a cemetary (one of a few) dedicated to those NVA killed while working on, or transporting war materiel along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Now, we are ready, the bikes prepared and the mapping completed for the journey to Phong Nha tomorrow. I do hope the road lives up to the hype it has been accorded.
Cheers, The Travelling 'Bears.
It was still a little drizzly early on, so we answered emails, bought some food for the day from a little shop across the road, had an 'oplet' (omelet) breakfast in the hotel restaurant and roughly planned our day.
Our intention was to do a farm stay with an expat Aussie and his Vietnamese wife at Phong Nha - just out of the National Park, but unfortunately they were full up for the night we would arrive, so via a number of emails, we got the low-down on the road and we are still going to visit them on the way through.
His advice to take extra fuel for the bikes and bottles of Vodka (bribes?) for the Park Rangers was a little disconcerting.
We decided to have the chains tightened and oiled before leaving so went to ask the guys in a little motorcycle repair shop across the road from the hotel where the head mechanic owned this piece of 2-stroke history.
Didn't hear it run though
Once the correspondence and tomorrows itinerary was completed (~ 240 km on some of the best motorcycling roads in the world!- Ho Chi Minh Highway West), we took off for the Khe Sanh Combat Base which was only 3 km north of the town we are camped at.
The 77 day seige of Khe Sanh Combat Base and battles around the base went from the end of January to early July 1968. About 500 US troops were killed and tens of thousands of NVA and even more civillians during the bloody battles in this part of the country which is just below the 17th parallel which was the DeMilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating South from North Vietnam. Battle of Khe Sanh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia We had watched a documentary on the seige and related battles and could identify relative hills and parts of the base. When the US withdrew from the base on the 6th of July, it was with a scorched earth policy, not a thing remained standing nor useful to the enemy. The NVA flag was hoisted on the remnants of the base on the 9th of July 1968.
The base is not easy to find and the sign pointing to it is off the road and hidden by foliage from one direction.
$1 AUD each for entry and we spent the next couple of hours walking around the site and looking at the museum.
Aircraft debris (mainly helicopter) is everywhere
The museum is interesting with the winners' (overall) perspective very dominating. The vistors book has few western entries and a few of those are from Khe Sanh Seige vets with poignant thoughts.
US weapons including the M16 assault rifle
The communists weapon of choice - the ubiquitous, long-lived, virtually indestructable AK47 with folding stock.
Outside the museum, there were more captured aircraft
The Chinook and..
Huey in apparently very good condition for a static display.
And some in not-so-good condition
There were recreations of the US trenches and bunker systems used during the seige.
A Hercules waits........
Deactivated ordnance abounds - as apparently does unexploded ordnance. In mid August of this year a 500KG unexploded bomb was dug up and disarmed in Khe Sanh.
The semi-trailer of the Vietnam war skies - the Hercules.
We didn't find too much small arms cartridges but this piece intrigued me.
Light alloy with a knurled bobbin - no idea myself as to what it is from.
Scouring the ground for artfacts we found this little dude
Not being a Herpetologist, I can't identify him, but he was cute
More tanks and APC were plinth mounted.
In all it was definitely a worthwhile visit, but as the guide book said, Khe Sanh is somewhere you go - on the way to somewhere else.
When we returned to the hotel we took the bikes over to the mechanic and had the chains tightened and oiled - all for $1.50 AUD, then had a humerous time at the petrol station enticing the guy filling the bikes to really fill the tanks to the brim for the long journey tomorrow. It was almost a circus by the time we had finished.
A walk in the afternoon had us looking in the Honda showroom and......
Viewing a cemetary (one of a few) dedicated to those NVA killed while working on, or transporting war materiel along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Now, we are ready, the bikes prepared and the mapping completed for the journey to Phong Nha tomorrow. I do hope the road lives up to the hype it has been accorded.
Cheers, The Travelling 'Bears.
Last edited by Sebastionbear1; Nov 1, 2012 at 10:24 AM.
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As an addenda to today's post I thought I'd include a 'how we are finding our way around Vietnam' post as a few people seem a little astounded that we are doing it without a GPS.
We had roughly worked out the tour in two parts before we came. To the north of Hanoi with Jay and Susie for the first part of the journey, then the longer southern loop.
Most of the planning is done on the run with hotels booked on-line the day before we get there. That was in case we liked somewhere and wanted to stay or felt the need to recuperate after a hard journey.
When we arrived in Ha Noi we bought 2 map books, the dark blue one was recommended by those who had done back country trips by bike before and the larger one had much more information about the towns and regions. I also have a Lonely Planet Guide for Vietnam.
With these three books and a bottle of Gin and some tonic, we sat down and planned the journey using a rough time guide.
When we knew where we were heading the next day, then I would draw up a running sheet for the day - very rudimentary - with our hotel destination details. Using this, if we had trouble near the hotel, we just asked people and pointed to the address and were shown the way. I have become quite good at getting us directly to our hotels though now
For getting around each town or city, each hotel usually has a map with local highlights and if you also take the hotel card a taxi will find your way home for you.
Then there is the highlight of our communication with the non-english-speaking Vietnamese. A small iPhone app called translator. You select English to Vietnamese, type in your question and hit the button and viola! They understand - and it works the other way as well! When we are out of wifi range it usually resorts to charades though, but generally we have found that we can be understood, although every now and again the confusion is hilarious as something completely different is served up.
A postcard from Vietnam to the person who correctly deciphers this
Cheers, SB
We had roughly worked out the tour in two parts before we came. To the north of Hanoi with Jay and Susie for the first part of the journey, then the longer southern loop.
Most of the planning is done on the run with hotels booked on-line the day before we get there. That was in case we liked somewhere and wanted to stay or felt the need to recuperate after a hard journey.
When we arrived in Ha Noi we bought 2 map books, the dark blue one was recommended by those who had done back country trips by bike before and the larger one had much more information about the towns and regions. I also have a Lonely Planet Guide for Vietnam.
With these three books and a bottle of Gin and some tonic, we sat down and planned the journey using a rough time guide.
When we knew where we were heading the next day, then I would draw up a running sheet for the day - very rudimentary - with our hotel destination details. Using this, if we had trouble near the hotel, we just asked people and pointed to the address and were shown the way. I have become quite good at getting us directly to our hotels though now
For getting around each town or city, each hotel usually has a map with local highlights and if you also take the hotel card a taxi will find your way home for you.
Then there is the highlight of our communication with the non-english-speaking Vietnamese. A small iPhone app called translator. You select English to Vietnamese, type in your question and hit the button and viola! They understand - and it works the other way as well! When we are out of wifi range it usually resorts to charades though, but generally we have found that we can be understood, although every now and again the confusion is hilarious as something completely different is served up.
A postcard from Vietnam to the person who correctly deciphers this
Cheers, SB
Last edited by Sebastionbear1; Nov 1, 2012 at 10:49 AM.
