DM-Zees and Demobbing

Let me see; it's my turn to blog, so that must mean it's time for more warry stuff, impersonal photos and National Geographic-type prose? Well if that's what you crazy kids want...
We've finally come as far up the country as the old demarcation between the communist north and the pro-western south; the Demilitarized Zone running along the line of the Ben Hai river. My determination to suffer a tour of the DMZ decided Rach on a day of HBO and adventures involving noodle soup .
First on the long day's itinerary was the Vinh Moc tunnel complex, once a system of 140 tunnels with trenches for entire villages to avoid the US bombing campaign and harbour the VC on their way down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The tunnels have of course been widened for us lofty and portly westerners and in my group I was one of the shorter blokes, but even I came out wide-eyed, frothing and covered in sweat and clay after descending 23m below ground. I think one of the 2 gangly Finnish guys is still stuck down there...
My main interest in the trip was a look at the site of Khe Sahn Combat Base near the Laos border, famous for being besieged before the Tet offensive and the loss of "so many bright flowering young men", to quote Walter from the Big Lebowski. The base is a coffee plantation now and only a small museum shows where 6000 US troops were held down for 3 months in 1968, with the death of 200 US and 9000 NVA soldiers.

As a military man, I have found it strange visiting battlefield sites where our usual allies, US, Aussies, Kiwis and French, have note been on the winning side. This means that the usual graves, memorials and glorification of the "American War" are only seen from the North Vietnamese perspective, relegating the "West" to the anonymity of the loser.

Back in Hue and reunited with Rach, we donned our best crumpled clothes to celebrate my last day in Her Majesty's Britannic Forces with a slap up dinner at the tres smart (5-star) Imperial Hotel. We gorged on an all you can eat buffet and delicious red wine, returning around 7 times before relishing the best part, a cheese board, which was devoured with gusto. Mmm the pleasure of blue cheese on french bread washed down with a glass of red has been sorely missed.

A new life beckons, with only the occasional night lying awake pondering the future...