#8 – Ho Chi Minh Trail to north

During the Vietnam War the supply for the North Vietnamese troops was conducted on rough terrain along the border to Laos and Cambodia. These trails and mud roads – known as Ho Chi Minh Path – have been expanded over the years and are now a normal road from South to North.

My next destination will be the National Park Phong Nha about 400 km north-west of Hue. First, it is to head 60 km to the west before you can turn right for taking Ho Chi Minh Trail in direction to north. On this route you pass well known places of past battles – as for example the “Hamburger Hill” or Khe Sanh. The name Hamburger Hill has nothing to do with the North German city of Hamburg, but is based on the fast food which is extremely popular in the USA. The battles around this – at the end insignificant hillside were on both sides so horrifying, that the soldiers were literally minced. This hill is a bit off the road – to get there it is necessary to apply for a permission from the local authority – including an obligate guide. The reason for this is, that the Ho Chi Minh Trail was littered with millions of tons of bombs and mines during the war, like Laos and Cambodia too. It is estimated that about 30% of these have not yet exploded – about 3.5 million mines and 800,000 tonnes of duds are still hidden under the ground. Any differ from designated paths is still life-threatening. Since the end of the war in 1975, 150,000 people were seriously injured in Vietnam till 2007 – 45,000 of them deadly. Even today, accidents happen with explosive devices on a daily base.

Straight in time with the planned departure from Hue, a thunderstorm with heavy rain swept across the city, three hours waiting for the departure meant at the same time to postpone the itinerary for that day and insert at about half of the distance in Khe Sanh an additional stop for that night. In hindsight, this delay has proven to be a huge blessing because the second part of the route was so gorgeous to ride and extraordinary scenic, that I would miss the many stops  I’d time to spend.

After 60 km, reaching the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the traffic drops noticeably. Although this route is the main connecting road to norh on this side of the country, there is hardly any traffic on the road. Only when you get neaclose to villages, the local motorbike traffic is slightly increasing.

The route to the north runs parallel to the Lao border, where small indigenous minorities live. The border to Laos is open in many sections, it would be easy to turn left somewhere and you would be without check in the other country. I do not know if it was a coincidence, but when I stopped in a village to take a few photos, after 2 minutes a scooter with two civilian officers stopped and told me that I should continue as this is border area.