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#8 – Ho Chi Minh Trail to north

Travel with Henry > All adventures > #8 – Ho Chi Minh Trail to north

Khe Sanh, Hương Hóa, Quảng Trị Province, Vietnam

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 place Khe Sanh is good for an overnight stay, but not more. Slightly outside the town towards north lies the former Khe Sanh Airbase – the place where the largest and longest battle of the Vietnam War took place. 6,000 US GI’s were encircled on this airfield directly at the Lao border of about 20,000 Vietkong soldiers for nearly three months under permanent fire. The Americans could only be supplied by air, the aircrafts could not land, the charge had to be thrown off. Apart from a small museum, left old military equipment and a few bunkers there is not much more to be seen today. The country around the devastated land has been afforested with coffee and rubber – there is nothing that indicates what happened here almost 50 years ago and was haunting the world in the international media for month.

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.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail between Khe Sanh and Phong Nha is one of the most interesting motorcycle trails I have ever driven. The road is good and traffic does in fact not exist. Over the entire distance of about 230 km, maybe 5 to 6 cars have met me. In the vicinity of settlements its possible to meet rarely locals  on motorbikes. The landscape seems to be unspoiled nature over long stretches, due to the hilly terrain you can often enjoy a magnificent view – only a few places, where peasants slash-and-burn for plantations, disturb the overall impression.

Unfortunately, the most beautiful time is always the fastest – when in the near distance the first karst mountains were visible, I knew it would not take long time through the next stage goal Phong Nha.

Henry

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