"The DMZ" Tinh Quang Tri by Willettsworld

The Ben Hai River traverses the northern reaches of Quang Tri province, marking Vietnam's 17th parallel, which was used as the demarcation line between North and South Vietnam in 1954. The demarcation was intended as a temporary line between the north and south until elections, held in 1956, would reunify the country. However, the elections never took place and Quang Tri saw some of the heaviest fighting in all of Vietnam. By the end of the war, the entire province had been more or less flattened and most of the population had been evacuated. Both Quang Tri town and Dong Ha were totally destroyed - not a building was left standing in either town, and of the 3,000+ villages that once were dotted over the province, just eleven remained.

Given this history, the main "attraction" in Quang Tri province is the legacy of this extreme violence which can be visited as part of a DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) tour. I took my tour of the DMZ with the Hanh Cafe in Hue which involved a very early start - I was picked up from my hotel at the god awful time of 6.40am. We made our way out of Hue towards the town of Dong Ha. When we reached Dong Ha, we headed inland on Highway 9 which was built by the French in 1904 to provide a link into Laos and was used by the Americans as a major supply route. We passed by several wooden stilt houses that belong to the Bru people and stopped off at a rocky outcrop known as The Rockpile which was used as an observation post and artillery base by the Americans from 1966 to 1968. We then carried on, west, along Highway 9 to the Dakrong Bridge which was bombed and rebuilt several times during the war. One of the many Ho Chi Minh Trails which were used as north-south supply routes for the North Vietnamese during the war leads away from the bridge, having been paved since the war. Next, it was up the hill to Khe Sanh Combat Base - an American base with an airstrip that was attacked by the Viet Cong in January 1968 as a diversion in preparation for the Tet Offensive. The Americans held on for three months under heavy fire, but after Tet, withdrew back to Camp Carol. Next it was back to Dong Ha and north along Highway 1 to a memorial that marks the southern boundary of the DMZ and then across the Ben Hai River to visit the highlight of the tour - the Vinh Moc Tunnels which housed about 300 villagers during six years of the war.