Made It

Made it on the bus and enjoyed the six-hour ride from Kon Tum to Da Nang on the coast. Took the above photo over the shoulder of our driver on a stretch of what used to be the old Ho Chi Minh Trail very near the area of Dak To, an area of very extensive battles forty years ago. The Vietnamese are slowly re-grading and paving the former North Vietnam army supply route as the second north-south route in the country.

So, we made it as far as Da Nang that night. Our goal was Hoi An, 30 kilometers further south but there were no more busses running by the time we arrived. We found a guest house and, fortuitously, a vegetarian restaurant and settled in for the night. We woke up just after dawn the next day to some scratchy anthemic music and distorted, loud speech echoing above the traffic noise. I went to the roof of the guest house and saw this commemoration in the roundabout just down the road.