OK, so from Pleiku, we drove north to Kom Tum, described in LP as "the friendliest city in Vietnam" - actually the whole region is really friendly, with people talking to you because they're genuinely interested rather than simply seeing you as a walking/talking ATM...we drove through lots of cool minority villages (the houses in each looked different despite being only a few hundred yards apart)...also saw a beautiful wooden church built by the French in Kom Tum itself...later, we stopped at the disused runway of the old airstrip at Dak To...it was from here that the US launched bombing raids into Laos (as well as inserting special forces on the ground) while publically giving assurances that they fully respected Laotian neutrality...walking down the runway (now partially planted with crops and used by water-buffalo for grazing) was a erie experience...later I looked on the net and actually pulled up pictures of the base as it was in the 1960s...
After Dak To we stopped briefly at a shop where locals made knives out of rusty bomb fragments and then spent the night in a small town (don't actually know the name) around 30km from the Laos border...
The next day (Monday) after a delicious breakfast of pho (delicious noodle soup) we headed north along what was once the Ho Chi Minh trail - a nextwork of well concealed pathways used by the VC to obtain weapons and supplies from the horth. After 'reunification', the government decided to build a road along the route so it looks very different today, although you can still see the original path in some places...the scenery on the route was beautiful (hills, valleys, waterfalls, low cloud) but the weather (heavy driving rain) kindof spoiled it...because of the weather we decided to continue straight on to Hoi An. On the way - perhaps the best pitstop of the journey - I met what Happy assured me was a 100 year old woman...who was calmly stood outside the hut smoking a cigarette ! The whole family were really friendly (including their pet monkey)...the final hour consisted of driving through what I'm sure is now a flooded road, in the puring rain. When we finally got to Hoi An I had to empty the water out of my hiking boots (which I'd worn in the anticipation of trekking) before I could go in the hotel ! Needless to say cold beer tasted good last night...
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