Babs’ travels -The Peking to Paris Rally and other driving adventures.

The Coastline around Da Nang is fast becoming Australia's new Bali. Hoi An, a little further south was an important trading post and inland port but that title now belongs to it's much larger neighbour.  It is pretty touristy now but manages to retain much charm and we had a very pleasant couple of days there - despite the  intense heat and humidity.   It is famed for its cloth market and tailoring - indeed, there are more tailoring shops than you can shake a stick at.  I'm sure there are many Aussies walking around Sydney or Melbourne dressed head to toe by clothes from Hoi An.  From cashmere suits to shirts to evening dresses; all can be made in 24 hours. There are even shoemakers, who'll run you up a new pair in the time it takes to have a good lunch. With the silk left over from the tailoring colourful lanterns are made here and gang everywhere. A lovely spectacle, especially at night. After one final day of driving along the coast we took a short flight to ...

We enjoyed a day off from driving in charming Hue.  Adrian went on the train to Da Nang and back, just for the experience and I just walked and walked until the heat defeated me and I retreated to the air con. Dinner was taken, with good friends Lloyd and Treacy, at La Residence hotel - a fabulous Art Deco affair that could have been a Poirot film set.  We dined on a perfect terrace, alongside the Perfume river, on amazing food.  I think Graham Greene and Somerset Maugham were at the next table. Today, we drove for 170 miles beginning our journey by heading west back to the Laos border.  Then, we snaked along the border south before turning back towards the coast to Hoi An, our home for the night.  We passed through tiny settlements where the local dialect is so different that even our Vietnamese chaps could not make themselves understood.   Another fabulous days driving - for much of it along deserted roads through spectacular scenery; mountains and pristi...

This isn't a war tour but it is very hard not to be aware of what happened here not so long and very much within my living memory.  We left Khe Sanh and headed a little north and east towards the coast.  We were travelling through the narrow corridor of the DMZ. -rather ironically named as it was the most heavily bombarded place on the planet.  There are old craters everywhere as we went from mountains to the plains. We avoided main roads, for the most part, through pretty countryside and with the usual fulsome welcome from all. We stopped at a large memorial to all the civilians who died creating the HCM trail.  A place of great pilgrimage for the Vietnamese.  There are almost 11,000 graves. Vinh Moc was in a very strategic place during the war - essential for the supply route - and on the coast directly east of a tiny island that the US held as an airbase.  The village suffered such heavy shelling that the normal shelters were not enough and so they moved...

If anyone had told the young girl, watching grainy television footage of a terrible war in a faraway land that she would, one day, as a mother of four and a grandmother of five, be driving an American war era jeep through those same places she'd have thought you were nuts. Yet, here she is, driving south through Vietnam along, mainly, the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The old trail now forms the westerly road south, although it carries little traffic, as the main road runs east closer to the coast. Yesterday was a gorgeous drive through well organised farmland on a route taking us alongside the Laos border- at times just a mile or two away.  The scars of war are everywhere.  The physical landscape is pock marked with old bomb craters, now just appearing as water filled holes in the paddies. Otherwise flat fields have grassy lumps where the soil was thrown up. We arrived at Phong Nha, a UNESCO World Heritage Sight and home to one of the largest caves in the world.  The deepest, and w...

The jeep, as you would expect, just loves a rough track and we went on plenty of those today.  It's been terrific, ruts, plenty of big holes, mud, dust - so much dust and a little hit of concrete and Tarmac.  200 miles of pure joy.   The scenery has been stupendous, but, alas, the mean sun did not put in an appearance and so once again the views were marred by haze and any photographs do not possibly do it justice.  We have travelled, for the most part, on the HCM Trail, now a real hinterland, well organised, farming area.  Our welcome has been enthusiastic and very friendly.  We went past an army barracks today and the soldiers on guard saluted us.  It was an bizarre moment.  Cuog told me that they would have thought we were Aamerican war veterans returning to see the battle sights  and a soldier always respects another soldier. 200 miles may not sound much but when your average speed is around 23 mph it's qu...