Hamburger hill, as this was nicknamed by US soldiers, is a totally appropriate name for converying how fierce and brutal war was. Four decades on, Hamburger Hill has become a tourist attraction, a place that reminds young people of the older generation’s sacrifice and patriotism
The journey begins
It was early in the morning. Although it was getting lighter, Nhâm was still chilly. Covered by a thin blanket, I was shivering with cold, and all I wanted was to go back to sleep. But my friend almost made me fall out of bed as she shook me awake, so I got up in time to climb Hamburger Hill as planned. After we had spent 15 minutes warming up we realized we had not eaten anything for breakfast yet. In such as isolated place as A Hua hamlet in Nham village, most of the locals just had rice and cassava as their daily meats. They are poor and have barely enough for their basic needs. Even if you have plenty of money, it is hard even to find anything to buy. In the end, we had to travel to a town about 20 kilometers away to have breakfast. It was one of the bussiest days of the Pho restaurant in the A Luoi market, and the locals were all surprised at seeing strangers in town. As we were eating. An, one of the members of our group, kept reminding us to eat as much as we could because we only had Doac pie with sesame salt and Pako tea for lunch. I didn’t want to miss out on the enjoyment of this trekking tour, which I had dream of for so long, just because of an empty stomach, so I prudently bought some cartons of milk and put them in my backpack
CONQUERING A BIA
From eight in the morning, the sung began to blaze more strongly. In this region near the border between Vietnam and Laos, I felt like there were four season in one day. We had spring in the morning, hot summer sunshine in the noon, the cool of autumn in the afternoon and at night it was chilly like an early winter had just arrived
Hamburger Hill is called A Bia by the local ethnic community, but on military maps, this hill is noted as High Point 937. A Bia is one hill in a cluster of imposing Truong Son mountain. Until recently, climbing A Bia was extremely difficult because of its steep slopes. Then two years ago, A Luoi district built a road and a route to the top of the hill via 853 steps. Still, these steps are very tall and it takes you two steps per rise. We decided to take different route to the top. We came back to Nham to climb A Bia by the path used by locals. It is much longer in distance and harder for us this way, but we wanted to traverse the forest an streams, and enjoy the beauty of nature.
Our guide was Mr Pa Long Ku Xe, an elderly man of A Hua hamlet. At the age of 76, his frame is small but he walks fast. Wearing a rattan basket on his back, he led us to the lengendary A Bia Hill by using a knife to cut through branches on the way. The first two kilometers went smoothly: we overcame everything easily, and sang and laughed along the way. He told us that this path was used by his villagers to secretly bring food to Vietnamese soldiers. In the 41 years since the historic battle took place here, the land has been reallocated for crops, vegetables and coffee gardens
We left three hills behind and moved on the tackle two steep limbs. We had to concentrate so that none of us fell or slipped on this hazardous path. We could no longer laugh because the slopes because steeper and steeper. The crops and gardens gradually gave way to the forest. Taking a look around, I found that we had already separated into three groups. My ears could hardly hear a sound as I tried my best to climb the slope, and I knew that everyone was too tired to keep up with each other, so the best solution was for everyone to move at their own pace
Deep in the forest, the path was harder to follow, with a lot of twists and turns. With a stick in my hand, I staggered on for a while, but then I had to take a rest after every five meters climbing. Finally, dragging my self just three metres on, my head was spinning, my ears were ringing, my eyes were getting dim. I felt that I could not take any more. Everybody was moving forward quietly with their canes. Above us in the trees and the sky, birds and cicadas sang beautiful love songs. Finally some local ethnic boys, bringing water and food for our group by the stairway route, came to our aid and helped us accomplish the journey sagely.
Success
After more than three hours of climbing and crawling, our group reached the top of Hamburger Hill. Although we were exhausted and hungry, we were elated because we had thought that we would not make it. A monument stood on the top if the hill. We lit up incense; some also lit cigarettes and put them in the incense holder. The forest was so fresh and green, with leaves waving in the wind. Phương, a member of our group, tried to find some traces of the war which had taken place here. Later, he discovered some portions of a tunnel but the bushes and trees were so thick by that he could not find the entrance. Ngọc, our group leader, was a thoughtful person, and was concerned that there may still be some explosive devices left. After some discussion, we decided to leave th tunnel as it was.
Ngọc suggested we have lunch and then go back to Hồng Bắc. the journey had been a success. We lay on the steps to rest and posed for some pictures before climbing down.
It was not until I had conquered this hill that I truly understood how hard the challenges were for our older generation in fighting for our land. Hamburger Hill, with its spine-chilling name, is now a tourist attraction. It will always be an example of Vietnamese patriotism.
0 comments:
Post a Comment