Travels with Tam

If you wanted to watch scenery through a window, you could stay home and watch National Geographic, right? The best trips are those where you get out into the real world, meet real people, and leave the tourists behind. The problem, of course, is that you can't speak Vietnamese and those off-the-beaten path attractions are, well, off-the-beaten-path! You really need a guide who can get you where you want to go and help you understand what's going on once you get there.

Tam's been traveling throughout Da Nang and the rest of Central Vietnam ever since, as she says, she was a puppy! She started working, at the age of ten, as a street vendor to help support her family. Tam learned English from American sailors who bought bags of peanuts from her on Bach Dang Street and from GIs in the villages of Quang Nam, where she trekked to sell postcards and waterproof cigarette cases. As a teenager, Tam worked in a restaurant at the top of Hai Van Pass, serving meals to convoys of GIs as they waited for clearance to descend the switch-back road connecting Da Nang and Hue. She worked later in a laundry in Cam Lo at the DMZ and, while there, visited Khe Sanh, Lang Vay, and Dong Ha. Since the war, she's traveled frequently to Dak Lak province in the Central Highlands, where her sister provides basic medical care to poor people in their stilt houses, just down the road from Yok Don National Park.

Tam can help you get where you want to go. Tam has several motorbikes for rent (as well as helmets at no extra charge). She can lead a convoy of travelers up the Ho Chi Minh Trail Highway (Route 14), through the DMZ and into the Vinh Moc Tunnels--or take you, alone, on the back of her own motorbike to visit the ethnic villages of Quang Nam. She can help your volunteer organization arrange to travel to the lovely town of Buon Ma Thuot and accompany you into the rural regions of Dak Lak Province. Or she can just book you a room at a hotel on China Beach and rent you a motorbike so that you can go off and explore Danang's Museum of Cham Sculpture, nearby Marble Mountain or the ruins of My Son on your own. Tam doesn't pad charges. She's reliable and fair and she's a great storyteller, too. Join the ranks of travelers who consider Tam to be their personal Guardian Angel!