Tunnels, Airport and the DMZ

Busy day yesterday after our short rest at the luxury hotel. I think there was more staff than visitors but we deserved it!! Actually, it was rather surreal given what lay outside the complex. There was nothing different from the rest of Vietnam just that for ordinary people the gap between what we had and what they have is enormous in terms of comfort and quality. We had large beds, air-con and a massive breakfast of anything you wanted. From piles of fresh fruit, cooked eggs and croissants, as well as the sort of food wealthy Vietnamese would eat - eel soup, noodles, cold meats and so on.

The tunnels were very hard going. Some 3 or 4 kilometres inside the northern DMZ/17th parallel there was a village called Vinh Moc. After about 1964 the USA wanted them moved but they wanted to stay. So they were bombed. Instead of moving they decided to dig themselves into the ground. Vinh Moc lies on the coast but about 100 feet above the sea. So entry was easy. As the ground is rock it took a lot of effort to cut through the ground but this they did, about 10 feet down. But the bombs were redesigned to penetrate 10 feet. So down they went to about 30 feet. Once has to wonder at why the USA wanted local villagers moved?

We were able to walk along the tunnels which was nor easy, particularly if you are prone to claustrophobia! However, they were rock and not too narrow; I could walk the whole way even if one had to crouch a bit at times. They were very narrow in places and the steps a bit slippery and awkward. It was also very humid. We have been in caves earlier and whereas I would have expected them to be cool, as I think we find in the UK, all here seem humid and warm. I find it very hard to imagine a life going on in such awful circumstances but they had maternity 'wards' as well as meeting rooms (actually a corridor in a tunnel which was a little wider than normal)

Once we had left the tunnel and emerged into daylight up popped our local Vietnamese man. 'I was born here', he said and photographs were taken. Actually, the poor man seemed rather lacking in grey cells so I suspect he may have been looking for his 5 minutes of fame. Never mind, no harm done!

One thing that we have noticed in the museums and other 'tourist' venues that we have been to in Vietnam is that there appears to be little or no attempt made to provide information for the visitors. Whereas in Europe one would find lots of books, post cards and guides, here none exists which is a real pity. Furthermore the museums are not well maintained and there is a great danger that the exhibits that they do have will deteriorated badly over the next few years and be lost. A real shame.

After a vist to the DMZ we crossed the old bridge and we were officially in the south eg as set down in the 1954 Geneva Conference. This has only passing interest, I guess but it was interesting to see that one of the techniques used after 1954 was huge loud speakers. These were used to blast music and speeches to southerners no doubt telling them how good it was living in the North!

We then went up into the hills to visit Khe Sahn, the old USA air base. The drive took us to within 20 kilometres of Laos and the base sat on top of a hill, surrounded by other hills. It was, as in many other places, not well maintained although there is clear evidence that people are visiting. They also seem to be developing the site but the museum needs a thorough re-vamp. As was usual, the captions on the photographs were designed for a Vietnamese audience and were sometimes rather strange. All things Vietnamese were painted in heroic words of great deeds against the awful enemy. Pictures of American soldiers were captioned to show there perfidiousness! Whatever the 'truth', here in Vietnam the story is always the same. Do the Vietnamese people visit the site? We have seen little evidence that they do so perhaps the message is not getting to them.

In the town, just below the base is a large commemorative monument that occupies a space at the crossroads. I wanted a picture so we stopped and walked over to it as children were shouting 'Hello' to us. We obviously weren't Japanese of Korean! After pictures were taken a local, a minority tribesman, pointed to the statues and said 'American' with a little distaste in his voice.I made a suitable gesture with my hands and left, crossing the road to join my fellow travellers. I was unsure as to his views about the Americans! We stopped outside a workshop, a very common site, and as one of the other locals pointed out they were using old shells to make agricultural tools (no explosives left in them, of course!)... or so they said!!

Our day nearly ended in a minor disaster. In the morning, Brett had collected our tip for the driver and this had then been sealed in an envelope and placed it in a little pouch in front of his seat so we could all see it. As we came down from the base he found it had gone. This would be awkward if we could not find it! After a lot of hunting and still no envelope, it was found….in the rubbish bin back at the base, 45 minutes up the mountain. Brett had thrown it out with another envelope! We do appear to have it back but Duc, our local guide had to leap on a local bus and go back up the mountain to collect it!