Another day trip – another sight: this time the Vietnamese DMZ – A 10 kilometer wide area where 10,000 tones of bombs were dropped per square kilometer of land during a violent and horrific war.

Our first stop of the day was Dong Ha a town used as a former US marine command post. The town was obliterated in 1962 but has managed to bounce back. The itinerary for the day made it sound as though we’d actually see some of the town, but in reality we stopped for a quick breakfast before being ushered back onto the bus to begin our tour of the surrounding area.

We drove for a while before stooping on the side of the road at Doc Mieu where amongst the undergrowth the last American tank could be seen. We got off the bus for a better look but in reality it was exactly what it looked like from the window, a very old burnt out tank of very little interest to anyone who wasn’t a war or military buff.

The tank was close to the original demarcation line. The Doc Mieu American military base had been set up on a hill to give them a good view across the demarcation line into the North of Vietnam.

Driving on from Doc Mieu we passed couple of monuments for those who had lost their lives during the war. Shortly after passing the monuments we crossed Hien Luong Bridge and stopped to take some pictures. There is currently a traffic bridge directly beside the old disused Hien Luong Bridge. The disused bridge is different from the original that was destroyed in 1967. The original bridge was painted half red half yellow as a vivid reminder that it was the physical and ideological boundary between the two Vietnams. The present iron bridge was constructed in 1973 and opened in 1975 as a symbol of reunification.

Beside the bridge on the North side is a large flag pole flying the Vietnamese flag. When the country was divided there was another pole on the South side and the two countries would continually attempt to fly bigger and bigger flags from their respective fag poles – a feud not unlike the one that currently exists between North and South Korea.

Moving on from the DMZ we visited the Vinh Moc tunnels, a system of tunnels that supported the living needs of 350 people for five years during the war. The tunnels are 2030 meters long and took one a half years to dig by hand over three different levels.

Our visit took us along the second level of the tunnels 15 meters below ground and the third level 23 meters below ground. The tunnels, dug out of red mud, were lit although still pretty dark and I’d image they didn’t have electricity during the war. Inside they were much taller than the tunnels at Cu Chi had been and I was able to stand upright all the way along. We followed our guide closely so as not to make a wrong turn and loose the rest of the group. She pointed out some very small dug outs in the tunnels that served as living quarters for a family of four, the tunnels were equipped with bathroom, a school room cum meeting room cum social area it even had a maternity ward where 28 babies were born.

From the Vinh Moc tunnels we returned to Dong Ha for lunch before rounding off the day at a war museum.

On the way to the museum we passed the rock pile so named by the Americans. This area had been heavily bombed during the war using agent orange and much of the shrubbery growing was very young because the soil has only recently recovered enough to support life. It not just the soil that suffered the effects of the weapons, adults being exposed to the chemical has resulted in their children being born with some awful deformities. It awful to think such hideous weapons were used against defenseless people.

More information on Agent Orange can be found here.

The war museum documented the battle of Khe Sanh. According the Vietnam Rough Guide this battle: “Demonstrated the futility of the Americans efforts to contain their enemy.” The museum was fine for a wonder around looking at pictures and gleaning some information about a small part of an awful. As usual it was full of anti American propaganda.

From there we were taken back to Hue where I accidentally deleted all my pictures from my USB stick and spent the evening sat on the computer recovering them whilst Kat and Emily went out for a nice dinner!

* Posted by j150vsc on 09/09/2007.