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DMZ
All is quiet on the DMZ now. The bases and bunkers are no longer there. The country is one. And the area is a major tourist attraction. View of the Ben Hai river when driving However, it wasn’t always so. When the world’s powers convened in Geneva to try and sort out the mess the French had got themselves into in Indochina, Vietnam was split in half along the 17th parallel. A strip of land, running about 5kms on either side of the Ben Hai river separated a nation and its people. During the ensuing Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese and US-supported South fought ruthlessly, trying to gain an advantage…
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War Remnants Museum
A visit to the War Remnants Museum is a must if you are visiting Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon as it is popularly known as. While not for everyone, it is an absolute must if you want to understand what transpired under both the French colonialists, and during the Vietnam War. A tank outside the War Remnants museum building Its history The museum originally opened on the 4th of September 1975 as the Exhibition House for US and Puppet Crimes within the former United States Information Agency building. However, with the normalisation of diplomatic relationships between the Vietnamese and US governments, it was renamed as the War Remnants Museum…
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Cu Chi tunnels
There are two different Cu Chi tunnels. Yes, Ben Duoc and Ben Dinh are part of the same tunnel network. However, they are two different sites. Mannequins of Viet Cong women soldiers Your experience will be different, depending on which of the two sites you visit. I visited Ben Duoc. It is a bit further from Ho Chi Minh City, and is also less crowded. The tunnels are also a lot more authentic and closer to how they were during the Vietnam war. Ben Dinh on the other hand, is mostly reconstructions. Keeping in mind the large number of western tourists who visit, many of the tunnels are wider to…
