Our first stop or the day was at a famous bridge that linked the old North and South.
We were only given 10 minutes to take as many photos as possible, before being rushed back onto the bus for our next stop.
The best part was that the bridge that we were all taking photos of was not even the original.
The original was blown up during the war !!
This is a very poor picture, as we chose the only cloudy day of our visit in Vietnam.
It show the re-built bridge that links the old North and South.
It no longer has any vehicle access, as an even newer bridge has been built next to it.
The statue that is in the distance, was to remember the women of the South who could look across to the North where their husbands were fighting for the Vietcom.
Our next stop was the highlight of the trip.
We visited a section of tunnels created by the North Vietnamese, which we were told was only used by local families to protect themselves from bombs.
This story didn't quite tie up with some of the old photos in the museum, which showed people carrying Russian made guns etc.
This was the first time since being in Vietnam, where the spin on the war was all one sided.
This photo is of one of the many tunnel entrances.
These tunnels were massive, with a network of over 2Km and depths of over 24m.
The start of the entrance was fully supported with wood, but as soon as you made your way down, it was just soft soil with no supports.
It was a little worrying, as other sections of the tunnel were no longer accessable due to theitr collapse !!
Once underground, there were loads of small dug out sections where whole families would have to stay durring attacks.
There was one toilet in the whole section of this tunnel, which was located at the beach exit.
The one who drew the short straw had the job of collecting the buckets each day and running the risk of being shot at whilst emtying their contents into the sea.
This is the tunnel where the toilet was located, leading out to the beach.
After leaving the tunnels we headed to Ke Sahn, which was one of the major American airbases during the war.
Unfortunately all the Vietnamese had nicked all the steel covering the runway, along with anything else that could be sold on for scrap.
All there is to see now, are a small collection of bomb casings and the odd plane etc.
All of these look as if they have been brought in from other locations, and give the whole feeling of a staged scene.
The last stop on the tour, was at a bridge that marked the start of the Ho Chi Minh trail.
As you can see, there isn't much to be seen
The best part of this stop, were the local kids who scambled over each other to have their photo taken.
On the journey back, someone pointed out that the tour should have included a visit to an ethnic village.
The bus driver was quickly made to pull over, which we were made to get off.
It turned out that this was our ethnic village stop off point !!!
In all a very long day, which would have been much better with just the tunnels.
We didn't complain though as true to their word, we were dropped of at Dong Ha which is where we were to catch our next bus to Laos.
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