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Up until Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and then Phnom Penh, it would be fair to say that our visit to south-east asia had been dominated by fun and games – beaches, jet skiing, parties, drinks and food. But a visit to this part of the world, and Vietnam and Cambodia in particular, must necessarily encompass some effort to understand what has shaped these nations. Both Vietnam and Cambodia’s recent history is dominated by invasion and intervention by other countries, war and mass genocide. In one guise or another, Vietnam was at war for over 120 years, either against would be, or successful invaders, or civil war. Cambodia suffered brutally at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, and in the space of only 3 years, it is estimated that over 2 million Cambodians lost their lives either through execution, or through starvation or malnutrition, while yet others were victims of the Vietnam War which spilled over the border.

On the first day in Saigon I visited the Cu Chi tunnels, an important VC stronghold about 2 hours from the city. On arriving at the Cu Chi tunnels site, we were first led to a theatre to watch an excellent example of propaganda about the struggle of the Vietnamese against the Americans which, despite the subject matter, proved to be quite amusing, ranking right up there with the Stalin Museum in Gori for a one sided report of things. We were then taken around the site of the tunnels. At the end of the war there were 258km of tunnels through which the VC could effectively hide from the Americans. The most immediately striking thing about the tunnels was their size. The entrance hatch to the tunnels was only big enough for the smallest of our group to get through, and when we descended into the tunnels themselves, it was a challenge to walk through them, and they had been widened for western tourists (because we are fat, our guide cheerfully told us). On display was also a range of the traps that the VC used to injure, maim or kill enemy troops (or their dogs). Several of our group decided to head to the firing range afterwards to let off some steam through the medium of the AK-47, while others of us stood back and tried to cover our ears, as the noise was far louder than any of us expected! Our tour of the tunnels complete, we headed back to Saigon on a speed boat. The entranceway to the tunnels: Rich shooting a camera not a gun: My second brush with the Vietnam War in Saigon, saw me visit the War Remnants Museum. On display in the courtyard were a number of US Army weapons, aircraft and tanks. But the inside of the museum held a vast collection of photographs demonstrating the atrocities perpetrated by the Americans and I saw several images which will stay with me for years to come. I was somewhat quiet and, it must be said, a little teary afterwards. The courtyard at the War Remnants Museum: From Saigon we headed across the Cambodian border to Phnom Penh, the capital. The crew had organised for us to do a guided tour of the S-21 Museum and the Killing Fields, so we headed off en mass with a local guide to give us background to what we would be seeing, and also to explain a little more about the country that Cambodia is now. The S-21 Museum (or the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum to give its full official title) is based at the former Khmer Rouge S-21 Prison and was the site of the imprisonment, interrogation and torture of an estimated 10,000+ adults and 2,000 children over the years 1975 to 1978 (if the parents were arrested, the children were also arrested so that they could not grow up and avenge their parents death). The cells have been left in fairly original condition, and there are still some blood stains visible on the floor. There are a large number of photographs showing both the Khmer Rouge soldiers (they recruited boys between the ages of 13 and 16), and the victims. Only 7 people survived the S-21 prison. There were paintings of the torture methods used, and examples of the instruments used. The methods of torture was a reminder of the horrific creativity of humans in designing ways to inflict pain on their fellow man. From the S-21 Museum we drove to the Killing Fields which is where the majority of the people from the S-21 Prison were killed if they had not already died during their torture. At one stage up to 300 people per week were being killed at the Cheong Ek Killing Fields that we visited. The entrance way is now dominated by a stupa which has been built to commemorate the dead, and contains the skulls of over 8,000 victims. We then walked around the area which frequently dips down into craters which were mass graves, some containing over 400 bodies when excavated. One of the shallower craters was roped off with a sign saying “Please don’t walk on the mass grave”. That particular crater was just next to a tree off which they hung a loudspeaker which broadcast music to drown out the moans of the victims prior to their execution. It was all pretty upsetting stuff (sunglasses were definitely required), particularly when you wonder if we won’t be seeing similar memorials in years to come resulting from the current conflicts around the world.