Since 2003, a private war museum sits in Nghia Ninh Village, in
Vietnam’s central province of Quang Binh, known as home to war remnants
from the 60’s, as well as a remarkable recreation of typical North
Vietnamese villages during the period. The same historical attraction
happens to be one of the important destinations for Susan M. Smith, a
Canadian writer determined to complete her novel she had planned since
the past three years.
The book she is doing is inspired by documentations from a US chopper pilot who flew on a US Air Force helicopter transport missions in the central region of Viet Nam during the war some 35 years ago. Her trip to the renowned war museum allowed her a close encounter with the actual battle field and gave her an opportunity to collect all necessary documents for her to include in the novel.
Built by Hanoian Nguyen Xuan Lien in 2003 in commemoration of his friends who lost their lives during the conflict, along with other locals and soldiers during the period, the 10ha private war museum has become a popular stop for visitors and locals alike. Since it stood around seven years back, the place has been visited by over 60,000 tourists, veterans and historians form across the globe.
Several travel agencies in Ha Noi have now included the museum as a destination for trans-Viet Nam tours instead of the usual visits to the Phong Nha-Ke Bang World Natural Heritage Site. But the 67-year-old owner, who recalled working in a medical school when the war raged, stated that the museum is for everyone. “I'm not interested in making money. Young people, who were born after the American War ended in 1975 should visit and learn about the war period," says Lien.
But looks like Lien naturally have the zest for connecting with the past and retracing the Vietnam War days. He acquired a house which had survived bombardment in 1965, from a local resident that still has two wooden doors with cuts left by bomb fragments from the air strikes. Apart from that, the recreation of North Vietnamese villages inside the museum’s long stretch features five unique cottages built of timber or bamboo, with walls made of clay and mud mixtures held by bamboo frames. Each house has its own underground hide-out or foxhole. As soldiers used pontoons to cross over rivers or streams during marches along the secret Ho Chi Minh Trail during the war, Lien recreated the pontoon in the same manner as how they were engineered four decades ago.
The centre of the village is among the area’s most interesting part. Beneath the normal village atmosphere, underground classrooms, a kindergarten, an operating theatre and even filling stations with a pipeline left from the war exists. For tourist guide Nghiem Viet Hung, who accompanied Smith, the operating theatre greatly amazed him, knowing how a tiny man-powered dynamo attached to a bicycle is pedalled throughout the night to make it run. A 25sq.m warehouse full of military equipments also stands nearby. The museum features various other materials from the War such as a camouflaged US antenna that was dropped from a plane to detect North Vietnamese troop movements along an electronic anti-infiltration barrier south of the Demilitarized Zone along the 17th parallel in Quang Tri Province.
The museum partly lies on the former legendary Ho Chi Minh Trail. Walking along the trail will acquaint visitors with decades-old remnants of the path that were used by Vietnamese soldiers to march on. About 100m from the trail itself, at the museum’s gate, a 30m diameter bomb crater surrounded by dozens of shell-casings will awe unsuspecting viewers. Lien have had the crater excavated as a medium size hole that a 250kg bomb would have left. He collected munitions from metal scrap agents in the central region and set them up at different angles dependent on how the deadly weapons were deployed, whether dropped by aircraft or shot by artillery. The entire set-up can convince anyone that he is actually standing in the middle of an ongoing war.
Even Viet Hung himself, as a tourist guide, the scene is remarkably different from any other attractions he had taken his guests to, taking special notice of the museum's introductory bomb crater at the entrance. The 10ha private war museum could be a haven for anyone in search of new discoveries, reconciliation from the not-so-distant past, better understanding of Vietnam’s history and among the world’s major milestones, and even for adventure itself, but also being home to a stone stele embedded with the names of 4,300 Vietnamese who died in the conflict, the museum is also a huge memorial site in itself.
The book she is doing is inspired by documentations from a US chopper pilot who flew on a US Air Force helicopter transport missions in the central region of Viet Nam during the war some 35 years ago. Her trip to the renowned war museum allowed her a close encounter with the actual battle field and gave her an opportunity to collect all necessary documents for her to include in the novel.
Built by Hanoian Nguyen Xuan Lien in 2003 in commemoration of his friends who lost their lives during the conflict, along with other locals and soldiers during the period, the 10ha private war museum has become a popular stop for visitors and locals alike. Since it stood around seven years back, the place has been visited by over 60,000 tourists, veterans and historians form across the globe.
Several travel agencies in Ha Noi have now included the museum as a destination for trans-Viet Nam tours instead of the usual visits to the Phong Nha-Ke Bang World Natural Heritage Site. But the 67-year-old owner, who recalled working in a medical school when the war raged, stated that the museum is for everyone. “I'm not interested in making money. Young people, who were born after the American War ended in 1975 should visit and learn about the war period," says Lien.
But looks like Lien naturally have the zest for connecting with the past and retracing the Vietnam War days. He acquired a house which had survived bombardment in 1965, from a local resident that still has two wooden doors with cuts left by bomb fragments from the air strikes. Apart from that, the recreation of North Vietnamese villages inside the museum’s long stretch features five unique cottages built of timber or bamboo, with walls made of clay and mud mixtures held by bamboo frames. Each house has its own underground hide-out or foxhole. As soldiers used pontoons to cross over rivers or streams during marches along the secret Ho Chi Minh Trail during the war, Lien recreated the pontoon in the same manner as how they were engineered four decades ago.
The centre of the village is among the area’s most interesting part. Beneath the normal village atmosphere, underground classrooms, a kindergarten, an operating theatre and even filling stations with a pipeline left from the war exists. For tourist guide Nghiem Viet Hung, who accompanied Smith, the operating theatre greatly amazed him, knowing how a tiny man-powered dynamo attached to a bicycle is pedalled throughout the night to make it run. A 25sq.m warehouse full of military equipments also stands nearby. The museum features various other materials from the War such as a camouflaged US antenna that was dropped from a plane to detect North Vietnamese troop movements along an electronic anti-infiltration barrier south of the Demilitarized Zone along the 17th parallel in Quang Tri Province.
The museum partly lies on the former legendary Ho Chi Minh Trail. Walking along the trail will acquaint visitors with decades-old remnants of the path that were used by Vietnamese soldiers to march on. About 100m from the trail itself, at the museum’s gate, a 30m diameter bomb crater surrounded by dozens of shell-casings will awe unsuspecting viewers. Lien have had the crater excavated as a medium size hole that a 250kg bomb would have left. He collected munitions from metal scrap agents in the central region and set them up at different angles dependent on how the deadly weapons were deployed, whether dropped by aircraft or shot by artillery. The entire set-up can convince anyone that he is actually standing in the middle of an ongoing war.
Even Viet Hung himself, as a tourist guide, the scene is remarkably different from any other attractions he had taken his guests to, taking special notice of the museum's introductory bomb crater at the entrance. The 10ha private war museum could be a haven for anyone in search of new discoveries, reconciliation from the not-so-distant past, better understanding of Vietnam’s history and among the world’s major milestones, and even for adventure itself, but also being home to a stone stele embedded with the names of 4,300 Vietnamese who died in the conflict, the museum is also a huge memorial site in itself.
0 comments:
Speak up your mind
Tell us what you're thinking... !