Agent-Orange

4th May 2010 Today was to be our longest day on the bikes, some 240kms along the west Ho Chi Minh Trail. The Ho Chi Minh trail was a logistical system that ran from North Vietnam to South Vietnam. The system provided support, in the form of manpower and material to the Vietcong, and the North Vietnamese Army, during the war. The trail was not a single route, but rather a complex maze of truck routes, paths for foot and bicycle traffic, and river transportation systems. It started out as mud trails but was later paved. ...

28th March 2010 The school that Karen works for supports one of the many orphanages for mentally and physically disabled children that exist in Vietnam. There are over 200 orphanages in Saigon alone. The majority of these children owe their disabilities to Agent Orange which was used by the Americans during the war, the effects of which are so very obviously still being seen today. Every so often a group of children from the orphanage come over to the school to use their facilities. So, Sunday morning we headed over to the school to lend a hand. ...

24th March 2010 The Vietnam War remains a big part of this country’s recent history for a lot of people, us included, so this morning we wanted to visit the War Remnants Museum. The War Remnants Museum primarily contains exhibits relating to the American phase of the Vietnam War. It really brings home the ugly truths about war through the pictures exhibited in a series of eight themed rooms. There is no doubt that the museum puts a Vietnamese slant on the war, but it is still a sobering experience, bearing witness to man’s inhumanity to man. ...