Central Vietnam

also old! Sorry!

We spent the past four days traveling through Central Vietnam. Central Vietnam is much more what most people picture when they imagine Vietnam. Our Vietnamese roommates refer to this area as the "real Vietnam." We traveled by bus between cities and the views out the window were characterized by rice fields, bodies of water, and mountains--a view all the more enhanced by the bumpy journey on the largest road in Vietnam. One particularly spectacular view was when we were traveling from Dannag and Hue. This was a road that wound up the side of a mountain revealing views of the China sea, sandly beaches, and green mountains.



We spent most of our time in Hue and Hoi An. We took a trip to My Son and Son My. At these places we saw the My lei massacre memorial and the champa ruins. The My Lei massacre memorial was a truly haunting place. The memorial was filled with everyday items from the village, the sadest of which was a small shirt that belonged to a girl in the village. The photos of the massacre taken by a bold american photographer were scattered throughout the memorial. On the actual site of the massacre there is a "reconstruction " of the village. In addition, there were survivors of the massacre who still wandered the area. One woman was 80, and at the time of the massacre she pretended to be dead, hid in a ditch with her children, and escaped. Yet, she still returns daily to the site of this tragedy and said that everyday she wishes she were dead.