ANZAC Day, so the group looked forward to a visit to Long Tan.
En route from HCM city towards the south east along very good highways and roads - congested, of course, but this is normal.
A map to get oriented.
Google maps can find ‘Long Tan Cross’ so it is clear that we are headed there.
The roads are very good! Traffic in Vietnam is quite surprising. It works!!
With our Australian eyes we see it as chaotic, disorderly and ‘an accident waiting to happen’ but NOT SO! It works remarkably well. At the risk of repetition, it seems based on a few things: firstly an absence of ‘road rage’ where we expect and demand our rights on the road, and remonstrate in various ways if we don’t get them, whereas here, these tolerant, forgiving people just cope with it: and secondly there is a total commitment to NOT hit you as a pedestrian or fellow driver/rider. They just bend and flow around walkers and other vehicles and cope with transgressions that would send us into a frenzy of fury. They expect the worst and handle it when it happens. We don’t and it’s always someone else who caused the disruption or problem.
Development is occurring at breakneck speed in District 2 of Saigon. Our guide, Binh, pointed this out with the comment that many residential apartments have been built but most people can’t afford the asking price, even if it’s as small as $100,000 US. So now overseas investors are being allowed to but the apartments.
As we neared Ba Ria, a very big town, we saw more cultivation going on with rice, of course, as well as rubber tree plantations.
We stopped at a small Primary school built by Australian Veterans after the war. Unfortunately the school was closed due to a holiday for some celebrity.
The kangaroo was an indicator.
The wide road next to the school was rather incongruous until we were told it had been an airstrip. Makes sense when one compares this road to the narrow lanes and roads in the area. The field in front of the school was a helipad.
We were in the ‘Long Phuoc’ region according to Google, but I think our troops knew it as Phuoc Tuy province. Not sure! Perhaps it means the same thing.
We drove to the former Nui Dat airbase but all evidence of prior use had been removed and the area is being quarried for road making gravel.
The boom gate and official on duty made it clear we could not access a vantage point on a hill, usually used by tourists.
But we managed to find a smaller hill which offered similar views.
When Binh brought out photos from wartime, and skylines were compared, our location became obvious.
The Nui Dat airfield occupied the area in the middle of the photo of present day.
This hill in the photo below (which was the previous preferred vantage point), we know now that it was called SAS Hill. It is now being quarried but the similarities are obvious.
The hill in the background of the photos below are the same hill, SAS Hill. (From an online source)
These and some other photos which Binh had, are included below. The location of the concert stage was nearby ....
Then we moved onto Long Tan, not far from Nui Dat.
The historical photos show a dense rubber plantation around the site. Not now. Apparently the trees were chopped down in the last few years because they had reached the end of their useful life and a new lot of trees have been planted.
Some Australian Veterans who were at Long Tan when we arrived (and who served at this area in the Vietnam War) told us the distant hill was called Nui Dat 2.
The current cross on the site is concrete. The original was timber and I think I heard it is now in the AWM in Canberra.
We had a short ceremony and a minute’s silence to mark the occasion. We all took a moment and Dave placed some flowers. An emotional time.
A photo from online, taken before the trees were removed.
Mary found a link to a documentary film detailing the battle. It goes for about 1.5 hours. See below:
Then it was on to the Long Phuoc tunnels, which now have a few facilities developed around them.
Not a lot of room to manoeuvre and the tunnel is now a little bigger in a few places, but my head will recover. We travelled through a section for about 100 m and had the experience for a short period of time. Hard to imagine the challenge of living underground for protracted periods of time as many of the NVA did. Admittedly, they were a bit smaller, but some survived in tunnels with their families as well.
The concrete entrance and steps are a nice touch, but obviously an addition for tourists.
Some less-than-obvious features were actually gun placement positions.
Then it was the bus trip home, through the toll-gates etc
Dinner that night was on a river cruise and the boat pulled out into the river and cruised about for the duration of the meal. Saigon is a long way upstream from the mouth of the river, but we got a slight breeze to compensate for the humidity and heat.
A quick round of the tables (Thanks Lynn)
... and then a short speech from our fearless leader to introduce the three travellers who have celebrated birthdays during the trip.
Happy Birthday to Liz, Ann and Helen! Our guide, Binh, ever the organised one, had a birthday cake ready to go.
A good evening was had by all!
