Dien Bien Phu, 10/20 & 10/21

The country we traveled through was beautiful, but our bus ride from Mai Chau to Dien Bien Phu took 13 hours, with an hour out for lunch. The distance wasn't that far (slightly less than 200 miles), but the traveling was slow due to construction and reroutes from old landslides. We felt lucky, as the group last year couldn't do this trip because landslides had closed the road, and there are no alternatives.

The first three pictures show why it was slow going. The picture above is an old slide area, that is now part of a road construction project. Apparently the work had triggered a mini-slide, so they were working to clear the debris. Everyone got out of our buses to look at what was going on, along with all the motorbike riders waiting. This spot held us up for about 15 minutes. Since I'm an engineer, I couldn't resist taking a close up of the shovel at work.

Closer to Dien Bien Phu, in another construction bypass, the lead bus got hung up on a rock in a large puddle in the road (shown below). The bus drivers, with help from a bystander, used pry bars to dislodge the rock, and we were on our way. Our drivers have done an excellent job of getting us safely where we need to be.

It was after dark by the time we arrived at the Him Lam Hotel in Dien Bien Phu, but when the students woke up in the morning they could see what a nice place it was. The picture below shows the buildings where most of them stayed. Our hotel was located on the site of one of the French garrison strong points, Beatrice.

Why did we travel all that way? For one it showed us a mountain section of Vietnam that is very different from anything else we have seen. The other reason is that it is the site of the famous battle in 1954 which effectively ended the French colonial period in Vietnam. The French eastablished a base in Dien Bien Phu late in 1953, in the hopes of luring the Viet Minh into a classic battle in which they could use their artillery and air power to destroy a good part of the Viet Minh army. The French leaders miscalculated the ingenuity, recourcefulness, and perserverance of their opponents, so things didn't go quite according to plan. The Viet Minh soon had the French surrounded, and managed to put their artillery in protected bunkers where the French didn't think it was possible. Because of this, the Viet Minh soon made the airstrip unusable, so the only manner of resupply for the French was by air. As the Vietminh picked away at the French strong points, even resupply by air became difficult, and much of the supplies and ammunition fell into enemy hands. They used the supplies, and fired the ammunition back at the French. With the onset of the rainy season, air support became sporadic, and dangerous, as the Viet Minh were using anti-aircraft guns given to them by the Russians and Chinese, another thing the French hadn't counted on. After a 57 day seige the French forces were exhausted, and basically ran out of supplies and ammunition. On May 7th the French surrendered, and over 10,000 French troops where taken prisoner.

Our first stop was the museum, which had an excellent vidoe presentation coordinated with a terrain model that used lights to show the progression of the battle.

The museum also had interesting exhibits about the battle. Some of the students made the dioramas interactive. Above Michael is protecting French planes from the improvised anti-aircraft gun, and to the left Cat is meeting a hero of the people. The story goes that he threw himself under the wheel of a howitzer his comrades were pulling up the mountain to prevent it from slipping back down, and gave his life to the cause. Others say it was just an accident that the Viet Minh made good propaganda use of.

Our next stop was A1 hill, which was part of the Eliane strong point defending the heart of the French garrison. Apparently the French commander named the seven strongpoints after his mistresses. Our local guide is giving us a brief description of the significance. Places like this require you to hire a local government guide, and it has been my experience that they do as little as possible to enlighen you about what you are seeing. I tried to fill in as I could.

A1 was a key element of the battle, as it was the last strongpoint to be captured by the Viet Minh before they mady their final assault on the headquarters. Some of the trenches and fortifications have been rebuilt. Everything was pretty much destroyed during the seige.

To the right is a Viet Minh vet explains how he and his comrades tunneled under the strongpoint and set off explosives that created the huge crater in the background. They had aimed for the top, but ran out of time so settled for the approach side. The blast still wiped out almost a whole battalion of legionnaires. He went on to say that soon after the blast his unit stormed up the hill to his rear to capture the headquarters of the strongpoint, which he is standing on, before continuing towards the garrison headquarters bunker.

Today the command bunker on the top of A1 has been rebuilt, and staffed. However, these dudes do not look very real, nor to they look very French.






Josh took 0ver one of the tanks the French left behind.

Next we visited the command bunker of Colonel DeCastrie, the garrison commander. Not a lot to see there other than the empty rooms in the bunker. It was here that the Viet Minh ended their advance, captured DeCastrie and his staff, and all the remaining French troops capitulated.

On a hill overlooking the town, actually on the site of strongpoint Dominique, the government has erected a huge bronze statue commemorating the victory. You can see how big it is by comparing its size with Michael, Cat, and Carley at its base.

It is a beatiful statue, but apparently there was a corruption scandal about the quality of the bronze used to make it, and also with the construction quality of the foundation. Corruption in the government is something that has to be dealt with if Vietnam is to continue to advance economically and politically.

Next we traveled to the Muong Thanh Bridge. Here we met the same Viet Minh veteran with some of his comrades. He explained how they continued across the bridge after capturing A1, and quickly subdued DeCastrie's command bunker on the other side, thus ending the battle.

After lunch we headed for General Giap's bunker, about 20 km east of Dien Bien Phu. He was the Viet Minh commander in this campaign, and was also the commanding general of the Northern forces during the American conflict.

We encountered another case of "is this really a road." The answer is yes, and with everyone off the bus but the driver, it made it through. No wonder the French couldn't find where Giap was hiding. A few kilometers further on we came to a dead end at a lake. Apparently our erstwhile local guide had thought we could rent a boat here to go across the lake to the bunkers. However, no boat was in sight, so we had to go back through the bad spot in the road to go another way.


A few kilometers further on we encountered another hold up. An old Russian tractor gave up the ghost right next to another truck, whose driver was not present. In the meantime, a dump truck was attempting to get around the tractor, coming at us. The man working on the tractor is replacing the spark plug, but it looks to me like he has bigger problems than that. There is a big puddle of oil on the ground right under the crankcase. The driver of the other truck finally showed up and moved his vehicle forward. After three dump trucks went around the tractor we were on our way.

We finally got around to the other side, and had to walk in 0.6 km to the bunker site. After passing a sentry post we arrived at the communications bunker. They worked in the huts most of the time, and only went into the bunker when they heard an airplane approaching. They needn't have worried, as the French never figured out their location.





Throughout the visit the students learned more about the persistence of the minority people, in this case Black Thais, in selling things to tourists. They have learned to speak excellent English to pursue their trade.

We finally made it through the sellers to reach General Giap's headquarters. His bunker was like other tunnel complexes we have seen, except taller and wider.

Outside the bunker, Uncle Andrew was seen discussing the upcoming campaign with General Michael.

On the hike out we saw a Black Thai woman cultivating a new garden with her baby on her back. This is the norm. Infants go with their mothers to work, or sell.

On our way back to Dien Bien Phu our local guide did his most useful thing of the day. A farmer was herding his water buffalo down the road, and the guide asked him if some of the students could ride one. For a small fee he said sure. The results were entertaining. Josh is exclaiming how hard the buffalo's back bone is, after jumping on chest first. Cat got into water buffalo surfing.
Several others used the more conventional method of sitting on the back.

Closer to Dien Bien Phu Long pointed out our hotel in the distance. When I got back I shot back towards the spot we sighted it. General Giap's bunker is over the far ridge at the right of the shot.

This picture also shows the ring of mountains around Dien Bien Phu. The French had no control over them, so the Viet Minh hauled their howtizers to loctions on the front face of the hills, a feat the French thought impossible. The Viet Minh were able to fire directly down on the French, rather than using the usual parabolic trajectory. The result was devastatingly accurate fire.

After dinner at the hotel there was an ethnic entertainment and dance show put on by the Black Thai.

We also got to participate.

In the dance at the right, the women are balancing half-full rice wine bottles on their head. Narry a drop was spilled.

Wednesday morning we got another early start for the long trek to Sapa.