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LifestyleTravel & Leisure

In 1994 Vietnam landmines, Viet Cong and kindness on a surreal and humbling trip up coast

Vietnam in 1994 was a place of adventure and the occasional hazard, and one where the people were generous, honest and proud

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A roadside stall outside Nha Trang, Vietnam, in 1994. Despite all they had endured in the preceding decades, the Vietnamese people were generous, and willing to help out a foreigner in need. Photo: Simon O’Reilly
Simon O'Reilly

This is the second of a three-part series looking at Vietnam as it evolved from a poverty-stricken post-war country into the tourist destination it is today.

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Vietnam’s first post-war tourists from non-socialist and non-Communist countries were strictly chaperoned and could only stay in approved accommodation. After a number of reforms at the end of the 1980s and early 90s, tourists could choose where they went and where they stayed.

In early 1994 a friend and I flew into Vietnam. I swear the engines went silent, then roared into action, on the final approach to Ho Chi Minh City.

As we taxied to the terminal we passed wrecked planes, including many US military aircraft from the war, that had been pushed to the sides of the runway and just left there.

Travelling by cyclo in Vietnam in 1994. Vietnam’s first tourists after the war from non-socialist and non-Communist countries were chaperoned, but this had changed by the early 90s. Photo: Simon O’Reilly
Travelling by cyclo in Vietnam in 1994. Vietnam’s first tourists after the war from non-socialist and non-Communist countries were chaperoned, but this had changed by the early 90s. Photo: Simon O’Reilly
Ho Chi Minh City was bustling with drivers who gleefully ignored all traffic rules. We stayed in a hotel in a six-storey building overlooking a busy road. At street level there were places selling Vietnam’s fierce drip coffee and cans of beer.
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There were a few stalls selling Zippo lighters, which, if you believed the seller, were all taken from dead American soldiers. Others sold jewellery made from bullet casings and other oddities.

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