Wednesday 29th February

(Cont from Page 11).....Most interestingly his knowledge seems to be restricted to French football and is able to relate to the many French footballing heros of recent times. However the French couple sitting alongside him in the back row don’t appear so interested. Not for the first time I witness a desire by the Vietnamese to increase their exposure to western culture: I have already witnessed the playing of old American classic hits. As the distance markers indicate that Dien Bien Phu is not far off the guide provides a description of his home town. All along he has stressed that he is a tour guide, the war is over consigned to history, his people are free and willing to be friends with their one time bitter enemies. This is the way he would wish it and also good for business but I fear his views are controversial and somewhat premature. In the course of this visit to Vietnam and previous tours to Laos I have come across a number of French visitors no doubt curios to know what is happening in their former French colonies. In Luang Prabang in Laos they can be well satisfied to see the restoration of colonial buildings into exquisit cafes, bars and souvenier shops rewarded by accreditation by UNESCO thus proving what International co-operation can achieve. Here in North Vietnam I can only wonder what they are thinking. Does this younger generation really care or will they question why it was their forbares found it necessary to defend this god forsaken place? Perhaps part of the answer is evident on the streets of Dien Bien Phu deep in the bowels of the opium tubes. I digress.
Dien Bien Phu........In the outer suburbs of the town the twisting, winding mountain road gives way to a splendid open boulevard, typically French. It traverses a wide open plain in an otherwise sea of mountains just as the guide described. To the north of the road the town occupies the plain and spills into the foothills while to the south there is desolate land much as the French would have left it. I even spot in the distance the hulk of a tank. Why this virgin land has not been built on is that today it functions in the same way as it did in colonial times. It is the city’s airfield. This may be the only flat land for hundreds of kilometers. To the French the airstrip would be their lifeline. If the garrison could hold Dien Bin Phu they would be in command of hundreds of square kilometers of northern Vietnam. The bus station is located at a intersection with the boulevard. The guide bids his farewell after first pointing out a couple of hotels near the bus terminal. In the present conditions I am in no rush to find suitable accommodation. (Cont on Page 13)