Quang Ngai

I'd arranged my bus ticket with my hotel and so got picked up from there. We went to a small parking lot beside Highway 1 and changed onto a transit minibus, I wasn't worried. That's a bonus of having lived here, you get used to unexpected travel arrangements. The bus journey was the worst I have ever experienced in Vietnam, I genuinely believed that I was going to die. It was fine at first then our van was overtaken by another and our driver seemed to feel that he had been set a challenge. He went haring after the other guy, overtook him and then sped off with one eye on the rear view mirror. The other driver came back and overtook, there was maybe about a foot between the two vans at this point, even the Vietnamese passengers took notice of this. Our driver continued the chase, overtook and was overtaken in his turn. At this point I made view known, the guy who takes the money tried to calm me down but I wasn't having it. Eventually our driver backed off and let the other van go, I truly believed that it could only have ended one way. I got dropped off just outside the city centre and caught a Xe Om to the main street. The place that was listed in the guide book was closed, as in not open for business any more. I walked across the street, down an alleyway and found another hotel, I am so glad that I have a little Vietnamese, it totally helps. It was still only about 10am at this point so I went for a coffee. I don't think a lot of tourists come to Quang Ngai, everywhere I went, I was stared at, some guys even said "Hello, boom,boom". Nice. After lunch I got a Xe Om to take me out to Son My, the reason for my stop in Quang Ngai. Son My was the site of five villages, the American Army were searching for Vietcong and decided that the villagers were harbouring them and set out to take care of this problem. 504 villagers were massacred, mostly old men, women and children. This was in 1968, a year later the Americans bombed the area and then went over it in tanks to try and conceal the massacre. Fortunately not all of the soldiers believed they were doing their duty and blew the whistle on the whole thing. There isn't a lot left, understandably. It's a peaceful spot and not hard to imagine people going about their daily lives. They wouldn't have stood a chance. I wanted to come here when I read about it as I have seen so little of this part of Vietnam's history. It is really easy to miss, especially as on my first trip here I was cocooned on a tourist bus. The museum on site is very well done, there aren't any of the kitsch touches that I saw in the grounds. It obviously lists those who died, the circumstances surrounding the massacre and details the efforts of those to bring the U.S. soldiers to justice. I would suggest that everyone who comes to Vietnam pays a visit but then it wouldn't be the beautiful peaceful place that it is now.