Things to do in Quang Ngai

Son My Museum

We've seen quite a few 'museums' in Vietnam where they've done everything wrong and the result is thoroughly forgettable. Son My is the polar opposite -- they've done everything right and the result is informative, very unsettling, and is liable to be one of the key experiences you'll remember from your trip.

Most people have heard of the massacre, which is called My Lai by the Americans -- something of a misnomer, but you'll learn all about that at the museum. Basically, some American soldiers lost their minds and rather than trying to systematically rout out possible Viet Cong sympathisers, they decided to execute every man, woman, child and infant in two small hamlets within the village of My Son. Several other American soldiers, who had not lost their minds, threatened to open fire on their own troops if they didn't stop. This slowed the massacre down, and the good guys were able to whisk ten potential victims to safety in a helicopter. The museum vividly recounts the incident in disturbing detail, castigating the culprits and lauding the heroes of the day. American veterans visiting the museum routinely break down in tears, and it was very easy to see why.

The museum itself is filled with maps, dioramas, artefacts, and plenty of informative legends in English. To that have been added a gut-wrenching series of photographs taken before and after the day -- some of the latter are grisly colour photos of the dead. There's also a life-sized recreation of four soldiers executing villagers.

Just to the west of the museum lies the village itself, which has been preserved, largely as it was after it was burned to the ground, though one home has been reconstructed to give an idea of what the place was like before. They've added some slightly comical cement replicas of dead cats, dogs and cattle, but the site still powerfully evokes the aftermath of the attack. The small plots of vegetables surrounding the homes are still tended by survivors of the attack to this day.

Of course, countless innocent Vietnamese citizens were also tortured, imprisoned and executed by the North Vietnamese government and its army, before, during and after the war. The Son My museum is, in that respect, a very one-sided account of history, but it's still an incredibly effective testament to the brutality of war.

Admission is 10,000 dong. English-speaking guides are available and highly recommended -- there is no charge for the service, but a generous donation is appropriate.

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15km from Quang Ngai
How to get there: When Westerners show up in Quang Ngai, all the xe om drivers assume (rightly) they're there to visit Son My, so you'll get no end of offers. A roundtrip ride from town on a motorbike is about 15 km each way and should cost 100,000 dong, 70,000 if you bargain hard. A taxi should cost about 500,000 dong total for up to four people. You can also stop in at Quang Ngai Travel at the Hung Vuong Hotel -- they'll make arrangements for you free of charge. The driver is unlikely to speak English, but the museum provides its own English- and French-speaking guides.

To get to the museum on your own, take Quang Trung out of town north across the bridge and take your first right on Highway 24B -- the My Tra Hotel sits on the corner of the intersection. The museum is about 10 km further down on the left. The beach is less than 2 km past it at the end of the road.

Even if you're not on an organized tour departing from some other city, you can still visit Son My in transit. Coming from the south along Highway 1A, pass Quang Ngai town via the overpass, and just where it touches down on the northern bank of the river, there's a sign for Highway 24B and a sharp right-turn exit. Heading from the north, you'll want to get off Highway 1A just before the overpass, which is marked by a sign indicating that you're entering Quang Ngai. Local buses will drop you off here rather than in town if you ask nicely. There are usually some xe om drivers hanging out who will take you to the museum -- it should only be about 40,000 dong round trip from here, but good luck with that. You can return here when you're done and catch one of the 16-passanger vans heading north or south along Highway 1A.

Chu Lai Airbase and Chu Lai Beach

Thirty kilometres north of Quang Ngai along Highway 1A is another good war vestige where there's still something left to see. You'll have to make special arrangements through a tour agency if you want transport to and from the site, but it's really an ideal spot to visit on motorbike. It's a huge area, not suited to strolling around or cycling, and the terrain is pretty rough, even for a four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Chu Lai was an important base for the American army, navy, and air force during the war (the soldiers that participated in the My Lai massacre were based out of there). The area was very heavily bombed by the North Vietnamese towards the end of the war. Almost all of the structures, and certainly all of the debris, have been carted away. What's left is a landscape pock-marked with bomb craters, and two intersecting airstrips that are still in pretty good shape.

Heading north from Quang Ngai, you'll start to see the remains of the airbase on your right as you appoach km 30. There's an access road running parallel to the highway on the east side -- it's in very bad shape and isn't used for traffic anymore, though you can find some paths where you can get on to it from the main road. It's mostly used by herdsmen, and we found several hay ricks sitting in the middle of the road, which is washed out in several places.

Between the access road and the sea, about three kilometres further to the east, is the area occupied by the base. If you've got a sturdy motorbike, you can explore the dirt paths and you'll notice a lot of sink holes that don't seem to have been made by mother nature. It's hard to get a sense of it at first, but once you start to realise that all those holes were made by bombs, you get a better picture of what this spot must have been like right after the war. A moonscape. A lot of the vegetation has recovered, of course, and we found some kids bathing in a lily-covered pond on the site, which is also popular with water buffalo. We assume all the unexploded ordinance has been cleared, but it's still probably wise to stay on the well-travelled pathways.

You'll see a line of airplane hangars in the distance to the east, closer to the beach. It's hard to get to them through the airfield, so the best thing to do is get back on the main road. At just about exactly kilometre 30 there is a gateway on the right with a uniformed guard -- the sign indicates that it's the entrance to Chu Lai. The guard is pretty much just there to wave you through if you want to go in and look around. The road heading east from the gate leads immediately to the east-west airstrip, and about half-way down its length there is another runway going north-south. Continuing due east you'll eventually hook up with a new beach road. It's impressively built, but largely unused -- its sole purpose is to connect to the small Chu Lai Airport which is where you'll want to head next. Take a right, and you'll see the hangars up ahead on the right. The hangars are left over from the war and were used by the American forces -- now they've been appropriated by the people and are being used to house planes at the airport. We couldn't get the guard to let us in to take a closer look, but it might be possible if you catch the right guard on the right day. You can get a good peek at the hangars through the gate.

To finish up the journey, head north on the airport road until it ends and take a right -- a few kilometres later is Chu Lai beach, which has some places to eat and a nice patch of sand.

To leave the beach, head due west for 3 km until you rejoin Highway 1A.

If you somehow wind up in the area for the night, there are a bunch of cheap guesthouses along this section of Highway 1A and plenty of services. All in all, we give Chu Lai high marks as a worthwhile stop on the Vietnam 'war tour'.

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30km north of Quang Ngai