I shared the boat with three guys from Hanoi and a bunch of language students who get to go free, a very pleasant diminutive, even by Vietnamese standards, 20 year old girl, Quyen, chatted with me. An interesting 20 minutes of rural riverside activities up the River Son brought us to the outlet of another river sourced from under the karst formations, running from deep within the cave.
Cutting the motor, the woman crew paddled, one each to bow and stern, silently into the vast opening chamber. Onwards for more than a kilometer, coloured lights have been placed to enhance the beauty of the slowly evolving inner landscape. With little idea of the depth of the cave, the American airforce had no hope of penetrating the Vietnamese base more than 8 kilometers long. Their only success was to destroy the 'teeth', stalagtites, after which it was originally named, of the cave and embed their steel missiles into the rock that now leak russet red staining from the corroding fragments down it's facade, a poignant symbol of the spilled blood on both sides defending and attacking the Trail.
As returning boats of tourists swished quietly by, powered gondola style, it felt like a surreal subteranean Venitian city with magnificent limestone abstract sculptures towering overhead, the cool still atmosphere contrasting the cave's grim history.
No comments:
Post a Comment