With a golden statue of 'Uncle Ho' looking on, the guide slid back the display case cover and handed me an AK-47

Safety first. I popped out the magazine and slid back the bolt to make sure it's unloaded before handing it to Karen. Why don't they let you do this at the British Museum?

A few days ago were were in the so-called 'Demilitarized Zone' or DMZ which was the heavily fortified border between North and South Vietnam from 1954 until 1975 along the Ben Hai River. Its now a rice growing area strewn with Vietnamese war graves and the odd burned out shell of a US tank. This was a US 'Free Fire Zone' so everything standing is post-1975. There aren't many sights here, simply locations of death and destruction including Khe Sanh Combat Base, the Rock Pile and the human meat grinder known as Hamburger Hill.

Buried beneath the overgrown jumble of bomb craters from B52 heavy ordinance is Vinh Moc, the only remaining tunnel complex beneath the DMZ of the many dozens built by villagers and the Viet Cong. Twenty-three metres underground in the low unsupported earth tunnels, where several hundreds lived, dozens of babies were born and uncounted surguries executed in the makeshift hospital as napalm and 500 lb bombs rained down, is a sobering experience.