Coconut Tree Prison on Phu Quoc island – Hell on Earth!

We are all well aware of atrocities of the Vietnam War – there is no doubt about it. This war was hell taking place in the terrain of today’s Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. During the very same war called by the Vietnamese ‘’the American war’’ there was a prison which functioned in Phu Quoc Island until 1973, the jail where the Americans were sending tens of thousands of captives – it was the cruelest prison of the Vietnam war. It was at that time the prisoners were burned alive, had their teeth knocked out, had nails hammered in different parts of their bodies, had their genitals crushed… This post is about the true Hell on Earth …

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Why was Hoa Lo Prison called ”Hanoi Hilton Hotel” by its American inmates?

Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi was built by the French in 1896 in Phu Khanh village. The building was one of the largest prisons built by French colonialists in Indochina. They jailed political revolutionists and patriots there. Many leaders of the government and the Vietnamese Communist Party were imprisoned there. From 1964 to 1973 Hoa Lo Prison confined American pilots shot down or arrested during the bombing of northern Vietnam. The most shocking for us was the fact that the prison got named ‘’Hanoi Hilton Hotel’’ by its American inmates. Sharing with you our feelings about it in a moment.

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The mysterious Phonsavan – a land strewn with gigantic jars and bomb craters

Have you ever heard of the Plain of Jars near Phonsavan in Laos with over 2,000 stone jars scattered all over a huge area (some of them being 3m high)? And any idea about bomb craters in this terrain left by the Americans during the Vietnam War? The mysterious surroundings of Phonsavan arouse curiosity of many travelers. Life in the villages situated close to the craters goes on as if the bombs have never fallen in that area and the real purpose of the mysterious jars is not 100% confirmed …

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