Viet Nam, Cambodia and Burma

When most people think of Vietnam, Burma, and Cambodia, they think of them as sites of war and suffering. Indeed, these three countries have languished for many years behind the “Bamboo Curtain”, and their recent emergence has given tourists the opportunity to explore lands which have changed little in decades.

No country has been more hidden from the modern world than Burma. Since the 1950′s tourists have been restricted to between 24 hours and 7 days to see the country. Called the “Albania of Asia”, Burma has only recently begun to open its doors to travelers, and I was there on the “Road to Mandalay” to film the wonders of Inle Lake, the colonial decay of Rangoon, the “long neck women” hill tribes and the temple studded plains of Pagan. For those of us who did not serve in Vietnam, most of our images of the country have come to us from the movies. Hollywood films have given us our national “image” of what this country must be like while depicting the Vietnamese in cartoon stereotypes, as either innocent victims or vicious torturers and killers.

Join me as I journey from Saigon to Hanoi on Vietnam’s Highway One, with stops in Dalat, Nha Trang, China Beach, Danang, the DMZ, Halong Bay and Hanoi. Finally, venture into the troubled land of Cambodia for a look at a country still coming to terms with the ravages of war. From the killing fields of Phnom Penh to the magnificence of Angkor Wat, our journey explores the heights and depths of human achievement and suffering in the homeland of Khmer culture.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union, many of the emerging countries of Indochina have found themselves with a new opportunity to overthrow old regimes and proceed with a more self-determined course. It is time to “Raise the Bamboo Curtain” and shed some light on worlds hidden from the eyes of outsiders for many years.