Pandaw's highly popular 10-day Halong Bay and Red River expedition is not specifically designed for the Vietnam War buff, who will find plenty of specialist battlefield tours on offer elsewhere.

But as our expedition ends (or begins) in the delightfully-sited town of Hoa Binh, it's worth dwelling on the town's importance in the epic story of the country's 30-year struggle for independence. What happened here helped determine the first of Vietnam's back-to-back wars of liberation.

Hoa Binh is an ancient market town on a picturesque bend on the Da [Black] River in the hill country traditionally occupied by the Muong people. The most prominent 'sight' these days ' popular with Pandaw passengers - is the Hoa Binh Dam, Southeast Asia's largest hydroelectric generator. At nearly 2000MW capacity, this Soviet-designed and financed behemoth generates around 27% of Vietnam's electricity. When completed in 1994, it created a reservoir that submerged 13,000 hectares (32,000 acres) of land, displacing nearly 90,000 people.

This icon of socialist modernity, overlooked by a giant statue of Ho Chi Minh, acquires extra significance from Hoa Binh's recent history. From November 1951 to February 1952 it was the scene of one of the key battles of the First Indochina War, the one between the French and the Viet Minh, Ho's resourceful and ruthless guerrilla army.