September 21 - Day 2, part 2: HCMC War Remnants Museum

After our morning cooking class there was time for a swim before we headed off to see the War Remnants Museum. We had read that this was a must-see, and we would agree, but we weren't really prepared for the reality of what we saw and learned. The history of the various occupations by foreign counties and the ongoing state of resistance and war for the Vietnamese was something we hadn't known. The U.S. War of the late 60's and early 70s was just the final chapter of the story. The Chinese, French and Japanese all had their time of occupation and all of them were incredibly brutal in their treatment of the local people.

While the museum tells these stories and those of the North South divisions it focuses in the main on the U.S. involvement, starting with financial and arms support for the French colonialisation and then effectively taking over the regime in the 50s and 60s. It is a fascinating deeply moving experience. This really opens your eyes to the realities of war, the corruption of political motives and bartering, its cost both social, financial, and emotional, and man's capacity to inflict atrocities on each other. The story of the Vietnam war is told simply, in bald facts with accompanying photographs, most of which are from well known war journalists. It is certainly no Hollywood production. The effect is at different times horrifying, disturbing, heartbreaking. You cannot help but leave with a great dissatisfaction of what seems to be a senseless waste of human life and of the lasting damage done to the Vietnamese people, and a significant degree of skepticism and suspicion in advocating for armed involvement in other areas of the world.

We were all left pretty emotional one way or another and it prompted some thoughtful discussion about war, the current refugee crisis and how lucky we were to be born and live in stable peaceful and wealthy country.





We went for a walk after the museum and here are some of the scenes around the city. We did improve on our technique for crossing the road although I doubt we will ever look as relaxed about it as the locals. One lady asked if we needed help to cross when we were waiting for the hotel shuttle. Lovely people.

Peak hour = 6 million bikes on the road

Electricians nightmare

Fabulous gardens

Over to the family for their top 5 for part 1 & 2....
Rich

• At the market. A cornucopia of fresh produce, big trays of crabs and prawns and fish, all alive. The preparation of much of the food was going on as we wandered with our guides, filleting of fish, shelling of crabs and most spectacularly the beheadings and skinning of frogs is something I won't forget in a hurry!!!!
• The cooking was definitely good fun and has put some Vietnamese dishes into the repertoire of our cooking and amongst those the kids will eat! Hopefully they might even cook them sometimes
• The mad rush of motorbikes, seemedly everywhere. We learnt later that there are about 10 million people in HMC city and 6 million motorbikes. They are such a feature. Congregating at the traffic lights, overflowing onto the footpaths, with small children squeezed between their parents, or standing on the handlebars, carrying huge disproportionate loads, ladies riding sidesaddle and all the groovy helmets
• The War Remnant Museum stunned us all. Laid out in magnificent photos the simple but appalling story of the horror that mankind will inflict on each other. Unconscionable. It should educate us all.
• The beautiful Tao Dan park just a few short metres from the motorbike mayhem an oasis of tranquility with beautiful sculptures, hedges, flowers and locals praying, practicing tai chi, playing sapak tekraw and badminton.

Dan

• I loved the cooking because we learnt lots about Vietnamese food.
• Eating the what we cooked. The caramel pork was the best.
• We went to the war museum. Some of the pictures were quite disturbing though. We learnt lots about how the Vietnamese survived in the war.
• The park was nice. There were lots of people playing badminton and Kick volleyball.
• The zoom cafe had really nice spaghetti. The lights were made from motorbike handle bars.

Sarah

• The cooking class was fantastic. I learnt loads.
• The food from the cooking class was great I liked the spring rolls the best
• The pictures in the war museam were interesting and kinda disturbing and sad especially agent orange. It can still be passed down in genetics at birth.
• The torture section was quite scary and sad because of all the different things they did to the prisoners.
• The people at the park were cool playing kick volley ball with a springy thingy.

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