It’s another overcast day in Ho Chi Minh City, not that it matters as today I visited museums. The War Remnants Museum (formerly the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes, and the Exhibition House for Crimes of War and Aggression) in what was the US Military Intelligence Headquarters.
I have to say that despite spending 3 hours here, I was rather disappointed. I knew that it would obviously take the (Communist ) Vietnamese point of view but there was just not a lot about the history of the war, nothing about the Ho Chi Minh tail, nothing about the Tet offensive nor nothing about the actual end of the war itself. The various tanks, planes and helicopters outside the museum were also being repainted, so I couldn’t even take pictures of those either. Having watched the Ken Burns documentary as well as the recent Netflix documentary on the war, I don’t feel I learned anything new.
The Ho Chi Minh City Museum however was much more enjoyable. Although I only spend an hour here, there was a much wide ranging display of exhibits, and ironically their exhibition on the war was better put together than the War Remnants Museum.
There were also some lovely wedding dresses from different ethnic groups, which was rather ironic as because there is a lovely staircase, several couples were having wedding photos.
I chose a Banh Mi, which is a baguette filled with various kinds of food. Mine was a vegan mushroom Banh Mi which was very tasty indeed. I think there might have been some kind of noodles and other random vegetables and for the princely sum of 86p you can’t go wrong.
My final leg of my South East Asia adventure is tomorrow, and I’ve booked another airport transfer for 730am.
