War Remnants Museum

Thursday we had an exciting day planned. The morning was our usual culture class and language class, but the afternoon was the War Remnants Museum. The War Remnants Museum, prior to Vietnam's re-entry into the world market, was called the Museum of American War Crimes. The museum is entirely anti-American, as expected, and some parts almost seemed like propaganda. We had been briefed prior to the trip about this museum, and the difficulty Americans usually had walking through it. After the museum it was our last night on our own so we made plans to go to a fancy rooftop restaurant on top of the Rex Hotel. It was supposed to be our highlight dining experience so that was in the back of our heads all day. Earlier in the week, one of the students e-mailed the engineer who showed us around II-VI, and we made plans to go on a pub crawl in the city. There was no shortage of plans Thursday and we were excited.

These are the pictures I took at the museum. All of these are captured American weaponry after the fall of Saigon. Seeing things like this was weird to me because I've seen so many photos and videos from the war that seeing the actual weapons, planes, etc in person is eerie. 

The museum was a less extreme version of what I expected. The entire first floor was just photos and posters of protests against the war from different countries. That was nothing shocking to me; I knew people protested Vietnam. Other rooms were just photos of the war, which were not fun to look at but nothing I hadn't seen. The hardest room was the agent orange room. It really humanized the victims. It's easy to shrug the use of chemicals like that off as a necessity of war, but dealing with the consequences is harder. There were so many people affected by that, and there are still children being born with defects as a result. I'm not informed enough to take a strong political stance on the matter, but it would really be nice if something more could be done for the people affected by chemicals like that. 

I really enjoy learning about the war (and all American wars), but I'm going to have to take some time to digest what I learned and become more comfortable with it before I hear more of the American viewpoint.

These pictures are from dinner at the Rex Hotel. The first picture is of a building that was basically a light show the entire time, and the other is of an appetizer I got. The food there was amazing. The picture shows a fried crabmeat dish. It was one of the better things I've ever eaten. After that, I just went with a burger, which was no Black Cat, but was still of really high quality. It was so nice being able to eat at such high-end restaurants over this trip without having to worry about breaking the bank.

After dinner, we met David, the engineer, in the lobby of the hotel. We went straight from there on foot to the first bar. It was a little sports bar, and the staff was really attentive so we had fun. After hanging out for a little, I went for a game of pool. This was potentially a mistake. I could make excuses for days, but the one I'm going to stand by was that the stick I used was super sticky from the humidity. The other guy's hand was covered in chalk. Every time I had a decent shot I would miscue. He started on the 8 ball when I still had all of my balls on the table. David's son told me that in HCMC, when someone loses with all of their balls on the table, they have to take a lap around the bar with their pants around their ankles. Soon, one of the students on the trip heard of this, so everyone was around the table shouting for me to throw the game. There's a time and place I would throw that game, but I decided a bar full of older people wasn't gonna be the place. By some act of God, one of my balls ended up in front of a pocket and I bumped it in. Nobody was too happy with me, but it was one I could stomach. After that, we went to a bunch of other bars, and it was pretty cool seeing most of District 1 (the most urban area) on foot. 

Friday was our last day, and we had plans for a soccer and basketball game in the morning, and then a farewell dinner on the Saigon River. It was feeling pretty bittersweet at this point.