Hanoi - Museum of History

Today – History Museum and across the street, Museum of the Revolution. I love going to museums because I always learn so much and I learn it from the local point of view. The Museum of the Revolution was filled with blatant communist propaganda and sentiment with pictures dating from the early part of the 20th century through the present. Early party chairmen are exhibited but, naturally, Ho Chi Minh is a larger than life persona, and he is shown in many pictures farming with peasants, in meetings with cadre, etc.. The Vietnam War is the American War and any references to the S. Vietnamese are “the Americans and their lackeys.”

Now that I’ve spent time in Hanoi, and learned that Ho Chi Minh City is 10 times worse in terms of traffic and pollution, I’m not sure I’d want to ever go there, expect to compare cultural differences, if any exist now.We had lunch at a restaurant named Koto which trains street kids in food service. The menu is large and varied, good food, nice atmosphere. It was fun watching the kids work, and we felt good contributing to a way to get kids off the street in productive ways (rather than give street kids money, which pretty much keeps them on the street). May there be many more programs like it. We could use some here in the states.