April 9
We get up not too early and make our way down to the lobby
for breakfast. The lovely couple running
the guest house has a nice little menu for our breakfast that includes a
baguette, egg prepared as you wish, fresh fruit and coffee (and for some reason
tea as well with our coffee). We enjoy
our breakfast and then decide to walk to a nearby museum. It is the War Remnants museum and we are
interested to show the kids some of the history and photos from the Viet Nam
war. There has been some apprehension on
the part of the kids since all they know of the war they have seen in movies
and even asked us if people would want to shoot us when we go there. We assure them that is not the case. It is a much farther walk than anticipated
and we are drenched in sweat upon our arrival.
The museum has an outside “garden” where they have on display the tanks,
flame throwers and heavy artillery that was left by the Americans when we
departed in 1975. The boys find these
very interesting and the statistics are mind-boggling when you read that one
flame thrower could ignite and area the size of Five Points. We soon make our way to the inside and read
with interest the notations under the images of the many countries that made
entreaties to the US to leave Vietnam.
We meet a family from southern India that are living in Hong Kong and
have a very interesting conversation with them about war and the Americans
penchant for it. Their comments strike a chord, despite the fact that they are
not bashing the US, but making the point that no one can ever really win a
war. They are make a curious comment
that this exhibit serves no purpose but to incite hatred. We enjoy looking at a map of the world and
quizzing the kids on where we are and the names of countries we have visited and
some we have not. They are becoming
really good at geography….YEA! We make
our way up the stairs to the exhibition area and when we are confronted with
the photography and commentary, it becomes clear that this is a pretty big
propaganda machine. The whole message
here is “look what the Americans did to our country and how they maimed and
mutilated our people”. There are lots of
statistics on how many innocent people we killed and how we did it in great
detail. We continue through the exhibit
to the area that deals with agent orange and the horror it inflicted on the people
of that era and much later effects the chemicals caused on future
generations. I believe it is good to
hear opposing views, but this is not a well rounded argument. Plenty of statistics are given about how many
people we killed, but nowhere is any indication of the atrocities that the
Vietnamese people inflicted on their own people. We finish up the museum as they are closing
for lunch and I must admit I have a big pit in my stomach. This is very good food for thought, but
regrettably I have now lost my appetite.
We walk back in the direction of our hotel and stop once
again at the Ben Thanh market to have a bite to eat and pick up any last minute
items that we want to have as souvenirs…..spices, tshirts, Calvin Klein
underwear…you get the picture. Once we
are back at our hotel, we decide to take a tour along the Mekong Delta the
following day. Our hotel can arrange our
trip for us and we are happy to have them do it. We rest for a while and then go back to our
new favorite restaurant for dinner.
After dinner, we re-climb our stairs (aka Mt. Everest) and watch some TV
before bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment