Nguyen Hue Street is a 60 metre wide promenade and the largest such open public space in Saigon. I’ll showcase more from Nguyen Hue and its surroundings in a later post.
This is the People’s Committee building Ho Chi Minh City. It used to be a grand hotel during the French colonial era but now it’s a government building and not open to the public.
I came to this area because Citibank has an office right on Nguyen Hue Street. I wanted to use the ATM to withdraw cash as there was no withdrawal fee for Citibank card holders.
I withdrew 3 million VND for the above rate. There was maybe a ₹100 +/- difference compared to the rate quoted on XE.com. This was far more cost effective than buying USD in India and then exchanging them here.
I walked around the area to find a Vietnamese restaurant but one that had a menu in English. I wanted to eat anything besides Pho and Banh Mi, which I planned to eat later and both are dishes I could find plenty of everywhere around my hotel.
I sat down at a restaurant where most of the diners were Japanese for some reason… but I forgot to note down the name :/
I was most amused by these water-activated compressed coin/tablet towels. Apparently a Japanese innovation. You get them at Daiso stores but I managed to find them on Amazon India too.
When the waiter first gave me one, I nearly popped it in my mouth thinking it was a mint candy! The waiter told me to pour water on it but didn’t laugh at me. I’m guessing it’s a mistake he’s seen many make when first presented with such a novelty.
The Com Chien Toi (garlic fried rice) was crap… but the Tom Chien Sake (shrimp fried with sake) was delicious. Along with a beer, lunch cost me 270,000 VND (₹870/$11.25/€10.30) — a bit on the higher end for Vietnam but then again, I was in an expensive part of the city.
Post lunch, I hailed a Grab bike taxi and headed towards the War Remnants Museum. I did take videos along the way and you can watch the ‘vlog’ I made; it’s at the end of this post.
There are lot of US Army military vehicles and artillery on display outside the main building
A lot of them were abandoned after US forces fled Vietnam having lost the war
Now all this are on display as remnants of the tools US forces used on Vietnamese soil
And in the air. This is an F5 fighter jet.
There are more planes on display, some of which were shot down by North Vietnamese forces. I’m not going to upload all the photos I took. (Sorry, but it’s a lot of work)
It was weird to see tourists smile and pose in front of this museum considering the exhibits inside are not cheerful to say the least
A seismic bomb US forces dropped over Vietnam. According to the description it carried 5700 kg of explosive power and destroyed a range of 100 metres. I’m guessing this one failed to explode?
Tickets to the War Remnants Museum cost 40000 VND (₹130/$1.75/€1.5)
Left of the ground floor is an exhibit showcasing just how many US soldiers themselves protested against the Vietnam war
A lot of the photos are from American publications that were in print during that time
An excerpt from a sergeant who was on the battlefield
And more famous names like former senator John Kerry, who himself served in the war only to return home and then join the Vietnam Veterans Against the War organization
To the left is John Kerry testifying at a committee about the actions of the United States in South Vietnam. Years later (photo on the right), as an elected official in the Democrat party, Kerry and John McCain (another Vietnam soldier-turned-Republican politician) jointly called for the US embargo against Vietnam to be lifted. In 1995, United States re-opened diplomatic ties with Vietnam.
The front page of The Plain Dealer newspaper which published the photos of the My Lai massacre, despite the US Army requesting them not to
You can read about the My Lai massacre here (has more photos) and the role it played in fueling more protests back in the US against the Vietnam War. Just another example of why it’s so important to have freedom of press.
There are many more photos and other anti-war displays but I did not photograph them all. In fact most of the photographs & media in the museum are from US sources.
I came back out to check the other displays on the ground floor
It was an exhibit titled ‘The World Supports Vietnam In Its Resistance to U.S. Aggression’
Outside were photos of protests the world over against the Vietnam war
I wasn’t around during the Vietnam war but I was around during the 2003 US invasions of Iraq so I could feel the similarities
And now America (and other non-profit organizations) are paying repatriations in various forms as pay back for all the damage they have caused Vietnam
I went upstairs to check out the other displays of America’s Vietnam war crimes
Details (and some photos) of what each floor showcases is detailed on the official website under “Materials and artifacts”.
In this gallery were more photos of the brutalities inflicted during the Vietnam War
A lot of it is pretty gruesome
I’m talking mutilated bodies and other violent acts
The award-winning ‘Napalm Girl’ photo above mines and other ammunitions used during the war
Lots of photos of dead women and children too
A lot of these photos were published in anti-war articles back in the United States. Many soldiers who served in the Vietnam war suffered from longterm PTSD.
This was a sewer drain from a village house and children used to hide in it. But sadly they were found by a US soldier and he opened fire killing them all.
I stepped out to visit the Agent Orange gallery next
Agent Orange was a chemical used during the Vietnam war, sprayed across jungles and agricultural lands in a bid to ruin the plantations which were being used by North Vietnamese forces as hideouts
But the side effects of the chemical caused many deformities in Vietnamese children and others on the ground
Even returning US soldiers (and later their children) were affected by Agent Orange and this led to class action lawsuits against the makers of Agent Orange back in the US
The floor above was an exhibit dedicated to the many photographers who died during the Vietnam War
Indochina war refers to the period from Anti-French Resistance War all through the US invasion
The photographs on display here are less gruesome but showcase other moments from the war. Like this airplane that was shot down by US forces themselves, killing all three US soldiers inside.
There are many photographs and I really didn’t feel like taking more photos because I knew I just wouldn’t be possible edit them all
I was doing my final rounds of checking out the museum
There are a LOT of photos in this museum (and weaponry on display)
Some numbers comparing three wars. One of which resulted in failure for the US and achieved absolutely nothing in the end.
Back downstairs, I sat for a while because I was tired after a long day of walking around in the heat.. and looking at so many reminders of the gruesome nature of war
On the ground floor, be prepared to listen to John Lennon’s anti-war anthem “Imagine” on repeat. It plays on loop throughout the museum’s opening hours (7:30am – 4:30pm).
The site where the museum now resides used to be a former prison grounds during French colonial times
Much of it was demolished but some halls remain, now with exhibits detailing its past
A guillotine used to execute prisoners
With that, I was done with the War Remnants Museum and exited just as it closed for the day. I highly recommend visiting the War Remnants Museum as it is one of the ‘must see’ in Ho Chi Minh City. I should have come here before the Independence Palace as the War Remnants Museum offers a lot more visual history than that building. My GoPro’s battery also died out by the time I reached the War Remnants Museum so I could not take videos from inside, which would have been a lot more interesting than what I filmed at the Independence Palace.
I headed back to my hotel to re-charge my batteries and to take some rest before stepping out again to visit Bui Vien Street, the touristy nightlife area in Sai Gon. That will be my next post.
