Ho Chi Minh War Museum

Today is our first day in Vietnam, we’re gonna go get some bikes. And go check out the Ho Chi Minh tunnels.

So during the Vietnam War there was tunnels made from here in Vietnam all the way to Cambodia Laos. And I think as far as Thailand Oh find out more today and. So yeah, we’re gonna go ride some bikes ride there.

I just took out 5 million which sounds pretty cool, it’s only worth about 250 bucks. So, it’s okay I’ll play it up we are off our first stop of the day, we’re at the Vietnamese War Museum everything here in the war museum is very anti Americans the quotes they use make America look bad all the statistics they use basically everything is just how America destroyed Vietnam’s country which. I think there’s a lot of truth behind but obviously, it’s a very one-sided representation of the story.

I don’t know enough to really take a stance on it but I definitely think that from what. I’ve heard yeah was definitely a bit of a huge mistake on America’s part but ya gotta keep reading hear more about what Vietnam has to say that as.

I read more, I’m realizing this was a much bigger war than. I ever thought the Vietnamese War they dropped the Americans dropped fourteen point three million tons of bombs compared to only five million tons that were dropped in World War two. So in 1972 America base was signed a peace treaty because they realized that they’d lost the war.

And by 75 they were like totally evacuated they left all the buildings the embassies were abandoned. And that kind of ended any influence that America had left in Vietnam but officially they were out of Vietnam. So this part of museum is actually all photographs that were posted in Life magazine some in the American press.

And, it’s really interesting because every photo has a big story behind it it tells you everything from like the photographer to what’s going on in each frame. So, I’m really enjoying this part some really incredible stories very very sad stories this is actually a plane that’s been shot down you can actually see it swing totally falling off. And almost everything, I’m reading up on it seems like majority the photographers have been killed.

And almost every time, it’s because their helicopter crashed. And I don’t think, it’s because, it’s been shot down. And just gets there.

So many helicopter crashes. And malfunctions that it was a fairly common way to go down see here’s a photographer’s camera for the giant bullet wound went through it but he actually survived at the end of the war they started using something called Agent Orange the Americans were dropping leaders. And leaders of Agent Orange.

And then basically was supposed to do destroy the forest. So that the Vietcong could not hide in the forest. And in the process it was a very very lethal.

And poisonous chemical. And, it’s led to mutations of even children today. So in Vietnam you can still find people who are suffering from the war because they’ve been born with these horrible dis for matiz part of the museum is totally dedicated to the Agent Orange.

I was saying some of the worst parts of the deformity. So you see some here people just born with totally irregular bodies, it’s just tragic, it’s it’s so sad over 3 million people are said to have died during the Vietnamese War.

And all that just for America to supposedly stop the spread of communism your call it seems to me like a very very twisted agenda outside here they have work they have the aircraft they have tanks. And some of the artillery that was used during the war this is an example of a cage that some people were kept in some of the Vietnamese prisoners up until 1960 they actually use the guillotine to execute some of their prisoners the Vietnamese prisoners. I guess a lot of the house to do actually with the French influences here the French coin the guillotine.

And they used it up till 1960 to get rid of prisoners there’s. So many disgusting tortures that are being listed here of ways that the Vietnamese were basically forced into giving information or ended up not giving information. And dying.

So this is what. I would imagine your average helicopter would have looked like back in the 70s circulating around Vietnam you’d have a tommy gun hooked up in the side here firing tons of munitions per minute, we’re being kicked out now, it’s 12 that is those yes. And that would be your transport helicopter.

So, it’s massive it would pick up. And drop off people from battle. And I guess that’s your average tank anyway, it’s very informative.

And we didn’t have enough time we only had two hours here. And then. I guess they close at 12:00 for some reason but it was awesome good to learn about the history have a wider perspective it was really really well done Museum very one-sided.

So you don’t it was very anti-american which again maybe that’s fair but I would love to hear a bit more about why America wanted to go there. I mean.

I know, it’s to stop the spread of communism but I don’t understand like how they plan to stop the spread or how old war would have done that. So I don’t know.

I guess off to do more research of my own online but glad we went. And it was only like 75 cents to get in there the feel of the deal. I took out five million Vietnamese dongs, I’m rich, I’m a toss that money up in the air.

And then I’ll pick it up. So I need it. So we just arrived here at the Vietnamese war tunnels, I’m gonna go take a look ho Chi Minh is probably one of the most chaotic cities.

I’ve ever been to actually definitely is there’s probably about like 15 bikes to every car. And there’s almost no like no rules on the road everyone’s just turning left right going straight whenever they want there’s pretty much the only like Street language is like get out of my way like literally everyone is going crazy. And but one thing that’s cool is it drops off really quickly.

So went from being a big city to being out in the beautiful countryside. And probably less than half an hour of riding. So I was kind of interesting because in Bangkok it would take a few hours to get outside of the city.

So far. I actually really liked Ho Chi Minh, it’s actually quite a nice city it reminds me a lot of Bangkok just a bit crazier but very cool thank you jeez this is a recreation of what your average underground tunnel system look like in Vietnam and. So they had like different levels of chambers this was six meters below ground this was 10 meters about 8 meters.

And then the lowest points where, it’s up to 10 meters below ground that’s crazy that’s like over 35 feet down there. And they even had ventilation systems to allow air in they had a way that they could actually have a flame going. And the smoke would not come out of ground because they would use damp clothing to stop the smoke from rising.

And they had bunker shelters they had a well system. And they usually had it built alongside the river. So that they.

I could actually swim out of the river to get out. And have some water access. So you can see how they were such resilient fighters.

And difficult for the Americans to try to take on you see the bamboo normally cover the top by bamboo spine very sharp on the top when someone want them to the track they’ve got very bad wood this in the work we achieve. So this trap here is designed for psychological warfare it wouldn’t actually kill the soldier usually. I guess it was just.

So that basically you’d injure you get injured their comrades would have to come help them it would really just slowly bring the morale down of the soldiers getting here. And then go way back. I know if you want to try it you can go down here something tells me you’re not fitting well can you see the tunnel down.