KO and the Turk: Unique Museums in Hanoi

Over 100 year old houses making up a compound

Vietnam Museum of Ethnology

The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology represents the diversity of the country and 54 of its ethnic groups.Its goal is to preserve cultural heritage and promote the social cultural diversity of Vietnam. The museum is beautifully laid out in property outside and within the museum structure. Homes, mostly from the northern and central regions of Vietnam have been moved to this property.

beautiful wood details throughout

kitchens are always interesting - see big fireplace

open walls made for coolness

hand carved chest on wheels

interesting wood roof and supports, no nails

this was a fun building because of the stairs and the height

long house for a village

fertility stairs - see the obvious!

inside of the long house. Bamboo floors. Huge tree supports

Fertility hut - couples surround the outside

I love the look of the female!

Hmong outfit - originally Chinese, they moved between Burma, Laos, Vietnam

Hanoi Hilton
Another museum that is on the list of most Americans is the Hoa Lo Prison, a vast complex built by the French in 1896. While it was built to house 400 prisoners, in the 1930's during the French occupation, criminals and Vietnamese political dissidents grew to around 2000. The museum is mostly about the abuses of the French against nationalist Vietnamese who wanted to reclaim their country. Ironically, there are displays of tortures conducted by the French that look disarmingly like what the Vietnamese used against the American pilots they captured.

prison entrance

front gate to prison

poster to try to increase south's population before American War

pieces of glass bottles cover the tops of the walls

Vietnamese version of the life of captured American pilots

door to cell

The last section of the museum, a small section, is devoted to the American War. Artifacts include a couple of hand written letters by American POW's to the US describing their happy life in prison, their sorrow for the bombings, their support for the people of North Vietnam. The phrasing of the letters makes it obvious that these were dictated by the Vietnamese.
Photos of pilots being captured, and their return to Hanoi after the war are highlighted. One of the pilots is Pete Peterson who became the first US ambassador to Vietnam in 1995. There is great respect for John McCain, who revisited Vietnam 4 times after the war. McCain bailed out of his plane in 1967 and was captured from Truc Bach Lake in central Hanoi. A monument was placed in that location heralding the great accomplishment of capturing a famous American pilot. Upon his death, flowers were placed at the monument and are still being placed there to honor him.

Monument about, and now to, John McCain at Truc Bach Lake in central Hanoi

Vietnam's point of view of the American war

Years of separation of north and south has passed...they look forward now that war is done.

interior prison walls

interior, glass topped walls

Seoul Airport
While not officially a museum, and certainly not in Vietnam, we spent six hours at Seoul Airport on our way home from Hanoi. I had heard that the airport was unique, but being there at 5am meant we couldnt experience all the unique things that are typically available. What we were able to do was stay in a very comfortable hospitality suite complete with massage chairs in dark cubbies where we could nap, full breakfast, and bar, equipment to have a facial - if you speak Korean, and toilets that were so sophisticated they had to hang hand written signs to show where to flush!