Museums

Hello! For our last few days in Vietnam, Mom and I decided to see some museums (yawn). Why do adults always think museums are fun for kids? Some are, like a Science center, but most of the ones about history and stuff like that are borrring!

The first one we went to was yesterday. We actually tried to see one other, Ho-Chi Minh's Mausoleum Complex, but it closed ten minutes after we got there, so we didn't really see it. Then we decided to go to another museum, one called the Vietnamese Museum of Ethnology. It was about the ethnic (tribal) groups in Vietnam. It talked about the different dress and ways of living, the different houses, and it had some good displays of artifacts. It was big, and we walked around 'till our feet hurt.

Today we again went to Ho-Chi Minh's Mausoleum Complex. Ho-Chi Minh's Mausoleum Complex is where the body of the beloved former leader is. "Despite the fact that his will requested cremation", the Vietnamese preserved his body and now it lies where all can see it. It is really cool, he looks like he is merely asleep and will wake up at any moment. Also, once a year, for three months, his body is sent to Russia for 'maintenance' :D.

Our next and final stop was the Women's Museum. The Women's Museum is a museum that honors the women soldiers who fought and helped other soldiers in the American and French wars. There were only two exhibits open. One was cool, it had artifacts and stuff from the war, but the other was not cool. There were all these posters on the wall, in Vietnamese, but with English translations (badly done) beside them. All the stories were essentially the same: A women is born into a very poor family. She grows up, marries, and has kids. She is too poor to support the kid's education, but then she finds a way. Her kids work hard, and they all get really good grades, and the family is better off, and they have a happy ending. Psh!

Oh, well. Tomorrow we fly back to Chiang Mai! Woohoo! See you then!