My Personal Experience in Vietnam

We arrived in Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City last night, and we will leave tomorrow. In this short period of time that I have here in Ho Chi Minh City, I will learn as much as I can. First, we had a traditional Vietnamese breakfast that consists of thin rice noodles with vegetables. Then, we went to visit the War Museum, which is dedicated to the Vietnam War.

Victims of Agent Orange

First, we went up to the Agent Orange Room, which is devoted to the victims of the chemical weapon called Agent Orange. The American jets sprayed this chemical over the Vietnamese forests to try to kill all the foliage that sheltered the Viet Cong fighters from the Americans. The chemical not only killed and injured numerous Viet Cong and American soldiers but also more than 3 million Vietnamese and the following three generations. In the end, Vietnam won the war but at a very high cost.

Next, we went back to the hotel to begin a Vespa tour. We visited a flower market, a statue of a monk who burned himself as a form of protest against Diem’s government, a Chinese temple where locals go to worship, a Buddhist pagoda, a traditional Chinese herbal medicine shop, a replica of the French Notre Dame, and the king’s Palace. Then we went back to the hotel to get ready for a dinner. Today we are going to have dinner with my dad’s Vietnamese friend. Her name is Mai. She lived through the Vietnam war, and I wanted to learn from her as much as possible. Mai was from the north of Vietnam, which was controlled by China and the USSR. The only clothes that Mai owned were pajamas and flip flops. Every night, her parents had to attend a meeting and she and her siblings were left at home alone in the middle of a war. When the north won the war, many of the southerners fled to the United States; there was one such person at the dinner. I learned a lot about the lives of the Vietnamese during the Vietnam War.

I was very surprised to hear how the Vietnamese people lived through the war. Before I arrived to Vietnam, I had only learned about the U.S. perspective about the war. I think it is important to learn both perspectives to then make your own decision about what you think. Many people in north Vietnam believed that they were fighting to release their fellow citizens from democracy. Growing up, Mai was led to believe that all Americans were cruel. However, when she met her first American, who happened to be my dad, at Harvard, she didn’t think they were cruel at all.

Today, we will leave to Danang. The time we spend in Danang will be used to catch up on homework. On Wednesday, though, we went to visit the old town. We left the hotel at 3:00pm. Then, we drove two hours to the main town. From the main town, we walked to the old town. The streets were illuminated with brightly colored spherical lamps, and classical music was playing on speaker on every block. In the old town, we visited many old houses. We also visited a pottery museum and an old Japanese bridge. Even though I only spent one week in Vietnam, I loved learning about its people, culture, hardships, and language.