Hey everyone, I hope you have been doing well since I last wrote. Certainly Day 4 in Hanoi was also enjoyable for me. I woke up well-rested at 8:30 AM and after showering etc . . . decided to work on my blog for a bit.
After a few hours of that, having made some decent progress, I went out the door at 12:30 PM. It was a bit cooler than the previous day with a pleasant breeze. In summary, it was quite nice out as I started walking toward the Vietnam National Museum of History.
Very close to the museum at 12:50 PM, there was a nice park with an interesting tree which had been blended with artificial elements to make a type of a sculpture.
Right there just in front of the museum there was an automated water dispenser with several different types of water and there was also a drinking fountain attached. However, I had my doubts about it, so I didn’t try it.
Jo, the fellow solo traveler who I had met the evening before showed up at 1:00 PM and we decided to get some lunch at a nearby place.
The food was very good, and it ended up being only 130,000 VND ($5.00 USD) for both of us. This could be paid either with the Moreta app or with cash. Lunch was good, but at 2:00 PM we were ready to head over to the nearby museum.
Here when I arrived at 2:10 PM I had a bit of an annoyance. Despite there being a prominently displayed QR code payment card being displayed in the ticket window, when I showed the attendant that I had paid, she insisted that they only accepted cash (despite the amount already having been deducted). If I had spoken Vietnamese, I of course would have argued about this, but as it was, I just paid again, this time in cash, so I paid the 40,000 VND ($1.52 USD) twice. Note, we were only able to visit building #2, because as of December 2025, building #1 was closed for renovation.
The temporarily free AR app was a bit helpful, but it seemed to be more of a gimmick than anything else. At least when I was there, very few things actually worked with the app, but it was an interesting idea.
The initial display room at 2:30 PM was mostly pictures of French colonists being horrible. There was signage in Vietnamese, French and English.
Seeing these pictures and the descriptions at the end of the first room, I also started to wonder about the strange wooden pipes I had seen people using while I was travelling around Vietnam. I had assumed that they were smoking tobacco, but in these pictures, it makes reference to opium. However, upon further investigation online, it appears that supposedly people today just smoke a very strong type of tobacco in these traditional bamboo bongs.
In the next room there was reference made to something called the Tonkin free school, and it seemed like something that I would like to learn more about; however, as of the time of writing this entry, I still have not done that. Separate from that, from what I could understand, the “Vietnamese Mandarins” were the ones who ran things before the French invasion/colonization. These “Mandarins” were Vietnamese people who were strongly influenced by Confucian education.
Into room 3 at 2:50 PM, there was a lot of information about the founding of the communist party. Rather than the AR guide, I thought a quality, simple audio guide would work better, but I did appreciate that they were trying new things. Interestingly, it looked like a lot of Vietnamese people living in Thailand had been working for the revolution, perhaps some sort of a government in exile sort of thing? An additional point of interest is that in this room, signage was only in Vietnamese and English.
Room 4 was about the revolutionary movement from 1930-1931.
And then room 5 at 3:10 PM was all about the democratic movement 1936-1939. Much of this was just reading and reproductions of pictures and documents, but I was certainly learning a lot. Furthermore, despite not being extremely aesthetic, the museum seems well organized.
I am not sure of which room it was, but around about the time when I was reading about the Viet Minh movement 1941-1945 I was very impacted by the statue and story of Kim Dong. Despite only being 14 years old, he had been killed as a revolutionary.
Room 8 at 3:40 PM started out about the August 1945 revolution and the founding of the republic of Vietnam. In my ignorance, I had not known that there was a monarchy in Vietnam until 1945 when King Bao Dai abdicated. I was also quite unsettled to see more about child soldiers at 4:00 PM; many of them appeared to be no more ten years old. However, I think it is good that their role was recognized, just as the important role of female fighters was duly noted throughout the museum. In general, I was impressed by the ingenuity of people during war times: a bomb case used as a canteen, a cup made from a napalm bomb case, and a lamp made from a toothpaste box.
At 4:24 PM there was a room about the French prison system during colonization. This was the first time I had seen a real guillotine. It was smaller than I had thought it would be, but unnerving to think how it had regularly been used.
Around 4:35 PM I headed downstairs and saw what remained. This section seemed far less developed than upstairs, but there was still a lot which was interesting. I liked seeing all of the “first of” items from different factories, as I realized that these must have been major achievements for many people at that time. I also really wondered what the bamboo bell on display would sound like. Finally, it drew my attention the way different historic groups were referred to: the French “colonizers,” the “Japanese Fascist Government.” and the “US-puppet government”.
At 4:57 PM we were shooed out of the museum. They even turned off the lights. I had not seen everything, but it was enough. From there, I said goodbye to Jo and started to slowly head towards my next destination.
It is unlikely (I think) that you will see the same thing, but as I was walking towards the bus stop, I saw this random guy working out with dumbbells in front of a shop (No, it wasn’t a gym nor a fitness related store.)
Checking my options, at 6:05 PM I took the E11 bus to Hoan Kiem lake. Oddly, even though it is free, there is a guy to give you a ticket. The bus was almost empty, and it was very clean and comfortable.
At 6:33 PM I got off the bus and just started wandering around. I loved all of the “secret passages” which went down from the main street.
Finally, at 8:10 PM I stopped in to eat at some random place where I had a simple pork and rice dish for 75,000 VND ($2.85 USD).
From there at 8:30 PM I took the E05 bus to near Lotte world and went to the small club (I forgot to write down the name) which had been recommended to me by a fellow traveler a couple of days earlier. The place had few patrons, but everyone was very welcoming. I rather enjoyed the Karaoke when they moved inside, but I couldn’t make myself stay longer because they were smoking inside, and it was just too much for me after a short time. Still though, it had been a nice experience, and the 200,000 VND ($7.60 USD) I paid for my two Brat long island teas seemed like a more than fair exchange for the experience.
I had been there three hours when I went ahead and exited out to the street at 11:55 PM to get a grab for 80,000 VND ($3.05 USD) back to the hotel, where I arrived at 12:35 AM. And that was the end of my rather unconventional Christmas day. All in all, I definitely considered it a success, and as I drifted off to sleep soon after my return to the room, I was certain that the upcoming days would also have much to offer.
Travels with Jay 