WARNING: GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS
We started the day with a visit to the war museum. Again a very bias war museum.
The artefacts and photos on display seemed even more horrifying than the museum in Hanoi. To the point were I had to go outside for air for fear of being sick. No photo has ever pushed me to that point before.
At the start of the tour, there was all the standard weapons and vehicles; tanks, helicopters etc. All belonging to American troops. It's weird how none of the Vietnam weapons were on display. Next was descriptions about the soldiers who had fought, their back stories and what happened to them.
The most shocking room focussed on Agent Orange. The operation ran by U.S. troops to spray the jungle and crop fields with herbicides. The aim was to uncover the Vietnamese armies hiding places and destroy food sources.
This herbicide had horrific consequences and as a result people suffered from severe muscle dysfunction and worst still, any babies that those affected had after the war were born with some sort of mental or physical disability. One girl had to live locked in a cage as she tried to eat everything in site: metal, wood, even people.
Whilst the story of agent Orange is bad enough, the pictures in this room were much worse. They showed burnt corpses, corpses that had been blown up so half of them was missing, battle wounds, the physical effects of agent orange. But then in the centre of the room was a tank with a couple of dead babies in that had some body dysfunction. I don't know what dysfunction as I only looked down for a split second. There really was no need to put that in there.
After the museum we found a cafe and started doing some more research as to where to go next and what to see. In 2 days time we'll be heading into Cambodia.