Showing 1-6 of 6 results
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History Museum
A beautiful French-colonial building and engrossing exhibits make for a winning combo. Archaeological artefacts fill up most of the ground floor, while upstairs concentrates on recorded history up to 1945 (the Museum of the Vietnamese Revolution takes it from there). The life-sized diorama depicting Vietnamese cave-dwellers is tops, but the scale-model battle scenes are also hard to walk away from.
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Museum Of Independence
The small Old Quarter house where Ho Chi Minh lived in 1945 has been converted into a museum. Ho drafted the Declaration of Independence while living and working here. The exhibit of photos on the ground floor is worth a quick look, as are Ho's upstairs living quarters, where you can soak in the frozen-in-time feel of the place.
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Museum Of The Vietnamese Revolution
This one's a little intense, but relevant, for even as communist economics fade there's no taking away the fact that this small, impoverished nation earned its independence. Photos, documents, yellowed newspapers and unsigned oils tell the story. A guide might be able to explain some of the more puzzling artefacts - the taxidermied pig, for instance.
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Museum Of Vietnamese Women
The Vietnamese women celebrated here are graceful, wily and strong as all hell. Among the fuzzy photos usually displayed in Hanoi museums are some fascinating artefacts, including homemade machetes, a knife with an explicit caption noting it slashed at an oppressor's neck and the ragtag garments worn by a female spy who pretended to be crazy. The top floor showcases beautiful textiles made by ethnic-minority women.
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Viet Nam Military History Museum
Vietnamese military history is not a conventional matter of tanks and battalions, which is why this museum is so engrossing. Exhibits include ample evidence of Vietnamese resourcefulness: bamboo spikes, crudely tinkered firearms, buffalo horns, crazy-looking torpedoes. Quality photos get you behind Viet Minh lines. Outside the building, an artistic heap of B-52 wreckage is worth a walk-around, and be sure to go to the top of the Flag Tower.
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Vietnam Fine Arts Museum
This is Hanoi's best museum, and it's enormous, so set aside a couple of hours to appreciate the works. Highlights are the extraordinary wood carvings from the 14th century; wartime paintings (many of which are humanistic rather than propagandistic); and the collection of ethnic costumes that surpasses the display at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. There's also a pleasant café and a decent gift shop.
Showing 1-6 of 6 results
