Ho Chi Minh Port Museum (Nha Rong Dragon Wharf) | HCMC, Vietnam

Before I say anything about Ho Chi Minh, I'd like to issue a disclaimer: I find him fascinating as a person and possessing of many superior intellectual and moral attributes. I've read Ho Chi Minh Thought and the Revolutionary Path of Viet Nam by General Vo Nguyen Giap. I've been to his mausoleum, childhood home, revolutionary office, and a pile of other sites dedicated to him. That said, perhaps culturally, definitely personally, I can't abide the dear leader mentality, no matter to whom it's applied.

The Ho Chi Minh Port Museum (otherwise known as Nha Rong or the Dragon Wharf), is just another Ho Chi Minh museum, which you can find in any (and every) large or midsize city in Vietnam. It's got a few personal effects, a couple pamphlets, and seems to exist solely to inculcate schoolchildren. to my mind, it's a waste of a good building; on the other hand, at least crowding and overdevelopment has been staved off around it, which is more than can generally be expected in Saigon. the entire Ba Son port area, with umpteen untouched architecturally and historically significant 1880s and earlier French buildings, was sold to a residential property developer in 2015 to build more quote-unquote luxury highrises, so the Ho Chi Minh connection is indeed the sole reason the building survives at all.

The building itself dates from 1860, though the site has operated as a mercantile port since at least the 1610s. 45 nautical miles from the sea, the port was never able to effectively compete with Hong Kong, Singapore, and Jakarta, but was so well-established in terms of infrastructure and renown that the French decided not to bother moving it. From 1861 to 1901 the wharf was operated by Messageries Maritimes, and in June 1911 Ho Chi Minh doubtless processed through the building as a kitchen worker on a steamer destined for Marseille. The area has not been landfilled at all, so the shape of the river here looks the same as it does in photographs from 150 years ago. The view is nice, and the grounds are nice. It is not a must, in my opinion, but it is a quick visit.

FITO Museum of Traditional Vietnamese Medicine | HCMC, Vietnam

The Museum of Traditional Vietnamese Medicine (FITO) in Ho Chi Minh City is a privately owned museum detailing the development of Vietnamese herbal medicine, also known as Southern medicine, as a distinct tradition from Northern, or traditional Chinese, medicine. It also covers related traditional therapies like acupuncture, medicinal wine and footbaths.

Vietnamese traditional medicine differs from Chinese traditional medicine in that it uses far fewer animal products, relatively more fresh than dried herbs, generally less complicated decoctions, and there have been a series of famous Vietnamese doctors over hundreds of years establishing recipes different from those used in China and other neighboring regions. 

That said, Vietnamese traditional medicine originates from southern Chinese practices, and is far closer to Chinese traditional medicine than Indian traditional medicine in every way, unlike neighboring Cambodia and Thailand. Furthermore, Ho Chi Minh City specifically has a distinctly Chinese element to its culture thanks to centuries of Chinese immigration, intermarriage, and economic dominance in Cholon. So, the traditional medicine utilized here today is yet another degree closer to what might be encountered in southern China.

I’ve already covered the topic of TVM in some depth in my post about the traditional medicine museum in Hoi An, so please refer to that post for more information. I would say the subject is explored in greater depth at the FITO museum, but either place has more information than anyone not interested in medical history or personal treatment could ever care to know.

If you can’t tell, I’m not a believer in traditional medicine! However, I still think this museum is a must-see in HCMC- not because of its explanation of TVM, but because it is in fact an art history museum! The building is new construction, but a complex marriage of salvaged antique architectural and ornamental elements and necessarily new elements, handmade in the traditional way with traditional materials. There are countless priceless artworks, antiques, and artifacts, on display throughout, dating as far back as prehistory, and including Chinese, Thai, Korean, Cham and Khmer pieces in addition to the purely Vietnamese. All are arranged with care in as close to the traditional manner as possible; many examples are equal to or better than what they have in Vietnam’s national art museums. This is clearly the lifetime collection of a connoisseur.

My photos simply don’t do the place justice, due mostly to an overabundance of green toned fluorescent tube lights and very warm-toned, high wattage, small spotlights throughout that frustrated the color correction software of my iPhone; the video gives a more realistic impression.

Whoever assembled this place clearly has extensive knowledge of Vietnamese art and architectural history, a refined eye, and no budgetary concerns. Even the elevator is adorned with custom-carved, mother-of-pearl encrusted panels in the style of traditional room screens and cabinets. The collection here has clearly been thoughtfully assembled over decades, and the most I could get out of the guide was that it was ‘a hobby’. He was able to answer questions about specific pieces, but I found myself reading the various labels hoping to learn more about the age and provenance of the object, not what it depicted about traditional medicine. Spoiler: those details were usually not provided. 

I found this place so intriguing I visited twice. I think for decorative arts buffs, this is the most underrated hidden gem in Ho Chi Minh City. Also, while I typically decline the tea/avoid the shop, I tried it here in a moment of literal, physical weakness, and was very pleasantly surprised. The lotus and licorice tea is very sweet and warm and cost only 50,000 dong for a box of 20 teabags, very reasonable for the quality.

The Ho Chi Minh Memorial Complex | Hanoi, Vietnam

The Ho Chi Minh complex in Hanoi is probably the number one must-see place in the city. It’s made up of four main elements, and a loose fifth: the biggest draw is Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, followed by the Stilt House, the One Pillar Pagoda, the Ho Chi Minh Museum, and the grounds of the Presidential Palace. 

Most people line up to circle the preserved corpse of Ho Chi Minh himself, which is treated as a religious relic: encased in glass, in a giant stone vault with low lighting, and maintained by the same Russians that handle Lenin.  No cameras are allowed, no hats are allowed; cleavage, shoulders and thighs must be covered, and a white-uniformed honor guard monitors everyone uncomfortably. One odd thing about it all is that Ho Chi Minh did not ask for or even imagine anything so gruesome at all, but if you're morbidly curious, check it out.

Speaking of Ho Chi Minh, his museum is way over-designed. It has the feeling of a 90s amusement park, but provides excellent insight into his life and philosophy nonetheless. The gist is that he grew up in a mandarin family, but his father lost his position in a distressing way. Realizing he wouldn't get a great education or job thanks to his dad's reputation, he traveled the world for 30 years, collecting ideas about political and economic systems of governance, and returned to Vietnam with three goals: independence, unification, and communism. 

There are many museums in Hanoi covering the practicalities, if you will, of the Indochina and Vietnam wars, like the Ho Chi Minh Trail Museum, B52 Museum, etc., but if you're actually looking for the reasoning behind it, that's better understood here.

Just outside the museum is the One Pillar Pagoda, perhaps Vietnam's most famous temple. Originally built by emperor Lý Thái Tổ in 1049, the pagoda was the site of an annual royal bathing ceremony for hundreds of years. The original architectural concept is called a lotus station, wherein a hexagonal building recalling a mandala sits on a single stone column in the middle of a lake, resembling a lotus blossom, a Buddhist symbol of purity. Over hundreds of years and many restorations, the temple came to its final architectural form in 1840. The original building was dynamited in 1954, so what stands now is a 1955 reproduction of the 1840 building. Over the past 20 years, there has been on-and-off debate over replacing the building with a reproduction of the original thousand-year-old design.

The Ho Chi Minh Stilt House, built in 1958 by architect Nguyen Van Ninh, is a modern super luxe version of the Tay stilt houses common in Viet Bac, where Uncle Ho built up the Revolutionary Army before taking Hanoi. It's both very stylish and very of its time; if you like mid-century modern, Danish modern, etc. you should really enjoy this luxe Asian version of it. 

The last few displays are in the outbuildings of the Presidential Palace. The palace itself was built by Vildieu in 1900 as the French Colonial Governor’s residence, and is not open to the public; it's only used for government meetings. After taking Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh refused to live there because he felt the optics were bad. However, one of the outbuildings, romantically called House 54, served as his home and office from 1954 until the stilt house was completed, and there are some truly boring rooms to look into there. There is also a small local restaurant on-site and a gift shop with the most extensive inventory of communist memorabilia I’ve ever seen.