Hanoi is such an historic town, everywhere you look is amazing history, from the tube houses to the ancient art. I have always loved history. History was always a lot more interesting than current affairs.

Today, my Vietnamese guide, and now friend, Tien takes me to see two museums . The first is the Women's Museum.

There are six sections in the museum. Women in the economy, women in the military, women in the  family, women's clothing and styles, Vietnamese marriage, and a section on the Vietnamese Mother Goddess worship.

The women in the economy section had a film running showing the women working the fields and bringing their crops to market from their rural villages outside Hanoi. They make the long trip every day to sell their fruits and vegetables. They will stay until they are all sold, maybe 12-14 hours. They make between $3-5 a day. They use it for things like paying to send their children to school, which costs for all school children, not just college age students.

Tien says their biggest problem is being harassed by the police. A lot of bribes have to be paid in all the communist countries I have been to so far.  The section on women in the war was something else . It told how many American soldiers they were awarded medals for killing. It showed women that had husbands or sons killed in the war. It touted their sacrifices, giving them great credit for helping to win the war and reunite the country.
Of course, it's communist propaganda at it's best. But, I wonder what they really achieved? Government corruption is rampant from what I have been told by any local I have had the conversation with. Foreign aid for the people ends up in the pockets of corrupt government officials.

There are no jobs for the kids that graduate after 4 years of university, which their parents struggle to pay for. Without exception the young university age students want to go to America or Japan or somewhere to work when they graduate, because there are no job opportunities available in Vietnam, unless you have $15,000 or so to bribe the government.

They all mention how lucky we are to have a government like we have in America . My question then is how would things be different if the Democratic South Vietnam and the U.S. had won the war, instead of the communist North?

I asked Tien, after I got to know him well enough, how the Vietnamese in Hanoi felt about Americans. He hesitated and said that was hard to answer. Then, he said his parents and grandparents generations do not like Americans. They were the war-era generation. But, he said, "My generation does like Americans and their government".

The section containing all the dresses from the different decades was interesting, though. And, I think women would really get a lot out of visiting this museum.

Next I was on the city bus with Tien heading for the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. Most of the time the busses here do not come to a complete stop when someone wants off. They just slow down very slow and open the doors and whoever wants off jumps to the curb while the bus continues on its route.

This museum exhibits the different ethnic groups in Vietnam. There are 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam. So, this museum presents the cultural heritages of each ethnic group.

The museum is divided into two parts. Inside is the exhibition building and other offices. The outside area is reserved to highlight different types of houses in all parts of Vietnam. There are about 60,000 visitors that come to the museum each year.