We are coming up to our last destination of our Vietnam trip, Ho Chi Minh City. It was known as Saigon until it was renamed to honor the first President of the United Vietnam, Ho Chine Minh. Ho Chi Minh, I would say, gave me the most overall knowledge on not only the history of Vietnam during the mid-1900s but also knowledge on the present Vietnam and how they have developed as a nation. There were three specific places that had to do with that. There was the War Museum, the Mercedes Benz factory, and finally the Cu Chi Tunnels.
The War Museum in Ho Chi Minh is a compilement to any remnants left to find out about the events that happened during the Vietnam War. Whether that comes from quotes, paintings, pictures, or even real-life machinery like tanks and helicopters that were used during the war. As an American, it will always be informative to know what the other side of a conflict as big as the Vietnam War meant to the other side of the conflict. And I can say that I was horrified and deeply conflicted by the horrors that I saw described and presented there about what was done to the Vietnamese people during what they called the American War. But it also validated what I already thought about the Vietnam War as a conflict that only resulted in bad, and no good being done for anyone. The second place I would like to name is the Mercedes-Benz factory in Ho Chi Minh City. As someone with a Mechanical Engineering Major, it comes as no surprise that I was anticipating this trip. And it turned out even more informative than I first predicted. As it was interesting to realise the nuances that come with running a German-born company in a place like Vietnam, where it was detailed to us the struggles that they had with running in Vietnam and also how their company sector worked and how they interacted with other Mercedes around the world. Lastly, I would like to mention the Cu Chi Tunnels located somewhere near Ho Chi Minh City. A place where we got to witness the real tunnels that were dug by the Vietnamese people during the Vietnam War. We not only got to see it, but we also got to travel in it and learn how the people managed to live and fight from these tunnels for so long. They even showed us some of the traps that were laid by the Vietnamese people at the time, which was kind of terrifying but informative. In total, the entire Vietnam trip not only helped me to expand my thinking on the world itself but also improve myself as a person,n and I couldn’t be more grateful to have gotten the chance to learn in such a vibrant and cultural country.