Today was a very educational yet fun day. We began the day by learning about Vietnam’s largest religion, Buddhism. Buddhism is not super common in European or American countries, but is a fascinating religion to learn about. It was very interesting to learn about how Buddhists have to let everything go, in order to reach nirvana. Some Buddhists have to give up something they want in order to reach enlightenment. This is very unique to Buddhism, as in Christian religions, once you die you are automatically in heaven. After the lecture we visited a pagoda, a Buddhist temple. The most interesting thing about the pagoda, was the architecture. Every wall was a bright color like pink, and had sculptures of gods and animals everywhere. I am used to a church which is much more monotone, and less flashy.
Then in the afternoon, we visited the Reunification Palace and the War Remnants Museum. The Reunification Palace was extremely interesting because it was a government building during the war, however the interior is identical to how it would’ve looked in the 70’s. The interior design is extremely unique, nothing like it in Saigon. After learning about how the government workers lived, we traveled to the war remnants museum. At the museum, the sights were very sad and intense. The Vietnam war was a very tragic war with hundreds of thousands of deaths on both sides. However, we were never really talked about how devastating it truly was.
Overall, today was a great day. I do not enjoy sitting down and listening to someone talk. I learn best when I have audio and visual clues to better learn. I really liked travelling to the palace and museum as I was walking around a lot, and probably learning more Vietnamese than I remember. I’m really hoping the rest of the trip is similar, more demonstrations would be extremely helpful. I can’t wait to see the end of the trip!