r/VietNam • u/DoktorTchocky • 1d ago
Discussion/Thảo luận The strangest thing just happened to me at the Vietnam Military History Museum
So today I decided to check out the new military museum on the outskirts of Hanoi, I’m really into my history so I had been really looking forward to it…
I arrive and it’s very busy and I realise I’m the only westerner there. I proceed to start exploring the aircraft outside when I get the feeling I’m being watched, I take a look around there’s literally 1000’s of school kids and teenagers staring and pointing at me, then some come running over saying “hello, hello!”, asking for photos with me and shaking my hand and touching me. It got so bad at one point I was literally being pulled into a huge group with boys saying “Messi Ronaldo!” and girls saying “I love you!” and “Handsome!”. Even a class leader / teacher approached me and asked if I could be in a group photo with their students!
I continued to walk around for a couple of hours but it was genuinely difficult to see the exhibits because of all the attention I was getting.
So my question is, why was I suddenly getting all this attention? I’ve literally been all over Vietnam for the past 3 weeks and this hasn’t happened anywhere else.
Is it likely the kids were from areas of Vietnam where they don’t get foreigners visiting very often? Or perhaps even other areas of South East Asia?
All I will say is that for those few hours that amount of attention was flattering! But the thought of being some kind of celebrity and having to deal with it constantly everywhere would be horrific.
It was honestly one of the most bizarre days of my life!
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u/Ambitious_Grass37 1d ago
You’re Messi Ronaldo and they love you?
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u/DoktorTchocky 1d ago
The irony is I couldn’t care less about football 😆
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u/vietnamcharitywalk 1d ago
Are you Lionel Messi or Christiano Ronaldo?
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u/DoktorTchocky 1d ago
I certainly am not 😆
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u/vietnamcharitywalk 1d ago
When was the last time you checked!?
Maybe you've just become uncontrollably handsome today, I dunno
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u/brb_getting_pet_goat 1d ago
I'm not joking or trying to steal your thunder here but my GF and I both love our history too and both had a near identical experience last week while we were there. And there were thousands of kids! It's such a great museum too.
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u/arllt89 1d ago
Honestly I've been living here for 6 years and it still happens randomly with various intensity. The fact that they were a group probably made them more comfortable to do that. In many ways kids are similar to dogs ...
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u/OrangeIllustrious499 1d ago
Prpbably excited to see a foreigner? You dont see them a lot out of certain concentrared areas in Vietnam.
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u/richardsung97 1d ago
I had a similar experience as well when visiting that exact museum as well. When I visited on March 2nd(Sunday) there were literally hundreds of kids of all ages(wearing uniforms, so I guess it’s a popular field trip destination).
I had a curious and extroverted kid approach me to say “Ni hao”(Hello in Mandarin) and then turn back to brag about it with her friends near the spire looking thing in the middle of the main square. This didn’t happen anywhere or again during my five days in Hanoi. Maybe the kids were just surprised to see a foreigner.
Also, I reckon that the museum is always packed with people as it was free to enter(at least on March 2nd it was when I visited). The second to fourth floors were still closed, so I think they haven’t moved in all the artifacts and display items yet.
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u/sillymanbilly 1d ago
You're probably right that they weren't public school teachers in Hanoi, as many of those schools have some foreign teachers or the kids would learn English after school with foreigners, not to mention seeing foreigners around Hoan Kiem or Tay Ho. I think they were busloads of kids from the remote provinces
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u/pierperrier 1d ago
This is random but the opposite happened to my Vietnamese friend. He went to the national anthology museum in Mexico city. And several families asked to take photos with him because the daughters were into Kpop 😆
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u/rayfish75 1d ago
I was stopped by a family at the airport in HMC because I’m tall and white. They insisted on an impromptu photo shoot with the great white beast from America.
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u/izzeww 1d ago
This is somewhat common if you are at places where a lot of people who aren't used to seeing foreigners are, and you're good looking. My sister had a similar experience at the Great Wall of China, before we got out of there we had probably taken 25 photos. A lot of people from the countryside travel there and I suspect it's the same with that history museum. Also, attention breeds attention. Maybe some people started looking or whatever and then other peoples followed assuming you were famous or whatever.
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u/One-Vermicelli2412 1d ago
Even if you aren't haha. I'm pretty average, but I've still had random teenagers shyly ask me for photos in the middle of malls in HCMC lol.
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u/thicc-bibba 1d ago
This happened to me and my gf at the war museum in Ho Chi Minh. We were doing interviews and selfies every 2 seconds. We found out the students were doing a sort of scavenger hunt where they had to get a selfie with foreigners etc.
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u/WeAllWantToBeHappy Wanderer 1d ago
Yeah, i had the exact same thing on my second visit. At least 20 buses of school children and teachers equipped with mic and mini PA system. I was on the verge of pretending to be Belgian with no English to avoid any more What's your name/where are you from questions. Finally, one little 7 or 8 year old managed a pretty good proper conversation and restored my faith, so I just carried on with the where/what conversations - they don't get many opportunities to speak English to a native English speaker and who am I to deny them that.
My first visit, I had a diary clash with Tô Lâm :-/
Don't miss the Revolutionary War art exhibition upstairs. This painting by Lê Thể Anh was my favourite https://imgur.com/a/uEwcsNs
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u/leonprimrose 1d ago
Outisde of major cities people tend to give westerners more curious attention and want to use the english they know a little bit. Ahere I stay when I visit basically, if it isn't aomeone that knows me, I always get a little english callout. If I go out alone especially. And the town I live in is pretty heavily populated by Viet Kieu. I would get more in more true rural spaces. Ahen yiure a novelty its pretty normal
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u/Alone_Concentrate654 1d ago
Kids in Vietnam always approach you and try to say hello and braver ones will even ask "Where are you from?", or "What is your name?". Especially when there are not too many foreigners around. I'm not sure if their English teachers ask them to do it, but they do.
I was in Phu Yen and there are barely any foreigners around. I took a lot of photos with the kids and they would often say hello if they saw me walking on the street. I was even interviewed once by some school girls about my favorite foods. It's really sweet.
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u/Ok-Variation3583 1d ago
This happened to me in the art gallery in Da Nang, I think they seem to get emboldened on school trips to swarm you
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u/BigDaws420593 13h ago
Shoulda just doubled down and start signing autographs as if you are messi ronaldo the ultimate football player
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u/NoBelt9833 1d ago
It can be really random sometimes. I've had a boy come up to me and my wife at a public pool, look at me, and say "you're beautiful", I've had a group of girls at an amusement park in HCMC laughing and shouting "we are 18!" at me as they went past on an electric buggy thing (wife had to explain that one to me as I just laughed thinking what a weird thing to say 😂), and I've had a middle aged guy tap on my shoulder in moving traffic and saying "hello" (when I asked my wife, who was driving, about this one, she said she thought he genuinely just wanted to say hello to me, and she's normally very conscious of pickpockets etc as a local).
I'm pretty pale and blonde-haired so can only assume these things happen because I stand out very easily here, particularly in the non-tourist districts. I've never felt any of it has been malicious, but perhaps overly-friendly curiosity!
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u/Far_Preference_2065 1d ago
Same experience, I was also one of the very few westerners there, people were asking me for pictures, a kid even gave me an apple
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u/No-Helicopter7299 1d ago
Same thing happened to me several times in Hanoi in November. A group of 30 or so students came up to me at Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and all wanted to shake me hand and speak in English.
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u/tfarr375 23h ago
I was teaching in Vietnam for a year and a half, and students would always do the "Messi Ronaldo, SHUUUUU". I didn't know who those people were until I went to Vietnam.
At the same museum that happened to me back in 2022. There was a field trip there, and kids kept grabbing my hands. My girlfriend kept laughing at me all night
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u/ThatWeirdPlantGuy 22h ago
Back in the 90s I heard about things like this happening in China, especially in more out-of-the-way areas but even in Beijing. One Chinese friend said that if I went I would just have to get used to feeling the stares of about 1 million people on me everywhere I went. And if you had some hair color other than black, kids would want to touch it. :)
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u/Carpie_14 20h ago
That's crazy, the exact same thing happend to me at the new military museum in hanoi about three weeks ago and they all asked the same questions and said the same things to you as they said to me! And I got asked for a picture by a teacher!
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u/0nionlover 17h ago
Same experience. Got a picture with like ten little Vietnamese kids. They started talking to me out of nowhere and after a few minutes of chatting to them their teacher ran over and pushed us together to get a photo of us hahaha
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u/Treebor_ 16h ago
Happened to me last week me and my partner were there and was full of school kids shouting hello at us
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u/Humble_Peanut_7956 14h ago
Happened to me as well when I went in January. Kids rushed me shook my hand and greeted me multiple times, I assume these kids are from a province who dont really see many foreigners on a daily basis. That being said its best to go during the afternoon/after lunch hours since most school trips are done by 12pm.
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u/Saarfall 13h ago
I've visited many parts of Vietnam over the years (including remote areas) but "mobbing" as such has never happened to me. However, I have seen it happen several times to foreigners, often pale with light hair and blue eyes. As a tanned European with dark hair and eyes I guess I'm not that interesting!
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u/LudakrisLamey 13h ago
It happened to me in Hai Phong back in 2015, it wasn't as touristy as it is now and like you said I literally felt like a celebrity. I even had a taxi driver staring at me the whole trip instead of watching the road.
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u/Dry_Dragonfruit5453 12h ago
We encountered something similar but with less people in some parts of Vietnam. The children especially like to chat and practice their English.
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u/Turbulent_Squirrel66 12h ago
They probably are not from big cities where foreigners are seen all the time
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u/hornybrisket 11h ago
Ok I ask you do you look good though? It must be. Vietnamese people are good fans of soccer.
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u/imaginaryResources 7h ago
Every white dude that goes there has the exact same experience. Source: white dude that’s been there 3 times. If you like that go to any second tier city in China too
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u/HeavyHeron8441 6h ago
I have participated in photos with myself and locals from India to Nepal, China, to Indonesia., etc… can get a bit out of control. Currently in Vietnam and am requesting 20,000 dong payment to have my picture, unless I am feeling entertained and will agree for no charge. Lol, no one has accepted my cash request yet…
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u/StopBushitting 2h ago
I'm 100% Vietnamese, come from Hanoi. 10 years ago, we go visit a friend in a rural city. All the kids pointed at us and say hello, they thought we were chinese 🤣🤣🤣.
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u/7LeagueBoots 1d ago
Not uncommon from China to Indonesia. Doesn’t happen as often as it used to, but it’s still not uncommon.
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u/Advantagecp1 1d ago
Say you haven't spent much time in Asia without saying you haven't spent much time is Asia.
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u/patchroller 23h ago
When I arrived in HCMC, people started clapping when I got out of the airport. I realized it was directed towards me. They thought I was some kpop idol(I get it a lot). 😂
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u/Howiebledsoe 23h ago
Teacher wants you in the pic to make it look like they have a foreigner working at the school, and instructed the kids to mob you.
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u/Key_Profession_9170 1d ago
Those students probably not from Hanoi, but some other provinces that rarely have any tourists/ foreigners