View from the Flag Tower

Earlier in the week my cab driver had taken me by a nice park with a view of the Flag Tower. I noted this because it looked like a pleasant park to visit and nearby my apartment. The Flag Tower was built several hundred years ago and is an interesting mixture of styles that is striking to see. Apparently most of the rest the Citadel complex has been removed and replaced with modern buildings but this was preserved. The Flag Tower has three levels and the first two are traditional ramparts that remind me much of the Spanish forts that I have visited in Florida. Then rising out of the center is a nearly 100 foot tall tower that has a striking oriental brickwork and design.

I had a good view of this from the park. I set there to rest and make some sketches. I noticed to my left a statue that looked familiar. It was a statue of Lenin also gazing at the Flag Tower. In front young people were taking advantage of the pavement to practice their skateboard tricks. Several people tried to sell me a variety of things. I notice if I say Khong Cam On; which is my version of No and thank you in Vietnamese that the conversation is cut short and I think with no hard feelings. However, one person I heard muttering khong, khong etc. I will check out with my friends the most polite way to deflect these offerings. One of my problems, as Marci, my wife, would tell you is that I look at people (she would say stare) and of course eye contact does seem to bring on conversation. I was able to make some nice sketches in my book and then noticed a nice coffee house under trees next to the base of the tower and went over there. There had been rain off and on all weekend and it was starting to look as if it might rain again and people were taking cover. However, after a half and hour there was another break in the weather and I notice people up on the ramparts and so went to see what it might cost to go up.

Surprisingly there were no one there at the entrance and I was able to go up to the first and second level. Immediately, I notice that even for the short American I am; that I had to duck my head to go through. Built hundreds of years ago the low staircase I am sure was not a problem for the original soldiers.

When I got to the top I was able to walk all around and on the back side which I had not been able to see before was a number of crashed planes and other weapons. The Military Museum is next door and I was looking into the courtyard. This was perhaps one of the saddest moments since I got here. For most Vietnamese that I have met the war is a fading memory or they were born after the war ended. I have never received any sense of anger toward me for coming from the USA. However taking care of Veterans in the US and having taken care of at least one veteran here that had been wound I wondered what we all had learned from the experience.