It took us until after Noon to finally leave the apartment because we put laundry on and then had to wait for it to finish to hang dry. When we finally left, Nick and Millie realized they had been inside for over 36 hours. They hadn’t walked a single block of Saigon since we arrived.

Luckily the apartment is right in the center of everywhere we wanted to go. We walked to the nearby Tao Dan Park to let Millie get some energy out after being cooped up and sugared up. She found some English speaking kids and bravely spoke to them, only to be shut down. It breaks my heart. But she is being so outgoing and brave compared to earlier in the trip.

It was hot and muggy and I was sweating just from sitting on a bench. Every so often we’d see a rat run across the playground, followed by a baby rat. Rats: they’re just like us.

When she got bored we walked onwards to the Independence Palace. “Palace” is another word on Millie’s trigger list now, with Temple and Ruins and Castle. We used to be able to play up the princess aspect but she got too smart for that, and now understands them all as “boring old building where my parents read signs”. She whined the whole way there.

On our way we got completely bamboozled and ripped off by a charming coconut seller. He walked with us and jokingly asked Nick to carry his goods, which Nick did. We all had a good laugh.

Nick gave it back and the man cut three fresh coconuts and handed them to us as if they were gifts. Of course we offered to pay and asked how much. He said “one fifty each” and Nick handed it over. As soon as he split we realized we had vastly overpaid (about $6 each when they should be $1-2). We are so mixed up between the exchange rates in each country. It is especially confusing when the multiples are so high. 1 Vietnamese Dong is 0.000038 dollars.

We made it to the palace and Millie was as bored as she predicted she’d be. We have been trying to drill in the lesson “you can choose to be bored or you can choose to have fun” but have not had any success yet. We explored the building which was like a time capsule for 1960s Vietnam. We were able to walk all around the underground bunker.

We stayed until she couldn’t take it any more and then walked to the War Remnants museum, which catalogs the Vietnam War. We had read that it wasn’t appropriate for kids but we both wanted to go, so we decided to take turns hanging out with Millie outside of the exhibition rooms while we each walked through.

I went in first. It was horrific. There were first hand accounts from both Americans and Vietnamese people on the atrocities of the war. They didn’t hold anything back and showed images that will be burned in my mind forever. At one point I thought: this definitely isn’t appropriate for kids, but is it appropriate for me?

I especially had trouble with anything involving children. And there was a lot. They even had preserved fetuses to demonstrate the effects of agent orange.

I only took one photo because it moved me so much. It’s of a mother breastfeeding her wounded child, who is in the hospital recovering from losing limbs. There was a placard beside it written by the photographer. For some reason the detail of wanting the photo to be taken is what broke me.

I headed back to meet Nick and Millie. They had found a playroom which I assume was for this very purpose—to give kids something to do while their parents’ hearts break into a million pieces next door. We switched out and he went to the museum.

She had a great time building with blocks and dressing up. She made friends with a little Korean girl who spoke no English except for saying “Anna” and “Elsa” and singing “Let It Go”. The universal language of little girls.

On our way out we were stopped by a man missing limbs who asked us where we were from. I’ve never been more ashamed to say “America”. I’m not sure what he wanted to talk about, we were too shaken up and somewhat dismissed him (kindly, I hope).

We had an early dinner at a nearby restaurant and walked back to our Airbnb for an early night.