Still quite a bit of catching up to do from my trip to Vietnam in October. Here are a handful of shots taken at the Vietnam People’s Air Force Museum, which sits on the eastern edges of Hanoi. A google translation: All for the protection of the skies of our Vietnamese Fatherland.

There’s a lot here that will be of interest to aircraft and history buffs, particularly the many downright odd-looking Soviet-made copters. It did have a certain appeal.

But what I mainly saw when looking at the tons upon tons of metal rusting and rotting in the heat and smog of Hanoi was the insane amounts of money mankind insists on wasting to wreak havoc upon his fellow man. Below, a few downed US planes.

The museum sits at the edge of the unused Bach Mai airfield, providing ample room for this vast junkyard. Obviously, there were many planes parked here permanently, but I found myself more drawn to the plethora of rusted support vehicles. And their awkward and colorful descriptions, like the one describing the bulldozer below:

Bulldoger No UL-269 – This bulldoger used by 28th air field engineer battalion in building head quarters, missile, radar, shelling fighting battle fiellds, in building secret airfields participating in our airfare and air defense glorieus victories.

I arrived quite late in the day and had less than 30 minutes to rush through the museum building itself. Quite a few of the exhibits focused on the American War and included a good stock of artifacts collected before and after the victory. Here are some Object Collected From US-Puppet Bases in the South on Liberation Day.

Proletarians, Unite! How many of these countries still exist?

Ten additional shots in the slide show below. You can also view them on my flickr stream here.

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Previous posts from Vietnam October 2010:

• 17 Hours in Nghia Lo
• The Priciest Booze I’ll Never Drink (or, a note to travelers even more stupid than me)
• How much would you pay this gentleman to snap a pic of him atop his cross-eyed water buffalo?
• Hoa Lo, aka The Hanoi Hilton: an Abbreviated Tour
• I found the g-spot in Hanoi today
• Would you shop for clothes at a place called ‘Piggie Shop’?
• The Prince of Hàng Bè
• I wanted to visit Ho Chi Minh today, but he wasn’t there.
• Women of the Temple of Literature
• Klimt in Hanoi
• 45 Minutes in Sapa’s Central Market
• Vietnam, Northern Highlands
• Wine (Good for Women)