4 Best Sights in Halong Bay and North-Central Vietnam, Vietnam

In the heart of the city, a huge shuttered French villa with creaky wooden staircases, musty corners, and occasionally rotating ceiling fans houses this museum—an underrated gem of a building that rivals the Opera House in classic design. Although it attempts to cover all of the history, geography, archaeology, agriculture, and wildlife of the region (the stuffed owl with a rodent in its claws is rather macabre), the museum's main focus is on Vietnam's struggle for independence from various forces. In recent years, the museum has closed its doors to visitors except for prearranged tours. 

As might be expected of a city whose name means "sea defense," much of Haiphong's more intriguing history is documented in the Navy Museum. Here you can see the Bach Dang stakes—the sharp wooden poles driven into the riverbed that impaled Kublai Khan's boats in 1288. A room dedicated to the Vietnam War houses a (presumably deactivated) MK-52 mine pulled from the waters of Haiphong Harbor in 1973, the lighthouse lantern that warned of impending bombing raids, and the antiaircraft gun that brought down a dozen American planes.

This temple is more than just a religious site. Nghe Temple is dedicated to Le Chan, the founder of Haiphong City, a heroic peasant woman who helped organize the popular revolt against the Chinese that was led by the two Trung sisters in AD 40. Ceramic reliefs at the top of the front wall depict the Trung sisters in royal carriages. Ancestral altars and chapels are to the right, through the courtyard.