Hanoi Day 2

Sunday 6 October 2019

Today started at 8.30 am with visit to Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, the presidential house that he never lived in (as he felt this separated him from the people), house 54 (where he lived from 1954 until his death in 1969), the stilt house (which was built as a surprise for him, situated on the other side of the large fish pond/lake outside house 54 and contained a bedroom and a study/office), and a reinforced house beside the stilt house where he could seek protection during the bombing of Hanoi (and where he actually died from heart disease in 1969).  House 54 and the Stilt House you could walk up and see inside but the rest were “out of bounds” and could only be photographed from the outside.  He clearly chose a simple life.               

House 54 and lake

Presidential Palace (where Ho Chi Minh never lived)  

Ho Chi Minh’s Stilt house 

Room inside Stilt house

The first part of the day involved a visit to the Mausoleum and this was heavily guarded and regulated.  No water, cameras, sunglasses, hats, no walking outside the designated lanes and no talking inside the tomb itself.  Ho Chi Minh’s body appeared remarkably well preserved given that he died 50 years ago.  There was a large number of people going through the tomb but the line moved reasonably quickly.

Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum 

Before leaving the complex we stopped at the One Pillar Pagoda which unfortunately was destroyed during the war but had been rebuilt in the 1990s (if my memory serves me correctly).  

From there we went to the Temple of Literature (the Temple of Confuscius) which was Vietnam’s first national university.  This temple is on the 100,000 Vietnamese Dong note.  It consists of 5 courtyards each dedicated to different things e.g. one was for scholars who had excelled at their studies.  Today there were a number of students gathered to celebrate finishing their secondary school years and a photographic display was on show.

Entry to 2nd Courtyard National University 

Photos showing same area before and after bombing  

Students graduating

Confucius 

Again the heat and humidity have been very high and everyone was looking hot and soaked with sweat (but the lady selling fans was doing great business!!) so it was lovely to have lunch in the cool.  We went to another KOTO restaurant and the food was excellent.  David had a Banana Flower Salad and I had a Green Papaya Salad - yummmmm.

Back to the hotel for a couple of hours down time and then out for a walk in park around the lake once the temperatures drop a little bit.

Later
Well the park walk turned out a bit noisier and interesting than just a park walk as there was a carnival on.  Vietnamese love dancing so when we first went through the area, there were lots of students doing dance routines to loud music.  There were also thousands of people taking the same stroll, street vendors, kids and adults playing games, mini-vehicles with kids driving them.  It was heart-warming to see so many people having a good time.  Although we did walk partly around the “park” (actually a lake) but most of the activity was on the wide adjoining road which was blocked off to traffic for about 3 blocks.  We carried on through some back street markets and when we circled back to the road again, the “carnival”was about to start.  This was a short but very loud and colourful procession.

 And the kids in tiny motorised vehicles - high risk to shins and calves !

Tomorrow morning its off early to Halong Bay and an overnight stay on the boat so will not have a chance to update the blog tomorrow.  Will add something on Wednesday night when we get back if we can and then its off to Singapore on Thursday morning!