Despite spending three nights in Hanoi, I really only had one day to see the sights. The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex is one of the top places to visit.
The Vietnamese LOVE Ho Chi Minh and lovingly refer to him as "Uncle Ho." Between 8 and 11 a.m., visitors can see the body of Uncle Ho laying in his glass sarcophagus inside his mausoleum. Despite his request for a simple cremation, his body rests here, protected by multiple armed guards. I have to say, for someone who died in 1969, he looks pretty good. I heard his embalmed corpse is regularly transported to Russia for maintenance.
The process of viewing Uncle Ho was very orderly. Cameras and bags are not allowed inside the mausoleum. They also prohibit people from wearing sunglasses, hats or shorts. Talking is not allowed. Visitors march in two orderly lines past the armed guards and into the complex, which is lined with more guards. Visitors are marched quickly past the sarcophagus and then out the building.
I also toured Ho Chi Minh's stilt house where he lived during the last 11 years of his life. The Presidential Palace is next to Uncle Ho's house. Visitors can see the palace but cannot enter. Sorry, I don't have any pictures. My camera was still being held hostage from my visit to the mausoleum.
The Ho Chi Minh museum is also inside the complex.
The exhibits are oozing with love for Uncle Ho. Many of the exhibit plaques were in Vietnamese. Those that I could read included phrases like "the destructive war of the Americans" and invoked a similar emotional response to how I felt at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City.
This is the world's cutest Vietnamese boy climbing the steps to a pagoda inside the complex.
A quiet moment near the Temple of Literature.
I was excited to visit The Temple of Literature to learn more about Confucianism and its influence on the Vietnamese people. The temple was built to pay tribute to Confucius, his scholars and other individuals with high academic achievements. It is also Vietnam's first university. None of the English speaking guides were available, so I bought the written pamphlet for about 25 cents. I left without learning much about the temple. I'll have to read more about it later. Nonetheless, it was a pretty area to walk around and it had some neat architecture.
It was graduation day, so many students were having their picture taken inside the temple grounds.
I felt like a weird stalker taking their picture too, but the dresses were just so beautiful.
The women had on these beautiful silk, colorful dresses.
I reached the height of my stalking with this picture I took from one of the second floor windows. The yellow dress was just so gorgeous. I suppose it is a good thing that I was a little embarrassed to take the picture.
An ancient bell.
All I could think of with the red roofs was the movie, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." I believed it was filmed in China, but these Chinese-influenced buildings looked very similar to those in the movie.
I should have sat down with some green tea and read a book.
KOTO is the restaurant to go to if you are near the Temple of Literature, but it had a long wait. I ended up wandering back to Quan An Ngan where I ate the other night. This time I had banh hoi new muong cuon banh trang, which is grilled pork balls with rice vermicelli. It seems anything involving rice paper and fresh herbs is good by me.
I passed a sunglasses store. I decided it was time to have a proper screw placed into my sunglasses. I had repaired them with a piece of string from one of the holy bracelet that had fallen off my wrist. I'm pretty sure I was the only person walking around wearing Kate Spade sunglasses tied together with red string blessed by a monk, but you never know. For $1, I was back in business.
After lunch, I did the walking tour in Lonely Planet. I passed an area of Hanoi famous for footwear.
The stores were packed with shoes. This store was selling "converse" shoes in just about every color and style you can imagine. Boys walking near this area repair shoes. One boy tried to glue the soles of my running shoes back together for me...while the shoes were still on my feet.
Rush hour.
Each street seemed to have clusters of stores selling the same items. Above is a shopkeeper selling nothing but buttons.
Party decorations for sale.
Belts for sale.
Rugs and mats for sale.
There was a string of shops selling hardware supplies.
I didn't expect to be surprised by any of the markets in Hanoi. As always, I found something I loved about this market--they sell the goods from the back of their bicycles.
Fresh flowers.
Across from the bicycle market was a stand selling lentils and spices.
Who doesn't love seeing a motorbike stacked with potato sacks.
Or one transporting what appears to be an oxygen tank. Call me a worry wart, but I'm pretty sure this is very dangerous, whatever it contains. I saw a few bikes transporting pig carcasses, which were slung over the back of the bike. One pig's hooves were dragging on the cement. "Excuse me, your pig carcass is dragging." I also saw a motorbike driver carrying a large bush. I really need to get the inside scoop on how they can carry these things on their bikes.
Earlier in the day I bought tickets for the Water Puppets show. Almost every tourist who passes through Hanoi, even for one day, goes to the Water Puppets Show. It only lasts about one hour and costs about $5, so it is hard to pass up. And you get to sit in air conditioning for an hour--yet another reason to go. They do about 5 shows a day, 7 days a week and sell out for most of the shows.
If you go to see the water puppets, you will most likely be a little disappointed. If you go for the music, I am pretty confident you will get your $5 worth. The sounds and instruments are all unique and the musicians are very talented.
This is one of the water puppets. I'm pretty sure they could make a horror film about these puppets.
After the show, I ate a quick dinner at my hotel, the Rising Dragon Palace Hotel. The hotel has amazing customer service (they referred to me by name each time I entered the hotel), but don't pay the price listed on the website. After dinner, I took a taxi to the train station and boarded an overnight train from Hanoi to Lao Cai to visit Sapa. The train left Hanoi at 9 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive in Lao Cai at 5:30 a.m.
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Location:Hanoi, Vietnam
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