The day dawns rainy, grey and dreary. But we’ve no choice – we must go visit the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum today – or never. The museum is closed Monday and Friday, so rain be damned – we’re going. After another lovely breakfast…
…they arrange a taxi over to the mausoleum complex. We figured we’d spend the better part of the day in that area, exploring the Presidential Palace grounds, then maybe lunch or something before grabbing a cab back to the to hotel. The cab costs of 60,000VND to get to the Palace – it is a lot further than it looks on the map. Glad we decided not to try to hoof it over here.
On the way we pass all the gardens and the park with the Lenin statue – all of which are undergoing a transformation with new flowers being planted and lights and decorations for the New Year’s celebration coming up next month. These parks are a bright spot of color on a gray and dreary day.
The cab drops us off across the street from the Mausoleum. We’ve read about the drill – you can’t take anything inside with you, no back packs, cameras, etc. But they also tell you not to leave money, valuables, gold or other things in your back pack. Ok – so we prepare accordingly. I have all our money in a ziplock back in my pocket, plus credit cards and photo ID. Also in my pocket is my phone. Ed has his wallet and phone – and that’s it. We’ll check the pack with my purse, umbrellas and etc., at the luggage check.
According to plan, we go through security, they stop me and tell me to take the pack to the luggage check, which I dutifully do. Then we go out and walk through the covered (thankfully) walkway that leads to the station where the guards will escort you into the mausoleum. As we are standing in line, I realize that the ladies around me all have their purses and many people have umbrellas as well. What? Guess they’ve relaxed the rules since our tour books were published! Well, bummer. But then again, except for the umbrellas, I don’t really care – all our valuables are with us and it is less to carry. The line only takes about 5 minutes before the guards come and escort us down the walkway, along the parklike setting and into the front of the mausoleum.
There are all sorts of rules for visiting the crypt too – don’t put your hands in your pockets, no photography, hats must be taken off, appropriate clothing is required (not a problem today for sure!) and signs also tell you not to talk (or smile, not quite sure what that pictogram was all about). We are ushered into the building, up the stairs and then into the crypt where Uncle Ho is kept. There are guards everywhere who keep you moving through the mausoleum at a good clip – no loitering here. So it is sort of hard to really take in the body of Ho Chi Minh, because you’re being herded through so quickly – but what you can digest is really really sort of creepy weird. I mean his body is laying there in that glass “Aquarium” like sarcophagus thing, looking like the day he died – which was how many years ago? 1969! I know he is revered, but honestly, this is just creepy – it’s not a wax model – it’s a body (one that is shipped to Russia every year for “maintenance”). A must see…but still a very odd experience.
Once out of the creepiness, we wander along the beautiful parklike setting with colorful flowers and trees of every type.
I want to go out front and take the iconic picture of the mausoleum with the Vietnamese flag, but it is just too drizzly and icky to be bothered. So I settle for the back of the building with the cool Bonsai Trees and rock formation instead.
Then, we pay our $2 each to go tour the Presidental Palace (the mausoleum visit was free). The Palace is a gorgeous over the top building that is painted a vibrant yellow and backed by beautiful parklands called “mango alley” which was supposed to be a favorite strolling place for Uncle Ho. The Palace housed Uncle Ho’s offices, and today houses the current offices of the President and is used for official receptions.
We meander down the path skirting the beautiful lake, and wander past the garage where Ho’s cars are housed.
Then past the little house where he worked and lived.
Last stop is the stilt house where Ho also lived on and off, at least according to some historical documents. But that fact seems to be in dispute because the stilt house would have been a huge target for American bombers. At any rate, it is an excellent example of a wonderfully preserved traditional stilt house.
Back around the lake and over the bridge that has a sign instructing “don’t stop on bridge” – um – ok – we head toward the Presidental Palace exit ..
.. and onto the one pillar pagoda.
It’s a really interesting structure, built on – yes you guessed it – one pillar. One of the original Vietnamese Emperor’s built the Pagoda in 1049 after his son was born to express his gratitude to the Goddess of Mercy. It is said to resemble a lotus blossom (because the Goddess of Mercy was seated on a lotus blossom when the Emperor met her – in a dream). Anyway, the current Pagoda is a reconstruction because the French destroyed the original as one of their final acts when quitting Hanoi in 1954. It’s still really cool, and inside there is a shrine with lots of incense and offerings, and local Vietnamese praying there.
After walking around the Pagoda, we head toward the museum. We have to be back at the luggage claim before 11:30, and it is still pretty early, so we have time. The museum is another $2 each – and while the guidebooks say no photography and no backpacks are allowed – we waltz right in with everything, and no one says a word about our photo taking.
We should have probably hired an English speaking guide, because we don’t necessarily understand everything, but we figure it out as we go. The first floor is sort of boring – just a collection of pictures with very little English translations focusing on the constitution and all the different congresses throughout the years. Then on the landing of the 2nd floor is this awesome Ho Chi Minh statue…
… this gives us a little taste of what’s to come. The top floor is a cornucopia of amazing artistic displays that depict (sometimes rather bizzarely) the history of Vietnam. You start out looking at this great bronze lotus pond with a little shack behind it…
… then you move on to what I’m calling the fun house. It’s a series of glass walls that wind you in and around a little area – complete with mirrors so you never quite know where you are or what’s coming next. Each wall is made up of individual photos squares that depict building, farming, and Ronald McDonald? Your guess is as good as ours!
Moving through the floor, the artwork and creativity of each display is incredible. Even though we don’t get half of what it means, just looking around is a sight to behold. It is a masterpiece of intermixed materials and style.
Back outside, it is still icky and rainy, so we march over to the luggage collection window for our back pack….and this is when you have heart failure as the girl looks and looks and looks and takes forever to finally find the pack….even though we’ve taken the most important things out, its still nerve wracking to think it might be missing! Backpack snuggly on my back, we head out onto the plaza in front of the mausoleum, looking for a taxi. There is a queue across the street and one of the guys comes up and grabs us – so off we go. The guy uses the meter, so we’re not concerned – at first. We head off into the crazy road traffic, and as we pass down the avenue, there are cops and a woman walking a moto across the sidewalk. I can’t see it, but then Ed says there was a guy laying in the street quite obviously dead and the driver confirms it. Then the driver says “no moto, bad. No moto,” and shakes his head. Couldn’t agree more!
Off we zoom through the city, with the driver in very, very broken English giving us a tour of the different buildings and slowing down so I could take a picture of the Lenin statue in the park.
He takes us a different way back and I start to get a little concerned, A) because I’m not 100% certain we are going the right way, and B) that damn meter is fixed! it started out at 50 and it is now up to 150,000 – which there is no way. 60,000 VND is what we’re paying, regardless of what that meter says. So finally I get my bearings and realize that we are in the right place. The driver pulls up 2 blocks short and asks if that’s ok. Sure. How much? 150,000. No, we say, 60,000. I hand over a 100,000 (first mistake!) and the guy says no, 150,000. I say no, 60,000, give us 40,000 back. No, he says as he keeps pointing to the money in my wallet. Nope – not getting anymore buddy. Then he puts a 10,000 on the back of the seat and keeps pointing to our money. I keep saying no, we need more back. And then I finally get it – he is trying to tell me I only gave him 10,000 not 100,000. But he doesn’t speak good enough English to make it work! So, I just start laughing a bit and said no – forget it – keep the money. And we got out of the car. He beeped at us and rolled up next to us and said more money. I just said no, you’ve got more than enough. He half heartedly tried again, then just drove off. Ack! Always the scam. But it was mostly my fault because I should have had 60,000 exactly, and not 100,000. Always a problems when you get big bills from the ATM. Then the 2nd mistake I made was not taking his 10,000 and just saying thank you and getting out of the car. LOL.
Oh well. Live and learn. We troop back to the hotel and figure we’ll just hang out for a bit, but luck was with us there – it begins to pour. And I mean pour cats and dogs. The rain is so heavy you can’t see out the window. So we make it a hotel day – Ed wanders the Internet and I blog! It worked out pretty well!
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