Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi

Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum 

Gates to the 1st University in Vietnam

Could we be related?

John McCain was shot down here

Walking in the Old Town

Street Food

Beer Can Offering at the Temple

Door Man at the Metropole (have you seen Grand Budapest Hotel?)

I awakened early and went to the park at 6am to watch the people exercise. It was a delight to see. Some people were playing badminton, others were doing T’ai Chi and to me the most special was seeing the hoards of people dancing to recorded music. Some were doing ball room dancing, others were dancing more like an exercise. I strung together a bunch of short movie clips I took and you can watch them here.

Dancing

We spent the day touring Hanoi. The day started with the obligatory trip to see Ho Chi Minh. I can report he is looking a little pale. We had never seen a mummified body under glass before. I think there are only 3. Lenin, Mao and Ho Chi Minh. The body lies in a giant mausoleum. Guards dressed in the finest whites surround the building. They are very serious. There is nothing in side the building except Ho Chi Minh. No inscriptions, no music, no artifacts. You aren’t allowed to talk or take pictures. You simply somberly file through.

In the park where the Mausoleum is located there are the two small houses he lived in. They are adjacent to an underground bunker they went into when the American bombs were being dropped on them.

Our excellent guide reminded us of Vietnamese history. There is much I had forgotten and many things I didn’t know at all. Ho Chi Minh lived outside of Vietnam for considerable periods of his life, Paris, China, Russia and of all places Boston, Massachusetts.

He never married. He wasn’t a warrior he was an intellectual and. According to our guide he never fired a shot. He was the leader.

The history of Vietnam is one of continual warfare both within the country and with its neighbors. During the World War 2, Japan invaded Vietnam. The French who in Europe were fighting the Nazi’s who were Japan’s allies. However in Vietnam the Vichy French Government and the Japanese jointly ruled the country. The Japanese eventually drove the French out. After the Japanese were defeated in 1945 the French returned to take over the country. When the Vietnamese under Ho Chi Minh were successful in driving the French out, at Geneva, the country was split in two. Ho Chi Minh then led the successful war of reunification, defeating the South Vietnamese and the Americans. He did not live to see the end of the war, but died of a heart attack before the war ended. He is revered here.

The Vietnamese have a very strained relationship with the Chinese. Remember Nixon’s trip to China opening up relations between the two countries? The Vietnamese see it in a totally different way. They believe that the Chinese gave Nixon the green light to carpet bomb Vietnam. They see it as a giant sellout of Vietnam by China. After defeating the South Vietnamese and the Americans Vietnam and China went to war. It ended after a month with both countries claiming victory. There are currently territorial disputes with China. In addition, China has deployed a giant oil rig in what the Vietnamese consider there territorial waters. Recently there have been riots in Vietnam against Chinese merchants. It is so bad that the Chinese government does not allow tourists to go from China to Vietnam. They only are getting tourists from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

After visiting Ho Chi Minh, we visited several temples and walked around the old quarter.

Returning to our hotel, we packed our luggage in preparation for our departure tomorrow morning. We then had drinks, I had a massage and then we went to Dinner. We had a long discussion with our waiter about life in Vietnam. He was very nice and actually invited us to his house. We became Facebook friends. It will be interesting hearing from him.

Our guide said that most Vietnamese have Pho (the soup) only for breakfast. I wanted to have a Ban Mee (it spelled many different ways) sandwich. The guide said it is a sandwich for children, adults don’t eat them. Who knew?

A word about the Metropole Hotel. This is the finest hotel in Hanoi. It is the only hotel we have ever stayed in that approaches the lever of quality of the Taj in Mumbai (for our money the best hotel in the world). It is a special place. I am glad we will be returning here in a few days.

We have been totally charmed by Hanoi!

Tomorrow we fly to Da Nang and drive to Hoi An.