Travel Blog Chapter 8: Father Ho, beautiful sunsets and letters

The next day in Hanoi was spent visiting all the main attractions. We visited the Ho Chi Minh memorial palace, Ho Chi Minh museum, the palace where the imperial scholars had their exams, Hoan Kiem lake, the tourist attractions surrounding the lake and went to a few interesting places to eat.

The Mausoleum

Posing from a distance from the Mausoleum

The military guard

We started off very early in the morning and after our breakfast we went to the Ho Chi Minh memorial palace where they preserved Ho Chi Minh's body after he died on 2 Sept 1969. According to what I studied in university, the story behind the embalming was this. The Soviets wanted Vietnam to honor their leaders the same way that they honored Stalin so a mausoleum was built for Ho, modeled after Stalin's mausoleum in Russia. There were political reasons behind that initiative during then. So there we were, queung up to enter the mausoleum. We had to surrender our cameras and handphones a sthere were no electronic device allowed inside the mausoleum. The military guard "encouaged" our pace into the masoleum and we were forced to walk quickly into the cold chamber where Ho Chi Minh was. It was an interesting sight as from the distance he looked almost live in the coffin that he was lying in. We were in and out in less than 5 minutes. Not a lot of personal time to appreciate the father of modern day Vietnam.

The Ho Chi Minh museum

Posing in front of the museum

Souvenir shops around the museum

The old palace

After that, we proceeded to the Ho Chi Minh museum where I was rudely singled out as a foreigner. There was no identification check but I somehow looked foreign to the guard at the entrance. As such, I had to pay to get in while the Vietnamese were able to get in free. I wasn't pissed about having to pay more than I was irritated that I was singled out because I looked foreign. Must be the beard or something.

Venue for imperial scholar exams

statues with French or Greek influence, I'm not sure

Had our lunch at a posh Vietnamese/french restaurant. I was seriously underdressed. My Vietnamese friends were dressed in shirt and pants while I was in my t-shirt and bermudas. It was a buffett restaurant and the women were all dolled up while the men were dressed in their best. The food was simply delicious and it cost around 20 USD at best. Really worth it considering it was pretty classy.

By the main road in Hanoi

By this time of the trip, my charger was damaged and I had to find a way to get a new charger. My handphone just wouldn't charge properly. At the same time, there was something wrong with my camera. The batteries seemed to run out really fast. It would get worse during the rest of the trip. Anyway the rest of the evening was spent looking for a post office for me to post a post card to a friend in Singapore. I would realize later that she only got the postcard 3 weeks later when I was in Laos. Slow postal service. On the streets that day I struck up a conversation with an English man. He was teaching English in Vietnam and had been living there for around 8 months. He had met a Vietnamese woman and fell in love with her. But it seemed that the relationship wasn't working out and she wasn't reciprocating. So he was planning to move out of Vietnam soon. His heart was broken he shared and he wanted to go to maybe Singapore or Malaysia after that to find employment. Interesting story.

Youth culture in Hanoi

Skaters tearing up the streets

beautiful sunset in Hoan Kiem Lake

Sky growing dark

Visitor attractions around Hoan Kiem Lake

Went to Hoan Kiem lake in the evening, beautiful place and watched the sunset there. Went back to the old quarters and did some shopping before heading back home for dinner with my vietnamese family. Now, the difference between South Vietnam and North Vietnam was that in North vietnam, the people were more formal and polite in their behavior. I felt like I was living in a Japanese/korean family. The language was different as well. Thank you is pronounced as "Gam On" in Saigon while in Hanoi it was"Gam Ooon". In fact it sounded so different that I thought they were speaking in another language. My South Vietnamese friend had trouble understanding them sometimes.

Another thing I found out was that in communist Vietnam, the government workers were paid very little but accommodation would be provided by the government. the family I lived with worked for the government and they have a very nice house situated in the middle of Hanoi, opposite the French embassy. It was 4 storey high and seriously look posh. People would rather work for the private sector in Vietnam due to the marginalized salary in the public sector. The food was more bland as well. Healthier I guess, compared to Saigon. And the thing about Vietnamese is that they enjoy pork fats. They would consume the whole thing while in Singapore, you usually separate the fats from the lean meat. All these took some time to get used to.

That night, we prepared for our trip to Halong Bay the next day. We were going to leave early and hence had an early rest. I was in dreamland very quickly.