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March 30, 2007
Ho Chi Minh (Katy)
Yesterday we spent the day doing touristy things around Hanoi, mostly, in fact all, to do with Ho Chi Minh.
We started off the day by visting the Mausoleum. Well, we started the day by queing for about an hour and a half to get into the Mausaoleum. There were so many people. You can't take anything in with you so you have to check bags into a little kiosk, then go through security gates, more strict than most airports, and then we found our queue was one of two that had to merge again after security. The other one was for Vietnamese people and that was even longer than ours. Eventually we got in and filed round in silence. You're not even allowed to put your hands in your pockets.
I'm not sure what I was expecting but the whole thing was quite like Madam Tussards, Ho Chi Minh was just lying (obviously) in a glass container with dim red lights shining on him. I think you must have to be Vietnamese to appreciate it.
I was reading in the guide book that although the same became of Lenin, Ho Chi Minh actually wanted a simple cremation. I wonder what he would think if he could see all this??
Next we went to see the place where Ho Chi Minh lived and worked when he was in power. Instead of using the presidential palace, he had a small simple building with only three rooms built especially for him to live and work in. This was good to see but it seemed like every school child in Vietnam hed been taken here today.
We also visited the Ho Chi Minh Museum. This was good but very random. There were a lot of artists interpretations of different parts of Ho Chi Minhs life and the ideas he had and the things he did. I found the giant table, chairs and fruit particularly interesting...
Posted by admins at March 30, 2007 5:00 AM