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Today is the day my tour officially starts. We'd all met the night before in the hotel and had dinner together, I had the best chicken and cashew nut I've ever eaten. We had a jam packed day ahead of us and first stop was a visit to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum or as the locals like to call him, Uncle Ho. We're picked up by the tour bus and driven to the mausoleum in about 10 minutes, it had taken me close to 30 when I walked it the previous day in the 37 degree heat. We join the queue to visit uncle Ho but are ushered past many of the locals like celebrities but our egos are brought down to earth shortly after as we have to wait in what little shade there is for a few moments. We happen to see a changing of the guards which was cool to see but nothing dramatic. It's nothing like Buckingham palace. The queue resumes shuffling into the mausoleum and we're reminded of the house rules: No standing, no cameras, no liquids (water bottles line the queue path), no large bags, arms by your side and not in pockets, folded or otherwise, conservatively dressed. My midriff sequined number was still drying in my room so T-shirt and shorts was the order of the day.
The queue moves a decent pace as we shuffle into the mausoleum, up some stairs and into the chamber and there he lay, Uncle Ho. The leader of the independence movement in Vietnam, first against French colonialism and then against the American "imperialists". Uncle Ho's wishes for his remains after his death was that he wanted to be cremated and his ashes split in 3 and be placed in the 3 main regions of Vietnam (North, Central and South) but the leaders at the time thought it better to have him stuffed and mounted, in a way. They had his body embalmed and put on display, much like Lenin is in Moscow. Once a year they send him back to Russia for a touch up. He looks very pale but I guess that's what happens when you've been embalmed for 50+ years and had no sun. RIP unkie Ho.
A short walk from the mausoleum are a few other significant sites of Hanoi. We popped into the presidential palace grounds for a wander where we see the house the Ho lived in. He was offered the palace itself to live in however saw that it was too much for just him (he was single and chose not to marry) and had a small house on stilts built. Great for keeping cool in the heat. He used the palace for official functions and such. In the grounds you can also see the 3 cars he owned. 2 were gifts from the Soviets and 1 was a gift from the Vietnamese of New Caledonia. We also popped by the one pillar pagoda which I'd seen the previous day.
Our next stop was a visit to the museum of literature. The Vietnamese have had a big Chinese influence over its 4000 year history and the museum of literature is a perfect example. This is where many of the old king's mandarins learnt their trade. Lunch today was a short walk from the museum to a restaurant called Koto. The restaurant was opened by a Vietnamese Australian in 1999 to teach disadvantaged kids work and life skills. Many of the past staff are now working across the country and Asia in hotels and restaurants. After lunch we take a taxi to the "Hanoi Hilton" which was used up until about 20-30 years ago. It was also the prison used to house some POW's, most famous of all was American senator John McCain. His A4 was shot down over Hanoi during the American/Vietnam war. The prison was also used to house political dissidents
We all have dinner together at some nice restaurant and walk home via the night markets. On the walk home there is a sudden gust of wind that brings a cool change and smell of rain. The stall holders quickly begin to prepare for the impending rain by packing up or covering up. Looking to the sky I can see lightning forking across the night sky. This doesn't bode well for the next day
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