Our day began early with a 5:30 am pick up by our local guide Thuan. It was still dark and we each boarded a cyclo—a bicycle that has a seat on its front. The driver pedals and basically pushes you along. The streets were quiet for Hanoi, but there was still some traffic. Since we were low to the ground and going relatively slowly, it was a unique experience as we nipped in and around scooters and cars playing what felt like dodge-em. But what a way to connect with the city coming slowly to life! Street vendors setting out their goods–chestnuts, peanuts, cabbages, cuts of meat—noodle cafes arranging doll-size tables and stools on the sidewalk, group after group of people young and old playing badminton on a continuous line of courts and nets.
Our first destination was Ho Chi Minth’s Mausoleum to see the flag raising ceremony. Before sunrise, the building is lit with a rosy pink light. The plaza was still and serene and we watched the guards in their bright white uniforms check that the pulleys on the 29 meter high flagpole worked and then clean the platform around the pole. At just before 6:30 am, martial music blared from speakers up high and soldiers and a color guard marched out in perfect formation. To the playing of the national anthem, the red flag with a bright yellow star in the center was raised. By this time, a small crowd had gathered to watch.
From the flag raising, we went to a small restaurant where we queued up for some traditional pho–Vietnamese rice noodle soup with slivers of beef, scallions and cilantro sprigs. Wonderfully warming and tasty. The hearty ones among us added hot sauce and or slivered hot peppers. This was our first food of the day! Next we sampled some Vietnamese coffee at a small cafe. It’s made with condensed milk and served in a cup over a small candle and tastes a bit like hot chocolate, unctuous and rich. The green tea we tried was also bracing.
We were allowed a short respite at our hotel before setting out again. this time by car. to return to the mausoleum and the Ho Chi Minh Presidential Palace Area. The line to enter the mausoleum was very, very long, but moved quite quickly so the wait was bearable. Ho died in 1969 and had wanted to be cremated with his ashes spread in 3 different parts of the country, but Vietnam was not yet unified so he was preserved instead. A bit strange to see the body, but we did it.
From there, we toured the lovely grounds, a botanic garden really, surrounding Ho Chi Minh’s house and also the Ho Chi Minh Museum which opened in 1990. For the Vietnamese people, Ho is a real hero, the liberator of their country, and called affectionately in some exhibits,”Uncle Ho.” For an American who remembers the 1960’s, he was the enemy. But times change and nations revise their views; the U.S. has had formal diplomatic relations with Vietnam since 1995.
Other stops on our day’s sightseeing included the Temple of Literature, very Chinese in architecture with layers of gates leading in to a large statue of Confucius and slightly smaller seated statues of his four best students. This temple dates back to 1070 and was, in effect, Vietnam’s first university which trained and gave exams to budding scholars.
After a very tasty lunch of fried rice with chicken and the beef roll sampler plate at Koto, which also runs a cooking school, we then headed for the “Hanoi Hilton” or Hoa Lo Prison where the French held and tortured Vietnamese political prisoners. It is a dismal, depressing place to say the least. It is also where American POWs, including John McCain, were held during the Vietnam War. The two small rooms devoted to the American POWs portray how humanely they were treated—and, at least compared to how the French treated their prisoners, they were. Senator McCain returned in 2000 to visit the prison.
The last stop of the day was the Vietnamese Women’s Museum which we chose partly because tomorrow is International Women’s Day (March 8). The museum is only 7 years old and very nicely done. It covers the significant contributions women made politically and on the home front during the struggle for liberation and the Vietnam War and portrays the other roles women play as wives and mothers.
There are beautiful exhibits on marriage, motherhood, fashion, and the worship of the mother goddess. An upbeat ending to what was a very full day!
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