2/12/2020

 2/12/2020

I got in another run early around Hoan Kiem Lake in the Hanoi Old Quarter amongst the early rising Vietnamese out for their fitness pursuits.  We hopped in a cab at 8 and went to visit “Uncle Ho”.  Sitting in the back seat, Tim and I both had a pineapple tucked into the side storage bins, which I suspected to be the Vietnamese version of an air freshener.  Ho Chi Minh is embalmed and in state in a large marble building guarded by solemn Vietnamese army soldiers in their dress whites.  The grounds were spectacular and well groomed, we even saw some grass being shorn by hand with scissors.  Bamboo and shrubs adorn the walk up to the mausoleum.  

The atmosphere is quite reverent to the hero of the Vietnamese communist revolutionary cause.  We were asked 1. To take our hands out of our pockets 2. Shusshed to be quiet 3. Told not to cross our arms, and of course there’s no picture taking inside the shrine to Ho, as he lies there in a glass coffin under the star of Vietnam, the hammer and sickle, and guarded on all 4 sides by what must be hand picked Vietnamese soldiers.  

On the way out of the mausoleum area, we passed the Presidential Palace and the “House on Stilts” where Ho did a bunch of his writings.  Also checked out the Bao Tang Ho Chi Minh Museum which housed a lot more letters and photos from the Vietnamese cause and revolutionary efforts.  

Next, we walked through the bustling, scooter swarmed streets to the Temple of Literature, which resembled a mini version of the Chinese Forbidden City, with a lot of significant relics honoring ancient wisdom and Confucius.  

On the way out of there, we had lunch at a street food place, and only 4 of us were interested in the setting of small plastic chairs and tables and food prepared on the street.  However, it was yummy, fast, unique and fun.  

Gaining our navigational  reference once again, we set off for the Hanoi Hilton which has a much longer tradition of atrocities than I had earlier imagined.  Prior to our Vietnam war and POW incarceration, the French carried out similar atrocities on the Vietnamese who resisted their rule.   However, the French treatment was vilified at the museum, and the message about the POWs was of their humane treatment.  Propaganda BS to a sickening level of deceit.  

Water Puppets where I snoozed mostly, but it was a cool traditional show nevertheless. 

It is a must to observe the video of me try