Viet Nam was the second country on our itinerary. A week earlier we begin our adventure in Vientiane and Luang Prabang, Laos. Vientiane was built as the country’s capital in the twelfth century. It is now a slow-paced, friendly city that boasts ancient treasures like Wat Sisaket, with its 6,840 statues of the Buddha. Then we continued onto charming Luang Prabang. Set in spectacularly lush scenery, the city is famous for the more than 30 active temples and hundreds of architectural treasures that have earned it a place on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In Luang Prabang there are many 19th-century French colonial villas mixed in with the more traditional Lao-style homes. Most place names in Vietnamese are two syllables which are contracted into one syllable in English. Since these photos are of our travels in Viet Nam I prefer to use the two-syllable names in the descriptions that follow.
Day 1 June 3, 2012: –Ha Noi
Today is our first day in Viet Nam and our schedule is a <City tour of Ha Noi> We drive through the French quarter. Our first stop was the Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese leader, and we went inside to view his preserved remains. Because we were VIPs we did have to wait for up to 4 hours on the queue to get into Ho’s mausoleum.
It’s a strange experience to see the undisguised reverence of the Vietnamese people to Ho Chi Minh. Then I have to remember I am in North Viet Nam. As an American I did the viewing as a sightseeing experience and not because of any political subjectivity. A year ago I viewed Lenin at his mausoleum in Moscow Red Square. As I viewed Lenin’s body I could swear that Lenin winked at me. Not so with Ho, he did not wink at me. Ho’s mausoleum was built by the USSR. It’s guarded by an honor guard of Vietnamese soldiers in white dress uniforms.
In his will Uncle Ho, as he is affectionately known in Viet Nam, left directions for his cremation. However, at the time of his death in 1969, the war with the U.S. was still raging and morale was low. Communist Party overrode his wishes. The embalming process was done by Russian experts. Each year in early autumn, his body is flown to Moscow for three months of maintenance.
Not far from the mausoleum is a park containing the simple stilt house where Ho Chi Minh lived and worked. Built in the style of ethnic minority dwellings, it overlooks a large carp pond. Visitors can look through the windows to see the austere furnishings and his few personal possessions. Nearby is the magnificent Presidential Palace, once the palace of the Governor-General of Indochina during the colonial period.
Also located within the park is the One Pillar Pagoda. A Hanoi landmark, the original pagoda was built by the Emperor Ly Thai Tong, who ruled 1028-54. Today's pagoda is actually a replica, because the original structure was destroyed by the French before they left Hanoi in 1954. Built of wood around a single stone pillar, it is designed to resemble a lotus blossom.
Our next stop was a visit to the <Temple of Literature>. The day we visited the Temple of Literature it was graduation day from the university. The graduating students were there to take photographs. The women were beautiful dressed in the traditional Vietnamese dress called Ao Dai. The traditional Ao Dai is worn for festive events. It is an ankle-length, embroidered silk robe slit up both sides and worn over loose pants. The men were handsome in their black suits, white shirt and tie. This being our first day in Viet Nam I cannot tell you the feeling I had when the graduates hugged us and wanted to take photographs with us. There was not one derogatory word or and feeling of recriminations. This was the first of many wonderful experiences I had. Being an American veteran who served in Viet Nam I had reservations about returning to Viet Nam. Those reservations were unnecessary. This was one travel experience I will never forget.
After lunch at a local restaurant, we visited the <Museum of Ethnology>. Viet Nam's diverse population comprises 54 ethnic groups, and the Museum of Ethnology acts as a public museum and research center. It features exhibitions ranging from priceless artifacts to such everyday objects as baskets, musical instruments and the clothing of the country's various ethnic groups. An outdoor exhibition area features ethnic minority dwellings.
We then continued our explorations of Hanoi with a walking tour through the Old Quarter. Stretching along the banks of the Red River, Viet Nam's charming capital retains much of its French colonial character. Viet Nam's history is reflected in the French-influenced public parks and tree-lined boulevards.
Viet Nam Photos Page 1