Uncle Ho's Neighborhood

One would have thought that I would have been so exhausted last night that I would have slept like a baby. Unfortunately, jet lag won out and I found myself up at 3:00 this morning. I managed to fall back to sleep just in time for the alarm to go off.

Breakfast is included as part of our hotel package. The buffet is amazing – western style breakfast like omelets, pancakes, French toast, potatoes, and bacon; traditional Asian dim-sum; meats and cheeses; fresh crêpes; a pastry bar with delicious pretzel croissants; and a huge selection of fresh fruit. I tried dragon fruit and passion fruit since we don’t normally see those fruits at home.

From there, we took a taxi to purchase tickets for our water puppet show tonight. This was the first place that wouldn’t accept our US dollars so we were forced to find an ATM machine.  10,000 VND is approximately 50 US cents. We meant to withdraw 800,000 VND but I think that we may have accidentally taken out 8 million VND. That’s probably the only time I will be able to withdraw 8 million anything from my bank account. There are too many zeros on the currency over here. It’s very confusing.

Next we took a taxi to Ho Chi Min’s mausoleum. We were hoping to get inside to see his embalmed body, but everything closes from 11:00-2:00 for lunch so we weren’t able to enter. Instead, we walked around the grounds looking at the outsides of the Ho Chi Min Museum and the presidential palace. Also located within these grounds was the One Pillar Pagoda, a replica of the original 1049 pagoda built on the same location.

The soldiers that police this area are very strict. If you get too close to an area you are not allowed to access, they quickly blow their whistles and order you away. Of course we did watch one small toddler boy take off across the plaza without any regard for the whistling solders, nor his yelling mother.

We set off on a walking tour from the mausoleum area to find the Chu Bac Church, Truc Bach Lake and West Lake. I feel very safe walking around Hanoi (although crossing the road still makes me a little nervous), but I can’t get over how dirty the city is. The pollution is terrible, and whenever we get back to the hotel I can still smell the odors of the street on my hair and clothes.

We walked between the banks of Truc Bach Lake and West Lake until we reached the Tran Quoc Pagoda, Vietnam’s oldest pagoda, which was built in the 6^th century. I meant to read up on Buddhism before coming back to Asia but ran out of time. Many of the visitors to the pagodas light incense, say prayers, and leave offerings. I did learn today that Buddha statutes have long ears because they are a sign of long life.

From there, we set off to see the Temple of Literature, a Confucius temple and center of learning built in 1070. Much of the original temple was destroyed during the French war, so the back portion was a contemporary re-construction. The temple does still house the original 82 stone stelae mounted on tortoises, which record the results of the state examination held at the National Academy between 1442 and 1779.

Right now, we’re back at the hotel resting before we set out for dinner, a tour of the Old Quarter and the Water Puppet Show. Tomorrow morning we leave early for our over-night cruise at Ha Long Bay. I’m really looking forward to getting out of the city for a bit. I’ll try to post again tonight when we get home. After that, we’ll be out of contact until Tuesday night.