Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Rickshaws!

Today, with temperatures of 30 C Plus, we headed out to the Ho Chin Minh Mausoleum.  This is a huge park area, with strict security control rules and a true sense of pride in a man who believed in the Vietnamese people and lived a simple life as they did.  After his death, and contrary to his wishes, his remains were preserved and his body now lies "in state" in a huge pyramid type building.  We lined up in the heat but were fortunately expedited through the queues and did not wait too long.  We filed, double file, past the body and then out to the State Palace house and gardens beyond.  Uncle Ho, as some call him now, never wanted to live in this palace and so built a small, simple wooden house on the nearby grounds.  When state visitors come, there are receptions in the big house, and the governments are asked to bring (send) a gift of a native tree to be placed in the surroundings.  This area was lovely to see and his simple life and beliefs came to light.
 

  

After this visit we returned for lunch and then were invited to partake of a rickshaw ride through the streets of the city -with all the other crazy mopeds, scooters, cars whizzing by us!

It was a fabulous way to experience all the traffic, with someone else doing the driving and knowing exactly what to do!  We saw the lake-side, the suicide bomber monument, the Turtle temple (where there are still 300 year old turtles in the lake beside), and went down all the tiny little streets where there were vendors of absolutely anything!  From raw meat to flowers, boiled eggs to flowers, pots and pans to silks and shoes, vegetables to breads and so much more.  The stalls were shoulder to shoulder and sellers sold from their house fronts.  Children, women and men were all crouched on the ground, next to produce or goods laid out on the street and working at preparing the produce in some way - cutting flower stems, polishing shoes, stripping fruits and vegetables of their husks, cooking the meats.  It was fascinating to see, all the while more scooters and mopeds whizzing by and nearly careening into the vendors and us!

 

We're off to Ha Long Bay tomorrow - some beautiful world heritage UNESCO rock formations anc caves to see - home of James Bond's "bad guy" in Tomorrow Never Dies.  We will spend a night on a wooden junk and enjoy the famous sunset and surroundings.  Have to be up and out by 7 AM so will sign off now!

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