My last day of my trip to Hanoi Vietnam was a tour to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and its nearby attractions. After breakfast at the hotel I took a taxi that brought me direct to the mausoleum. I have to deposit my bag before I can enter the mausoleum, that turned out to be inconvenient since coming out from the building I have to follow the route that passes all the attractions before I can get back my bag that contains the camera. So I have to retrieve back my camera, and return to where the exit point of the mausoleum by passing by Ba Dinh square front of the mausoleum.
The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum is located at the center of Ba Dinh Square erected on the site where Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence. The building is 21.6 m height and a 41.2m width square, and is modeled after the Mausoleum of Lenin in Russia. No picture taking is allowed while inside and took only minutes since you will be continuously walking while viewing the preserved body in a dim lighted glass case. The mausoleum hall is protected by military honor guards and strictly enforce no hands in the pockets, crossed arms, and hands on the back policy.
The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
The exit door of the mausoleum leads to the complex where Ho Chi Minh stays and hold office as the country's president. While being president he refused to stay in the Presidential Palace, once the palace of the Governor-General of Indochina during the colonial period. Instead he live in a simple stilt house overlooking a large carp pond. The presidential palace is not open to the public, but the stilt house is. Visitors are allowed to look through the windows and viewed the interiors. Also in the compound are buildings were he received and entertains dignitaries. The garage that contains his presidential cars can be viewed here too.
The Presidential Palace
The stilt house
Uncle Ho study room
Uncle Ho bedroom
Buildings part of the presidential compound
Uncle Ho used cars in a garage display
Just outside of the presidential complex gates, is the One Pillar Pagoda. The present one is just a rebuilt of the original constructed in 1049. The One Pillar Pagoda is built of wood on a single stone pillar designed to resemble a lotus blossom. It is a cultural and historic relic for Vietnam. Legend says that it was built by King Ly Thai Tong in honor to the goddess Quan Am, after the goddess appeared in his dreams handing him a son while seated on a lotus flower. As the king was already old and childless with no successor, then took a farmer girl as concubine and later bore a son just as forecasted by the goddess. Deeply grateful, the king built the pagoda.
Adjacent to the pagoda is the Ho Chi Minh Museum. The building was conceptualized together with the mausoleum. This lotus inspired building was inaugurated on the occasion of 100th birthday of Ho Chi Minh. The museum displays personal items and photos from Ho Chi Minh's life.
Main stair that lead to the first hall where the Ho Chi Minh statue is standing tall
The Lenin Park
typical Hanoi street
The Flag Tower
