Day 3 Hanoi – Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, temple of literature and water puppets!
Got up to rain today but still warm. We are at the end of the rainy season. We set off in the pink bus to the mausoleum and all followed Hieu, the pied piper, into the complex. The mausoleum was closed for renovations – ? Re-stuffing? but we walked round the grounds of the presidential palace ( now offices), seeing Ho Chi’s little house in the grounds and his house on stilts next to the carp pond. He lived very simply for a man of his stature. The banyan and many other tropical trees were amazing. We also saw 3 cars given to Ho Chi Minh – 2 from Russia and one from France. Despite the weather it was beautiful. We then climbed back aboard the pink bus and proceeded just down the road to the temple of literature. Here we were outnumbered by hundreds of students taking graduation photographs. They take the photos before they graduate from the 40 universities in Hanoi. When i asked why so many our guide said each one was a specialist in a subject. The pagoda style roofs made it seem very oriental and here people worshipped Confucious. They all prayed to make sure they past their exams – for luck basically. There were many shrines to Buddha so many photo opportunities. We were then dropped off at the hotel for our free afternoon. I had time to go for a ‘snack’ which turned out to be a huge plateful of fried chicken cooked in ginger with the obligatory sticky rice – the chicken was on bits of bone and there was skin so this meant i had to pick my way through for the lean meat. Having said that it was delicious! I then set off to the lotus water puppet show which was down by the lake i still don’t know the name of! The little theatre was a joy with purple velvet seats just for me! There were 3 musicians at either side of the ‘stage’ which was a shallow tank of water I’d say about 18 inches. The puppets came from behind or under, the bamboo curtain. It was amazing with men fishing in boats, women planting rice and it growing, while men ploughed the fields with oxen. There were brightly coloured ducks, a tortoise and some cranes in lovely colours but the most spectacular was a fire breathing dragon! This is peculiar to Vietnam and ought to be treasured. My ankle and knee were hurting so i got a bicycle rickshaw back to the hotel glutton for punishment in that traffic!
I collapsed in a heap on the bed until i felt up and got into a wonderful hot bath. I got out, got a beer from the mini bar. I felt hungry but didn’t want to go out so put a frock on and went down to the lounge and ordered some spring rolls and a plate of french fries with a vietnamese beer. Sophisticated or what! I then went shopping in the hotel shop and brought a second beer up to bed with me. Here endeth the lesson – off to Halong Bay tomorrow so up and out for 7.30! Long drive but looking forward to my boat trip. Night jim boy. X
Tags: Travel
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