Woolly says – The usual clouds were loitering in the sky but with a packed schedule I thrust my raincoat into Jo’s bag, (it’s good to be prepared here), and led the way into the busy streets. Heading in the opposite direction to the lake we found that having walked for a good ten minutes that the crowds had lessened and that the pavements were usable, we were headed across the city towards one of its most important monuments. Ho Chí Minh (also known as Nguyễn Tất Thành and Nguyễn Ái Quốc), was a Vietnamese Communist revolutionary leader who was Chairman and First Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Vietnam, Prime Minister (1945–55) and President (1945–69) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). Little is known of his early life although it is believed he was born in May of 1890 he was the much loved leader of his people and is affectionally known as Uncle Ho, following his death on 2nd September 1969 his body (against his wishes) was embalmed and construction work began on a mausoleum to house his remains. Completed in August of 1975, the building was inspired by Lenin’s Mausoleum in Moscow and stands at 21.6 (70.9 feet) in height. So basically, were going to see a body, I’m not sure that I would have it at the top of my travel list, but Jo seemed to feel it was worth going to view and who am I to argue!
Well as we’re here we might as well was my view, the structure looked most impressive as we arrived in front of it, finding the entrance was less so and having walked for a further mile we finally seemed to have succeeded.
Woolly says – The queues were ridiculous and even though we had expected them I couldn’t believe how long there actually were, luckily it was a permanently moving line, so the women would get there eventually, I meanwhile dodged my way through the thousands of feet and arrived five minutes after going through the entrance, they are positives to being small! It was quiet inside the mausoleum and chilly, everyone fell silent as they walked past Uncle Ho’s body and I have to say for a dead man he looked remarkable, with no stopping allowed I continued my game of dodge feet and found myself sat outside waiting for the women to catch up.
I’m glad we looked although it felt strange to be viewing someone who passed away so long ago, having found the mammoth head down in a bin looking for scraps, we considered our options.
Woolly says – There were two signs, one for the Palace and one for the museum, I considered the options, we see lots of palaces and as we couldn’t go in it so it seemed better to head for the second choice and see what else we could learn abut the great man of Vietnam. The pathways were heaving with people and school groups who seemed to delight in screeching and screaming at each other, the noise was horrendous, and I was glad to duck away from the crowds and take a quick look at the One Pillar Pagoda, which had been built by Emperor Lý Thái Tông, who ruled from 1028 to 1054. According to the court records, the Emperor was childless and dreamt that he met the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who handed him a baby son while seated on a lotus flower. Lý Thái Tông then married a peasant girl that he had met, and she bore him a son. The emperor constructed the temple in gratitude for this and having been told by a monk named Thiền Tuệ to build the temple using one pillar in a lily pond, he did exactly that. It was small but really pretty and having admired it for a few minutes we continued towards the large modern building that housed the museum.
Having acquired our tickets, we decided to start on the ground floor, I’d just managed to read the first information board to Woolly when the school groups arrived.
Woolly says – The noise was unbearable, and I could see Jo’s teacher brow furrowing as children started running everywhere completely ignored by the teachers in charge, we moved onto the next board and found ourselves surrounded by a large group, so giving up on that section we walked across to the other side of the exhibit and started looking at photographs of Ho Chi’s life. Mere moments passed before the chaos descended on us again and thinking to beat the schools we fled up to the second floor in the hope of seeing that before the mobs arrived, the floor was set out in a circular tour and given a modernist approach which was fascinating, as we contemplated the first display the schools arrived and somehow I got swept along in the melee…….
It was atrocious, as five and six year olds pushed and banged into us I lost my small friend and just hoped he would find a safe place to sit until I could find him. I tried to look at the exhibits, but it was impossible, and I had no understanding of what was being shown as child after child raced past screaming at the top of their lungs. I took a few pictures, so we could have a look later and concentrated on finding the furry one.
Woolly says – ….. I was being kicked and booted around and being unable to make myself heard over the row I scooted under a huge white chair and sat shaking, hoping that Jo would appear.
I’d managed to find an area which was currently child free and displayed a giant table and chairs along with a sized fruit which was showing Uncle Ho’s belief in being responsible for peace and the environment when I heard a whimpering, looking under one of the chairs I found my small friend, shaking and distressed.
Woolly says – I leapt into Jo’s arms and suggested that we find Zoe and get the hell out of the place, Zoe looked as pale as I felt and having navigated the hoards getting to the exit we set our sights on the gates and pushed our way out of the complex. Crossing the busy road seemed a doodle after that and having found a café we sat in silence for several minutes looking at each other. Big mugs of tea calmed our nerves and we all agreed that we had seen little and learnt nothing from the museum and that schoolteachers needed to control their pupils, it wasn’t an experience we wanted to repeat. Feeling less jangled we started to walk around the perimeter of the complex and through the botanical gardens which were quiet and peaceful and made us all feel better. A small bar provided us with food and by the time we had eaten we felt able to continue to our last destination of the day.
The whole museum experience had shaken us quite badly as well as leaving us exhausted, hoping that our final exhibition might be child free we set off.
Woolly says – The Military History Museum had been established in 1956 and was not only home to all things war related but also had a lovely flag tower which had stood on the sight since 1805. The first part of the exhibition told us about the general history of war in Vietnam and having looked around it seemed that the country had been at war pretty much all the time since the 3rd century BC until 1976. Busts of leaders from early centuries stood proudly on their plinths with fierce staring eyes, not to be messed with given the looks they were giving me. Climbing up to the first floor took us through the French revolution and the Vietnam war with hundreds of photographs and rifles to inspect, it was really well laid out, but with little in English it didn’t take long to look round. Outside had by far the best parts, with cannons, anti-aircraft weapons, tanks, armoured cars and aeroplanes it was wonderful. One huge exhibit stood out which was of a planes tail fin pointing skywards and the remains of many other others made into one pile, all American aircraft that had been shot down in the war, it made quite a statement. Having been told off for climbing on the tanks and attempting to get into one of the helicopters, I thought it was an amazing playground, shame that Jo didn’t agree with me!
It was a very good museum and had been well worth a visit but with drops of rain starting to hit us it seemed like a good time to head back to the digs and pack our bags ready for tomorrow’s flight.