My Travels: Hanoi, Vietnam (Part 3)

We did a lot more of our third day in Hanoi, as it was finally the one day that we had the whole day to the city. The other two days prior were really just half days.

Anyway, much to the cringe of the boy, I woke him up early on a Sunday so that I could go to all the places that I have planned.

First stop, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.

HCM Mausoleum

Located in Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi, the place was packed when we got there and we weren't even late. The museum was only opened for half the day on a Sunday and best of all, it's free entry :). There wasn't just foreign tourist that was crowding the place, but also locals and students. That's a good sign though. It's always nice to see locals at tourist attractions.

School Children

Photography is prohibited in the area and there were also very strict dress code. No shorts or skirts and no bare shoulders. Fine by me, it was pretty cold that day anyway! But they were also pretty strict when it came to social etiquettes too. All couples were prohibited from holding hands and had to walk in lines of 2. Straight lines. That I felt... well, maybe a little too strict. It wasn't like anyone was making out or anything.. Oh well, when in Rome, do as the Romans do :).

The mausoleum is closed for a couple of months every year, in October and November when Mr Ho travels to Russia for preservation work. It was quite a surreal experience to see a deceased person lying on a bed in a room. We could only see him for about a minute as it was a moving line that goes around his bed. Surprisingly, Ho Chi Minh had actually expressed wish to be cremated but instead was preserved...

Right next to the Mausoleum is the Presidential Place as well as the Ho Chi Minh Museum, which of course, to enter incurred a fee. But what I was disappointed with was that we had wanted a tour guide, but you could see how reluctant they were when they found out that there was only 2 of us. Well, it was a free service and I suppose they then live on the monetary gratitude that tourist would give for their service, and seeing 2 teenage-looking Asian kids, they probably just thought it wasn't worth the time. Anyhow, I was annoyed, but only for a minute because we managed to get our hands on some brochures. But still..... one would expect that a fellow Asian would at least be a little more helpful to us. And this was our second experience here! *DAMMIT!

The Presidential Palace

The whole complex (Ho Chi Minh's Vestige In the Presidential Palace Area) consist of the Presidential Palace which was formerly known as the Indochina's General Governor Palace, The Garage of HCM's used cars, The House where HCM worked as a President in 1954-1958, The House on Stilts as well as other areas such as the pond, the Mango Road and Fruit Garden.

One of his 3 cars in the garage. My favourite of the 3 :D

Right next to the garage is the house where he worked from in 1954.

Bedroom

Dining room in the House of 1954

I found it a little sad to see that dinner was only set for one person. Does it mean that he often dined alone? Doesn't he get lonely? At least if I dined alone now, I have the company of my idiot box.

President HCM's working room

From there on, we walked past the pond to join the queue in the House of Stilts which was were President HCM worked and lived in from May 1958 until August 1969.

House on Stilts

The house was really made up with the barest necessity and had really, only 2 rooms. It showed his ways in the practical way, demonstrating the importance of simplicity and modesty.

From there on, we walked on to the shops and grabbed a quick snack at the nearby stalls which was crowded with locals. It was nice, to mingle among the locals instead of fellow tourists and try something local.

Souvenir shops

One of the cap stalls

My own personal Vietnamese bodyguard

Upon exiting the Presidential Complex, one would come across the Ho Chi Minh Museum but we diverted to the One Pillar Pagoda first.

One Pillar Pagoda

Built in the 11th century , the One Pillar Pagoda is one of the most iconic Buddhist temples in Vietman. The history behind the pagoda revolved around an emperor who was childless and dreamed that he met a Goddess who handed him a son while seating on a lotus and shortly after that he married a peasant girl who bore him a son. The Pagoda was then built to demonstrate his gratitude to the goddess. The Pagoda is built in a lotus pond, which was similiar to what he remembered from his dream.

The Pagoda's altar

Right opposite the stairs on the pagoda is another worship area which was packed with the people.

There was a practice that the locals were doing here with a knife, rice and coins in a bowl and some water, which was really interesting. I was trying to look for a sign or something to explain what it might be, but couldn't find one :(. It was really interesting!

Hhmm... would appreciate if someone could tell me what practice this might be

And off we went to the HCM Museum

Once again, it was absolutely packed!

The museum was built in accordance to the wishes of the Vietnamese people. It was designed to show their respect and gratitute to their great leader and to teach both locals and tourist about the greatness of this man. The museum was built in 1985 and was finished in May 1990. The same times that UNESCO resolution recognized him as a hero of national liberation and a great man of culture. Fee is VND 15,000.

President Ho Chi Minh

Some of the museum's exhibits :

I miss being on a trishaw!! :(

We left quite soon afer that, just walking through the museum taking in the pictures and displays. There was a lot of history in the museum, which I am sure will interest many. If only we weren't so pressed for time.

On our way out, we saw the queue for the Mausoleum.. man, and was I glad we arrived early! It was super long!

Queue to the HCM Mausoleum

And off we went to our next destination :

Temple of Literature also known as the Centre for Cultural and Scientific Activities.

At the entrance

(Fee : VND 10,000)

Built in 1070 under the reign of King Ly Thanh Thong, 4 statues of Confucius, Chow Kung and Confucius's 4 best students were carved. Being Vietnam's first university, it used to educate royaltys, noble families and other political influentials.

In the history, Confucius was born in ancient China in Shandong province and was a great educator, politician who founded Confucianism which has very strong influences in the Chinese culture. He was also very well-known as a famous teacher.

Turtle steles

What caught my eye here as the number of turtle steles. On the 'board' right above each turtle stele are the names of scholars who have passed the imperial exams as a symbol of success as the exams were very hard to pass.

Making wishes/prayers for success

Just like the wishing fountains, people leave money on the turtles for luck. Some students were also walking along all the turtle steles, touching each of them at the head for good luck.

The entrance towards the Main Hall requires us to pass through a couple of courtyards and several aches, which by the time you enter the area where the turtle steles are, it is a concrete courtyard. Moving further along will bring you to the Main Hall.

The Main Hall seemed a lot more like a Temple than a university given the altars, worship figures and the bright painted red surroundings.

Phoenix & Tortoise

The phoenix and tortoise statue on top is a popular picture in many travel guides, in which I am not sure if there's a symbolic meaning or simply because it is a pretty sight.

Mr Tortoise

Going further in *I think* will bring you to the House of Ceremonies which houses a giant Confucius statue. I'm not so sure what other Gods there was.

From there on, we hopped on to a trishaw towards St Joseph's Cathedral because we barely got to see the place yesterday and being so beautiful, it warranted a second visit. True enough, our effort was well-paid off as there were only a handful of people in the church which meant I could wander around a little.

Our ride

Traffic jam

And we finally got there!

St Joseph's Cathedral

It was an enjoyable ride from the Temple to here, as we went through small streets and that for me, was really interesting. Holidays are about exploring beyond your usual tourist-flooded areas and that was what this short ride did. *We eventually did take a much longer ride later in the day*.

Inside St Joseph's

There was no way I could have seen the beautiful inside of this church on the day before. And I was really glad we returned to take another look. Some might say that all churches look more or less the same, but not to me.. Each of them have their own uniqueness and despite how repetitive the image on the window glasses are, none of them are actually identical. But that's just me and my opinion :).

Off we go again, this time to Hoa La Prison, which is also infamously known as Hilton Hotel. Poor Hilton... the real hotel had to be named Hilton Opera Hotel in order to differentiate it from the prison, even today!

Hoa Lo Prison

Built in 1896, the prison was constructed to imprison protestors against the French colonist regime. The prison's initial capacity was to hold 500 prisoners but was continously renovated to occupy more, and by 1950s, the prison was able to hold up to 2,000 prisoners.

Life was very difficult in the prison, and was often referred as "Hell on Earth" for the Vietnamese patriots and revolunist. Everyday, prisoners were fed two meals of rotten rice, vegetables and fish. Very rarely did they have meat, and when they do, it was tough buffalo or old sow meat.

Prisoner clothes and things

Often, the prison is so crowded that the stronger prisoners would request for the weaker ones to be moved out so that they do not suffocate to death. Such is the condition of the prison.

Several times, checks were done to ensure that no revolutions was possible and in 1952, the guards forced all the prisoners to come out naked in the middle of winter for their search.

Between 1964 -1973, Hoa Lo Prison was used to detain American Pilots who were caught in Vietnam. This was how the prison got the name Hilton Hanoi. It was named by the pilots that were imprisoned here during that time.

Reading through the Hoa Lo Prison brochure that we bought from the entrance booth was very helpful as it told us a lot more than the exhibits. Most of what I've mentioned above was all from the brochure.

Leaving Hao Lo Prison

From here, we then had nothing specific to do and since it was still quite early, we decided to just wander around town just to observe the local cultures and daily activities.

And of course, we found our way to Sofitel Metropole, the most expensive and glamourous hotel in Hanoi. And man.. was it gorgeous!

Outside Sofitel Metropole

Opera House

And then from here, we hopped on to a cab which then brought us to one of the 36 streets only to have us hop on a trishaw to go around the 36 Streets in slow-mo :D. Hence, just pictures from them. I think we were on the trishaw for about a good hour an a bit.

Fruit stall

The start of our journey
*reminds me of smallers towns in Msia*

The metal street

Beep Beep! Make way. Make way.
Overload, overload!

*gasp* LEGO!!!!!!!!

Dong Xuan Market

Rattan baskets for sale

After that, we made our way back to Hoan Kiem Lake (which if anyone notices, is where we always come back to in town as it's the biggest landmark around!). Anyway, as we missed out on the Ngoc Son temple in the lake, I thought that it was only fair that it got another visit.. otherwise, it does seem quite silly to return to the lake that many times, only to have NOT seen the temple.

Entry to the temple costs VND 3,000 and needs to be bought before crossing the bridge. You may cross the bridge and not enter the temple for free. Admissions into the temple is between 8 a.m and 5 p.m.

The famous Huc Bridge

Ngoc Son Temple, aka Jade Mountain Temple was built in the eighteenth century to honour a national hero who defended Vietnam from an Mongolian army from attack. The temple is surprisingly quite big for the island that it is in, and offers a pretty good scenery from the little 'gazebos'.

Entering the main hall

The temple although had quite a few tourist, still attracts the locals. There was quite a few seniors sitting by the lake playing chess, which is a pretty common past time in the Asian community. And they are surrounded by fellow friends.. it was really nice.

One of the main altars

And of course.. where would Hoan Kiem lake be without....

Turtles are very closely related to the history of Hoan Kiem lake and it was only fair to have in the temple to pay respects to. Lucky us, we were actually able to sight one of the resident turtles in the lake that evening. Everyone was so excited and crowded along the bridge and pointed each time the turtle surfaced. I think we caught a glimpse of it twice :). Guess we were quite lucky!

Puppet guarding the door
*reminded me of the water puppet show*

Soon after that, we headed back to the hotel, which was only about 10 minutes walk to get a bit of a rest. We were both quite tired and was looking forwards to the aromatherapy massage that we had booked for that evening with the hotel. Honestly, the massage was only average and it wasn't aromatherapy as they basically just used baby oil.. but it was still quite enjoyable as I think we were both just pretty tired and ache-y.

We took a bit of a risk with dinner, deciding to head out to a street stall that we've passed every night while we were in town. It was only about 3 minutes from the hotel, just by the roadside where the tables at at knees height.

The place is always packed for dinner and it was not any different that evening. As it was our last day, if we did end up with gastro, at least we're already on our way home :). Oh.. they even have beer by the tap...

And we ordered our dinner.. *by recommendation of the staff, of course*

Stir fried beef

Stir fried squid with local vegetables

Roasted quails

Honestly, dinner wasn't as great as I hoped it was going to be but that's probably just because I was quite hyped-up about it because I see a large crowd everyday. But the food really isn't bad at all. Maybe a 7/10. *and we didn't end up with gastro :)*

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And then, it was time to go home. We had a leisurely breakfast in the hotel which by the way does have really pretty good breakfast, especially the pho/glass noodle soup.

With our ever reliable guide book

The yummy glass noodle soup :)

Breakfast selections

As our flight was only departing in the afternoon, I took the opportunity to walk around the hotel, visiting little shops - mainly souvenirs though and taking photos. There was quite a few handicraft/drawings/paintings that I would have loved to get for myself, only that I don't actually have anywhere to put them. They would look really nice in the house, but I don't own my own home!! *Note to self : need to start saving for a house*