Our hotel is in a very noisy area being near the railroad station and with the Tet celebrators making plenty of noise. I get up at 6 AM and go for a walk by the lake and find St. Joseph's Cathedral. Find out that mass is at 5:30 AM and everyone is leaving church. Go back to the lake for some exercises....breakfast and off we go for a busy day.
The morning includes a visit to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, his home during the VN war, a museum built in to reflect his life, the one-pillar pagoda and a lake which contained the remains of a B-52.
The mausoleum contains his preserved body and we pass in silence and with respect. The picture shows me standing in front of the mausoleum built from materials that came from all over VN. He lived a simple life and refused to live in any luxurious accommodations...his house is simple and located near his final resting place. The most interesting building that we visited was his museum...it reflects the development of his life from a revoluntionary to the leader of his people. You truly do get a sense of what he was and why he was...this is an exhibit that one should visit when coming to Hanoi.
The one-pillar pagoda was built by one of the VN emperor thanking the "God of Mercy" for assisting him and one of his wives in having a son. The pagoda is built to represent a lotus blossom.
Our last morning activity was finding the site that displays the remains of a downed American B-52 bomber. I went to these sites and others to again a sense of what happened during the VN war and gain a better understanding for myself...more later on this subject.
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