Hanoi - Vietnam
6/22/05
We arrived in Hanoi at 6 am after a long night of bus traveling. According to our original plan we were suppose to enter China on this date, but we didn't want to skip things in North-Vietnam; Sapa and Halong Bay were on the must-see list, so right after checking in the hotel we established a hurricane schedule.
First thing was to leave our passports with the tour agency (actually the hotel staff) to make our Chinese visa.
Then, we went over the tours they were offering and we bought the following:
- A city tour in Hanoi that would start at 8:30 am of the same day.
- Also a 2-day tour to Sapa (13 hours away from Hanoi) that would leave at 8 pm of the same day and would return to Hanoi at 5:30 am on the 25th of June.
- Then a 3-day tour to Halong Bay that we would start at 8:30 am of the same day returning from Sapa. From Halong Bay we would be back at 5 pm and then on the same day, at 8:30 pm, we would take a bus heading north to the Chinese border; all that was not bought before studying all the possible combinations of tours and prices.
All of that was not just done in two hours, from 6:30 to 8:30 am but after a 12-hour night bus trip.
Well, our city tour started and the first stop was at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The place was super secured; just in the room where his body is, there were eight guards, not to mention the uncountable number of guards outside.
With all the respect for Ho Chi Minh, I have to say that to conserve his body in a room for visitors, is, at least for me, an awkward idea, but it seems to be a communist thing; the same was done to Stalin and Mao Zedong, which indeed, we plan to visit in Beijing.
Next to the mausoleum is the Ho Chi Minh Museum that we visited very quickly. It was built to express the Vietnamese people's deep gratitude to the President's great merits. The exhibition focuses on his life and revolutionary cause.
The Ho Chi Minh's house on stilts is on the same site, next to the museum, and it is also open for visitors. The former French Palace of the General Governor for Indochina became his office; but Ho Chi Minh insisted in living in the simple two-rooms house on stilts.
From the museum we went to visit the temple of literature, which is said to be as old as Hanoi, at least 1,000 years.
The following is from the souvenirs shop on the place.
From there we were brought to a nice restaurant for lunch and after lunch we walked to the lake.
The tour finished at 3 pm and we were again in a hurry; we had to find the British Airways office in order to make some changes on our tickets. The problem was that the office closes at 4 pm, but we made it on time.
We had two hours to recharge the batteries before taking the train to Sapa.
We arrived in Hanoi at 6 am after a long night of bus traveling. According to our original plan we were suppose to enter China on this date, but we didn't want to skip things in North-Vietnam; Sapa and Halong Bay were on the must-see list, so right after checking in the hotel we established a hurricane schedule.
First thing was to leave our passports with the tour agency (actually the hotel staff) to make our Chinese visa.
Then, we went over the tours they were offering and we bought the following:
- A city tour in Hanoi that would start at 8:30 am of the same day.
- Also a 2-day tour to Sapa (13 hours away from Hanoi) that would leave at 8 pm of the same day and would return to Hanoi at 5:30 am on the 25th of June.
- Then a 3-day tour to Halong Bay that we would start at 8:30 am of the same day returning from Sapa. From Halong Bay we would be back at 5 pm and then on the same day, at 8:30 pm, we would take a bus heading north to the Chinese border; all that was not bought before studying all the possible combinations of tours and prices.
All of that was not just done in two hours, from 6:30 to 8:30 am but after a 12-hour night bus trip.
Well, our city tour started and the first stop was at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The place was super secured; just in the room where his body is, there were eight guards, not to mention the uncountable number of guards outside.
With all the respect for Ho Chi Minh, I have to say that to conserve his body in a room for visitors, is, at least for me, an awkward idea, but it seems to be a communist thing; the same was done to Stalin and Mao Zedong, which indeed, we plan to visit in Beijing.
Next to the mausoleum is the Ho Chi Minh Museum that we visited very quickly. It was built to express the Vietnamese people's deep gratitude to the President's great merits. The exhibition focuses on his life and revolutionary cause.
The Ho Chi Minh's house on stilts is on the same site, next to the museum, and it is also open for visitors. The former French Palace of the General Governor for Indochina became his office; but Ho Chi Minh insisted in living in the simple two-rooms house on stilts.
From the museum we went to visit the temple of literature, which is said to be as old as Hanoi, at least 1,000 years.
The following is from the souvenirs shop on the place.
From there we were brought to a nice restaurant for lunch and after lunch we walked to the lake.
The tour finished at 3 pm and we were again in a hurry; we had to find the British Airways office in order to make some changes on our tickets. The problem was that the office closes at 4 pm, but we made it on time.
We had two hours to recharge the batteries before taking the train to Sapa.
posted by Adriano and Angie | 10:15 AM
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