I woke early to my hand a little less swollen. I packed up early and then left the hotel in a taxi to catch Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, since I had missed the day before while at the Drs. Nate and the boys came over after with the luggage to our new hotel the Metropole in the Old Town- gorgeous hotel I might add and right in the middle of everything. It was fascinating being at this national landmark. Ho Chi Minh is highly revered in Vietnam as the one that unified the North, South and Middle of Vietnam, and he was the first President of Vietnam as an independent country. Vietnam has had a past filled with wars, occupation for over 1000 years by China, French occupied it for over 80 years, Japan had invaded during WWII, America had most recently been in the country during the “Vietnam War” or as they call it here the “American War” . The country had also been run for the past 1000 years by Emperors and the last official Emperor gave his support to Ho Chi Minh in 1945 as the the first President. One of the ways that Ho Chi Minh unified the country was unifying them into a single party, which was the Communist Party. Today, the only political party in Vietnam is the Communist Party. So as we toured the grounds of their national monuments and who they revere as their national hero, it felt very Communist.
We all lined up and there were hundreds of people and long processions of women too since it was International Women’s Day still. We were told as we entered that we couldn’t have our hands in pockets, no shorts, no hats, no loud speaking. We walked single file for about a half mile around a park like area and to the Mausoleum and then were told to walk orderly around the preserved body of Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh had died in about 1969 but he was basically laying in a bed clothed with all hair and skin intact. It was wild. I have honestly never seen anything like it. It was like he was pale, but laying there sleeping. For a couple months each year his body is taken back to Russia where they do more preservation to it. It was wild, walking around a room with him glowing in the middle and surrounded by guards. As I was leaning in from the outside line I was in to take a closer look, since there are also no photos allowed, a guard grabs me by the arm and yanks me back into my line. Whoa! Reminder where I was at! As we proceeded out, we then all followed a line to the home that Ho Chi Minh used by a lake and the old French leaders home, which he didn’t stay in. Ho Chi Minh was also the first president or leader of the united Vietnam. He was a well traveled man and I do believe his intention was a good one to unify and liberate his country. He was educated and ultimately I think he believed in peace but his ultimate goal was one country, one people, and then it became one party. Today the only political party in Vietnam is the Communist Party.
I also walked through another museum decimated to Ho Chi Minh and gave a bit of Vietnam history, and honored their 85 years of Communism. It was all very one sided the displays celebrating their communist heritage and the past 100 years.
I caught up with the group at our hotel and it was so fun to see and meet up with our group, Berthas, Menloves, Woolleys, Hatches and Nate, Ben and Sam. We had a bike orientation about what was going to happen and then we each hopped into our own Cyclos and the mini rickshaws took us around the Old Town. It was actually pretty relaxing to sit there and cruise all the streets and get a faster than walking but not crazy scooter tour of the city. We finished at our lunch spot which was like a Vietnamese marketplace almost where we were served all kinds of different local dishes. The food is delicious! From there Sam and I and Brian and Rachel hopped a cab to the LDS Church in Hanoi. There is only one Branch in Northern Vietnam. They had about 60 members and mostly local Vietnamese and some expats that are working in Vietnam. I was surprised to see missionaries too. The missionaries that are serving here have to be Vietnamese or of Vietnamese ancestry. So there were a couple from the USA but their parents had been born in Vietnam or their grandparents. The service was really good nice and they had their own building that was narrow and tall. Apparently in Vietnam many of the buildings are tall and narrow since you pay property taxes based on the width of your residence. The ladies room was on the 3rd floor of the church. We met many nice people and enjoyed being able to participate during Sunday School.
After church we met up with our group back at the hotel at the Chocolate Buffet- YES! It was delicious, I have been a little chocolate deprived on this trip ;) Chocolate is not easy to come by in South East Asia. In the evening we scooted out to a Water Puppet Show again, since everyone else hadn’t seen one. Sam and Nate enjoyed a local foot massage and then joined us for dinner at the Oriental- which again had excellent food. It was fun to explore the town at night and walk back to our hotel after.
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