Day 6: Hanoi & Overnight Train to Lao Cai

We meet Duc, our guide for the day and begin our morning at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.

It feels like a very controlled environment. There are many uniformed guards around and everyone lines up quietly outside the massive block building. No photos or bags are allowed inside, so Duc holds our bags and waits for us outside. Once we're allowed in, the line moves at a steady pace into the building and into the room where the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh is displayed. Guards are posted at each corner of the room and there's no stopping, you must keep walking, circling the body and out the exit door. There's a conveniently raised viewing platform for children. Our guide book warns us: no talking, no sniggering, no hat wearing, no hands in pockets! The room had a reddish hue like he's under a heat lamp. It's kind of an eerie experience. I read later that the body is sent to Russia each year for maintenance.

Above: The "Yellow House", Presidential Palace built in 1906 as the Palace of the Govenor General of Indochina. After Vietnam won independance in 1945, Ho Chi Minh refused to live here and built his more modest stilt house. The palace is still used for official receptions and is not open to the public.

Below: Some of Ho Chi Minh's cars

Behind the mausoleum is a carp pond and the stilt house where Ho Chi Minh lived from 1958 - 1969. It's an example of a typical house in rural Vietnam. A tunnel and bomb shelter was also built near the stilt house for him. We are told examples of Ho Chi Minh's "benevolence" and in times of austerity, he would even eat less and feed the fish from his own rice bowl.

Nearby, the One Pillar Pagoda was originally built by Emperor Ly Thai Tong in the 11th century. It was built to honour the Goddess of Mercy, symbolized by the lotus flower, for granting him an heir. The pagoda was rebuilt after the French government destroyed the original in 1954.

The Ho Chi Minh Museum

The museum is an interesting mix of artifacts from Ho Chi Minh's life and the history of Vietnam and very modern surrealist art installations with political messages.

Happy New Year from Ho Chi Minh with a special red pocket.

Temple of Literature

The Temple of Literature is dedicated to Confucius and the site of Vietnam's first university established in 1076. We see some students visit the Temple of Literature for good luck before exams and Duc helps them take a group picture.

The stelae (carved stone slabs) mounted on tortoises show the names and achievements of well-known scholars.

We stop back at the Handspan office for lunch before heading out again for a walk around the Old Quarter of Hanoi.

Many people use yokes to carry market items around. They also offer tourists the opportunity for a photo op, even if you might not want it.

The old east gate of Hanoi.

We have a wander through Dong Xuan Market, the largest covered market in Hanoi.

Vendors are surrounded by their wares stacked floor to ceiling. In some stalls, they're actually sitting on whatever they're selling.

Duc takes us through a store and down an alley in the back into Cafe Pho Co for a classic cup of 'caphe trung da' - coffee with a beaten egg white. You order and then climb up the stairs to enjoy the view from the terraces. Even though it's a rainy day, we have a great view of Hoan Kiem Lake. The coffee is delicious, thick and creamy like a caramel macchiato.

Try crossing this street!?! Extreme Frogger.

Constant Vigilance! Our motto for Hanoi. Not only do the street crossings take some getting used to, in the old quarter, the sidewalks or rather the narrow strip of pavement in front of the shops are often occupied by tables and stools from restaurants or food stalls, makeshift barbers, or scooters pulling in right in front of you as people yell into the shops for a pick-up.

We're off to find dinner on our own and we stop at a street stall for Banh Goi, deep fried pastries filled with pork, vermicelli and mushrooms. All customers are hunched over little tables on plastic kindergarten stools spreading out on to the sidewalk.

And then we move on to a typical bowl of pho.

In the evening we catch the overnight train to Lao Cai. It's a cosy room on the train with 2 cots and complimentary Choco Pies, a beer and a coke. We appraise our accumulated stockpile of snacks.

© Amy Lee 2013