28th January, 2017

Tam picked us up from the hotel and it was off for the almost compulsory visit to Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum. This is real old school communist stuff, though to give ‘Uncle Ho’, as he is known, his due he wanted to be cremated and his ashes scattered in three low key sites in the north, south and centre of the country. As the founder of modern Vietnam he was way too popular and important for that to happen and instead he is embalmed a la Lenin and Mao lying in great state with ceremonial armed soldiers on permanent guard in a massive mausoleum. It was rather impressive in its own way and a reminder that it is still officially still a communist, one party state albeit distinctly market economy driven. You cannot take photos in the mausoleum and you cannot even dawdle and take in the sight as I discovered when I was unceremoniously moved along when I stopped to get a good look at the great man.

The whole area is dedicated to HCM and next up is a view of the earlier French Resident’s mansion, eschewed by Ho, but still used by the current regime for visiting dignitaries. You then visit the house that was built for him, but which he felt was still not quite right once he retired, so he had a simple (though beautifully built) house on stilts erected. He had 3 cars (2 Russian and 1 Peugeot) and a nice lake where he fed the fish, whilst tending the garden. Note the tree where he got one of the branches to reach down to the ground and root itself. Also the One Pillar Pagoda.

Having seen some recent history, we were taken back in time to the Temple of Literature. I was not sure what to expect – a set of books? It is the most revered centre of Confucian learning in Vietnam originally dedicated in 1070, though reconstructed and embellished over the centuries. It was mostly used to train mandarins for the imperial bureaucracy. There are 5 courtyards each one significant in its own right, entered through gates with wonderful names such as the Gate of Great Synthesis, entering into the Court of Sages and passing the Well of Heavenly Clarity. I am tempted to go back to teaching just so I could rename a few classrooms! The stele mounted on tortoises (or turtles?), by the way, list the names of the winners of the state exams between 1442 and 1779. If you got though the regional exams (thi huang) you headed for Hanoi with your sleeping mat, ink stone and writing brush for the National exam (thi hoi) which could last up to 6 weeks. If you passed that you were granted a ‘tien si’ or doctorate and were eligible to enter the the final part (thi dinh) set by the king himself. Some years maybe only three out of six thousand candidates were granted their ‘tien si’. By the way, it was only open to males, excluding ‘traitors, rebels, immoral people and actors’!

It is seen as a great place to visit by locals as you can try and pray for a bit of help in your exams and hope that some of the academia rubs off in some way on your children, especially on New Year’s Day, it would seem, which is seen as a particularly auspicious day as evidenced by the crowds attending with us, all in their holiday best and the children in national costume. The couple posing were not doing it for me, by the way, but I took the opportunity to snap them. Many pay for a good luck scroll written by scribes who certainly tend to look the part!

Off next to what was euphemistically called the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ during the American War, but more prosaically called the Maison Centrale or Hoa Lo Prison. This was built by the French and there is a good dose of strong feeling in the exhibits and literature about the treatment that local nationalists (including no fewer than 5 future general secretaries of the Vietnamese Communist Party) received as against the very humanitarian way that the US pilots imprisoned there were treated. You pays your money….. The conditions were not nice, whatever propaganda you believe, with a rather chilling guillotine on display.

A very full day, though we had had to miss the Museum of Ethnology which was shut for the holiday. It was hotel time now and we had a nice meal there before settling down in our well-appointed room for a bit of blogging and Yahtzee. Regarding the latter, I am sure you are wondering what the latest state of play is, especially after Val opened up an 18 game lead. The good news, from my point of view, is that I have caught up and now, after 420 games, lead 208-207 (some were draws). How exciting is that!?

More soon!