Nov 2

Hanoi

Had a city tour of Hanoi. Went to Ho Chi Mihn’s Mausoleum where Ho Chi Mihn's body lies. They have preserved his body and have to re-do it once a year to keep it in tact. Got see where he lived and it has a bunch of govt buildings but he chose to live in a simple house on stilts which I thought was interesting. Then we went to the Hanoi Hilton which is a name given to a jail but the US soldiers. The jail in the beginning was used for Vietnamese who broke law, debtors, revolutionists, and eventually the US soldiers who were bombing Hanoi. John McCain was actually a prisoner o war here. There were pictures of him throughout the museum and they even have his jet suit. It was very eerie being in an old jail that was used in the war. Next saw the One pillar Pagoda built by the king who had a dream of Buddha on a lotus flower with a baby boy. The king then had a baby boy so he built the pagoda to honor Buddha. The pillar combines Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Hip made a comment that the religions are intertwined in Vietnam and that Asian in general are very superstitious people and will believe in anything. Their religion is more of a way of life than an actual religion. We saw the Literature Museum with a big statue of Confucius. After the tour we had a couple hours of free time to eat and shop but I just had lunch with Dev and her mom and we extended our lunchtime because it was POURING. It was nice to just chill and realize I was having lunch in Vietnam. It was very surreal. Got back on the bus and then on the plane back to HCMC.