Presidential Palace Hanoi

After a beautiful flight from Bangkok over the mountainous Cambodia, we arrived in Hanoi. We still had no luggage to collect after it was lost in Ethiopia. The airport is old and small, with baggage lying all over the floor at the conveyor belts. Our driver was waiting for us from our hotel and quickly whisked us away through the streets of Hanoi …

We arrived in Hanoi at 5am, on a crisp, chilly Saturday morning. We walked up to find our hotel and then went off to find some breakfast. We had some pretty average eggs and bread, and decided not to pay the extra dollar for butter!

We wandered up to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, and after managing to decipher the over-complicated security …

Entry containing 36 photos titled: Buffalo, Hanoi, Temple Park, Park, First university, 1, 2, 3, Tam Coc

Before you get to Vietnam people always say how busy it is on the roads which cars and predominantly scooters but nothing can prepare you for the sheer mayhem that unravels in front of your eyes. Literally cars and scooters fly in all directions at speeds heading close to the land speed record! The brakes are just an accessory for the Vietnamese, …

Entry containing 27 photos titled: Airport shopping, Road to Hanoi, Lake in Hanoi, Wild Lotus Restaurant, At the mausoleum, Presidential Palace, Ho Chi Minh Dining Room, Ho Chi Minh Residence, The Temple of Knowledge, PhD Diplomas at the Temple, Infinite wisdom partnership, Confucius

30.07.2009

12:53 (GMT+6)

DAY 30: UK to Australia without flying

Train SE5: Hanoi to Nha Trang, Vietnam

Ok so it has been four days since I last wrote and on a journey like this four days is a long time. First of all my train from Nanning to Hanoi went well as per usual. Firstly I had a cabin to myself which was a …

After 19 hours in flight, we arrived at our Hanoi home, the Movenpick, at 1 a.m. Despite a short night, we have had a fantastic first day. The photos tell the story best! Tomorrow we tour a small village called Cuu, about an hour outside of Hanoi. During the French colonial period it was known as the premier tailoring village. We'll tour the …

This is quite an auspicious day in Viet Nam. National holiday. Reunification Day.

On this day in 1975, NVA tanks breached the walls of the Palace of the President of then South Vietnam. WM read an interesting interview with the tank commander (tank 843)
.
Guy was a rural Northern peasant farmer who joined the army. The offensive …

... was another few sights I quickly checked out including the one pillar pagoda, famous for its err...one pillar, and the Presidential Palace after ducking away from another army of Moto drivers - "Need Moto?" From one former Communist leader to another ...

... any, we just rode past, looked over walls and through railings and gates. We visited the West Lake, the Botanical Gardens, the Presidential Palace, Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, the military musuem and the Citadel. We were back in the Old Quarter in time for ...

... to Uncle Ho, born Nguyen Sinh Cung in 1890, I visited his museum and home, a farily humble place tucked behind the Presidential Palace. A man greeted me, also trying to improve his English: "Ho Chi Minh learned eight languages," he said. That alone is ...

... boring), the One Pillar Pagoda (designed to represent a lotus blossom, a symbol of purity, rising from a sea of sorrow), the Presidential Palace (boring) and Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum where the embalmed corpse of Uncle Ho (as the people call him) ...

... the story of the great man's life; Ho Chi Minh's bamboo house on stilts, which he built in the grounds of the Presidential Palace, and his Mausoleum. The last was a somewhat macabre experience - his embalmed body was in a glass coffin lit by spotlights. ...

... building was kept at temperature you would find in a morgue. After seeing where Uncle Ho currently lives, we toured the Presidential Palace.  From a distance we saw the former Indochina's General Governor Palace, which Ho Chi Minh refused to use ...

... including the campaign against the French and Americans and is revered by everyone in this socialist republic. Next stop was the presidential palace where we got to see the modest lifestyle of Ho Chi Minh; the traditional mountain house on stilts ...

... sunglasses (copies I think) for $18. In the afternoon we visit Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, some military complex, Ho Chi Minh presidential palace, one pillar pagoda and Uncle Ho's house on stilts. It is the most peaceful, clean and tranquil place in the ...

... and Sydney. They had similar plans for the day so didn't mind Izzy tagging along with them. We walked over to the presidential palace to take a photo (illegally we soon found out) and then walked to the 'Here's memorial' for another photo opportunity. ...

... went to the beautiful park, wih the pond, where Ho Chi Minh had his house and then a very simple stilt house, close to the presidential palace where he always refused to live. I take my hat off to this man. Maybe the propaganda is working great on me, ...