On my first full day in Hanoi I set out walking to see the major sights. The weather was much cooler than in Ho Chi Minh City, and the traffic on the roads was not as busy [although you still took your life in your hands trying to cross the streets.] My first spot to see was the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex where Ho Chi Minh is buried. Along the way I passed a statue of Lenin in a park, and the old Imperial Citadel Complex and Flag Tower.
The body of Ho Chi Minh is enclosed in a glass sarcophagus inside the massive Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The Mausoleum was closed when I was there, as the body of Ho Chi Minh is sent to Russia for two months each year for maintenance. Ceremonial guards in white uniforms patrol the area of the mausoleum.
Nearby the mausoleum was the Ho Chi Minh Museum and the Presidential Palace.
Walking north from the mausoleum complex I came to Tay Ho [West Lake] a large lake in the city surrounded by parks and restaurants. On the east shore of the lake is the Tran Quoc Pagoda on an island connected to the shore by a short bridge.
From West Lake I walked to the Temple of Literature, an example of well preserved traditional Vietnamese architecture. Founded in 1070 the temple is dedicated to Confucius and honors Vietnam's finest scholars and men of literary accomplishment. Vietnam's first university was established here in 1076. The day I was there hundreds of graduating university students were there to get their pictures taken. The female students wore traditional Vietnamese clothes underneath their graduation robes.
From the Temple of Literature I walked to the Hoa Lo Prison Museum. This museum is all that remains of the Hoa Lo Prison built by the French in 1896. The museum explains the prisons use up to the mid 1950's to house communist revolutionaries, and the housing of American POW pilots shot down over North Vietnam [including Sen. John McCain] who nicknamed the prison the "Hanoi Hilton.
The following day I took a day trip to Halong Bay. The trip from Hanoi took four hours by bus each way, and many of my small group of about 10 people slept most of the trip, but I enjoyed seeing the countryside, and smaller rural towns along the way. Halong Bay is a World Heritage Site and consists of over two thousand islands in the Tonkin Gulf. Halong translates as "where the dragon descends into the sea." These limestone islets are very beautiful. We boarded a boat which cruised for several hours among the islands, and we had a delicious lunch consisting of seafood and other traditional Vietnamese dishes.
After lunch on board our boat we transferred to smaller hand rowed boats to explore sea caves and grottoes along the shore. Entering a grotto you sailed into a large open lagoon surrounded by high limestone walls. It was very beautiful.
After returning to our boat we continued to cruise among the islands, then stopped to tour a very large cave. We climbed a steep series of steps to the caves entrance, then passed through several large caverns inside. The caverns were lit with gaudy lighting which I thought detracted from the natural beauty of the caves.
On my final day in Hanoi, after breakfast, I walked to the Hoan Kiem Lake located about a 15 minute walk from my hotel. This lake is located in a very upscale neighborhood of Hanoi and is surrounded by hotels and restaurants. I enjoyed a very nice walk around the lake before returning to my hotel, and then on to the airport for my return trip to Ho Chi Minh City.
I enjoyed my trip to Vietnam very much. The Vietnamese people are very friendly, and the country is very beautiful. I look forward to returning soon, as there are many more places in Vietnam that I want to visit.
