Political Epicenter of Vietnam

    

Vietnam Day 2: Political Epicenter of Vietnam

 

So today we visited the political epicenter of Vietnam, which is pretty much in the old quarter that is downtown Hanoi. It was once known as Thanh Long (City of the Soaring Dragon), for Hanoi has traditionally been the seat of political, cultural, economic and educational power for last 1000 years. It is truly amazing to see how it has survived all the different wars and conflicts over time.  Today was very interesting; it started out innocently enough because we embarked to see the Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh (from here on out referred to as Uncle Ho) around 8:30 am. However, one of our three cab drivers had the idea to take one of the groups around the city to earn extra monies. What should have taken ten to fifteen minutes tops, turned into a forty-five minute affair making our professor very angry. Needless to say it wasn’t a pretty picture, this is why I posted a picture of the inside of one of the taxis in my post.

 

So we went through this enormous line walking in “columns of two” to see the preserved body “in repose” is the technical term for him on ice. I would have posted pictures of him, but cameras and taking pictures of him are forbidden. You have to check in your camera and have two walk in “columns of two.” It is very strict, under armed guard; you can’t even smile or wear sunglasses (as a matter of fact, one of my classmates was getting sweated over wearing his prescription sunglasses, which he eventually took off. I hope it didn’t stop him from seeing where he was going) for this is deeply disrespectful. I must admit that I really thought about taking pictures of him from my iPhone, but at the risk of making an international scene (not another study abroad student from UW), and disgracing my family I chose the wisdom of the turtle and decided against it. Neither fame nor fortune is worth doing twenty to life for a picture that I could probably find on YouTube…

 

However, I have posted a couple of different pictures of the Mausoleum from the outside, I hope you enjoy some of the scenery that is North Vietnam; Hanoi and all of its splendor. We saw his living quarters, which is said to have been in the servants quarters, because he refused to live in the presidential palace (big yellow building with red trim), his spot was on the stilts (green)…  Whether one wishes to believe this sentiment or not, it was a genius move politically because it endeared him to the people of Vietnam that all shared in the same struggles, not just symbolically.  We also saw a huge Lenin statue, only one of two that I believe still exist in the world. Ironically, the other one is in Fremont,  a Seattle suburb near UW, by the Royal Grinders sub shop.  I hope to go back there and take a closer photo of it.

 

However we had a great Vietnamese lunch buffet. It was phenomenal, only $200,000.00 VN Dong, which is equivalent to $ 11.00 US dollars.  I have posted some pictures of this as well.  So much food to name, just look at the pictures!!!!

 

After lunch, we went to the US Embassy. We were privileged enough to spend over two hours with the Second Secretary Jane Bocklage. She was very cordial and the discussion was very interesting. However, I wasn’t putting too much stock into her answers, they seemed to tow the typical US hegemonic, “Big W,” Western Ideology of how inadequate the Vietnamese were and how they are trying to ensure that the rest of Vietnam is developing properly, all the while ignoring why they are still developing. Anyways, I will try to stay of my soapbox and tangents, that is for another day and time…  There is a joke that the US Representative told us as we visited it today, that most cab drivers here will tell you “We can still work with the US because we only fought with them for 10 years, so then we fought the French conflict for 100 years, but China we had to fight them jokers for ultimately 1000 years. So we are okay with the US…” She said that most people here are under the age of 35, so poverty shouldn’t be a problem. Vietnam has always fought and struggled for their own independence and sovereignty.

 

After coming back from the embassy, we went out and ate some delicious street food. You can see one of the photos. I will post more later…. Chao…