Uncle Ho

Communism. Where all people are equal. Unless you're the president in which case you get a massive mausoleum. And embalmed.

Yes we went to see Uncle Ho this morning; possibly the worlds weirdest tourist attraction. He's a testament to that strange soviet art of embalming. He looks amazingly perky for a man who's been dead for 40 years. Some of the group didn't realize we were actually about to see the man himself so were a bit surprised to find themselves filing past a corpse. But it did explain the no talking, no hands in pockets, no shorts, no t-shirts rules. Enforced by men with bayonets. Thank god my phone was on silent when I got that SMS message. I think your phone beeping is probably also against the rules.

It's hard to tell if these rules really need to be enforced or not as everyone here reveres and loves "Uncle Ho". Or at least seems to. I'm pretty sure our guide is not being sarcastic when he talks about the Party and how they've made Vietnam so successful. To be honest Ho Chi Minh should be pretty well loved as there aren't many leaders who have seen off two of the worlds great powers. But why he needs to be kept on show when his own wishes were to be cremated and scattered over Vietnam is beyond me. The cult of personality is very strange; and rare in democracies. Although Obama came close before he got elected. Think he's missed his chance now though.

The mausoleum is also part of the Presidential Palace. A huge French colonial pile that HCM refused to live in. He had a tiny two room wooden house built in the grounds and lived there instead. He really did seem to be a man of principles. He even had an outdoor dunny though that's taking principles too far in my opinion.

We also lost our first group member at the mausoleum. One of the ladies has a dicky hip so decided to give the hike around the "Wonderful World Of Communism" a miss. Unfortunately the guide couldn't remember when and where we were meeting her. I have to say he didn't seem to bothered about leaving her behind. She turned up just as we were boarding the bus. I'm pretty sure he'd get his pay docked if he looses too many guests.

There were two examples of things not being as they appear today. Both involving temples. The first one was the historic One Pillar Pagoda. Built in 1050. Except the current version was built in 1954 after the French demolished it when they left. So not at all historic then really. The next was the Temple Of Literature, completed in 2000. Admittedly some of it was old but it reminds you that quite a lot of Hanoi was completely bombed flat not all that long ago. In fact during my lifetime. Just. This place did have the most amazing gift shop I've ever seen though, selling buddha images and hammer and sickle banners. You don't get that in St Pauls.

So tomorrow morning is our first free time so I'm off to the Vietnam Military History Museum. We drove past today and it's got MiG fighters and tanks outside! How can anyone resist. And over the road is Lenin Square with the big statue and all. See it really is communist here.

So far it's great here. The food is good and cheap (bowl of phô = $1, beer = $1), the people are friendly and not totally obsessed with hassling you to buy stuff and I'm even getting used to crossing the road (just step out, don't look and everyone just seems to miss you). However the use of two currencies is doing my head in. Sometimes it's US$. sometimes it's VND. I prefer the latter as it's fun to say "that's 20000 Dong thanks". Much hilarity.

Oh and if you come here bring a European two pin plug adaptor. Most of the guide books say US or UK. Both are wrong. Luckily one of the group loaned me hers otherwise I'd be taking no pictures and receiving no SMS messages.

Mind you as I'm international roaming that might be a good thing.