Meeting Uncle Ho

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My Vietnamese name, apparently, is "Hello Motorbike." If you want something less formal, it is "Hello Moto."

I must have heard this about 500 times today as I walked from my hostel to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum.

But that makes sense. Vietnam is the 13th most populous country in the world, and I am convinced that every single one of that massive population is on a motorcyle in Hanoi right now. It makes crossing the street something akin to walking along the target end of a weapons range.

The key is to go slow, and as some of my Irish companions said,

"Just keep your eyes closed. Don't look! Don't look!"

It's not just the traffic that is amazing here, though; Hanoi itself is an assault on just about every sense. The pollution of all those motorbikes; the sound of honking horns (which are just a way of saying, "hi there, I'm going to run you over now"); construction noise; the "Hello moto" guys and people trying to sell you ripped-off guidebooks; the smells that I cannot even begin to describe - think a combo of rotting meat and exhaust funes; the heat that leaves you coated with a salty layer of sweat and muck after five minutes outdoors; it is all a bit overwhelming, to tell you the truth.

I did eventually make it to Uncle Ho's final resting place. I was a bit worried that they might not let me in, since I was wearing shorts and they are pretty strict about that sort of thing in his presence, but I made it through anyway.

Ho Chi Minh has not changed a bit. His embalmed body is extraordinarily creepy, sitting in the middle of a large dark (and - ahhhh - air-conditioned!) room and attended by four white-uniformed honor guards.

There was a large crowd of mostly Vietnamese voyeurs who shuffled through a very long line to gawk at their glorious leader. You can't take a camera in, and the guards are pretty good at shushing you.

All in all it has been a slow morning, the body-gazing aside. The oppressive heat makes it hard to do much of anything.

I leave tomorrow morning for Ha Long Bay, and will return Sunday evening only to take an overnight train to Sa Pa, so I will not be able to blog until I reach Sa Pa sometime on Monday. I also do not have a way to download pictures here at the moment, but stay tuned....


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Photos

Hoa Lo Prison
aka the Hanoi Hilton, where US POWs (including John McCain) were kept

Comments

[Helen]

Travel Question
Hi Rebecca, May l ask if you are booking trips on route or are they already pre planned. Also, l will be a lone traveller late next year, so are you meeting lots of interesting people and travelling with them or mainly doing it all alone? Are you staying in some good clean hostels with bathroom etc or are you sharing in dorms. Darn nosy really aren't l eh Thanks in advance Helen

[Mom]

Whoa Ho!!
Wow, I just cannot get my head around the idea that you are roaming around North Vietnam and visiting Ho Chi Minh. Being born in 1948 means that I was in college during much of the period of the Vietnam War. Many of my friends were either drafted and sent to Vietnam or lived in constant fear of being drafted and sent to Vietnam. All the young guys viewed a tour in Vietnam as almost certain death. The newspapers were filled on a daily basis with the casulties of the war that was being fought on the other side of the world for reasons that were someone nebulous. Sound familiar to anyone? It is hard for me to see Vietnam as anything other than a place where tens of thousands of Americans died. Visiting the Vietnam War Memorial still brings tears to my eyes. I guess that my parents generation would feel the same way about visiting Germany or Japan after WWII. I guess indeed "Time heals all wounds."

[drofykceb]

Nosy Miss Helen ;)
Helen - I am happy to answer questions! I am mostly doing stuff as I go; I don't like being tied down to a schedule for too long at a time. As my recent illness in Vietnam shows, I have had to spend a couple of extra days in Hanoi than I had planned. It is really easy to book as you go! I have definitely met lots of interesting and very nice people. I've stayed in both dorms and double rooms at hotels. The hostels vary in quality; ask to see a room before you decide on it. Sometimes if you find someone else to share a room (not that hard to do), you can get a good double hotel room with AC and cable TV for a buck or two more than you'd pay to sleep in a 10-bed dorm. That said, hostels are still the best places to meet other travelers, if you start to get lonely. Best of luck with your travels!