Pagodas, Temples and Mausoleums

Today was our first day with a guide. Miss Anh was a charming, friendly and knowledgeable, ambassador for her city.  We visited the Ho Chi Minh complex. His mausoleum is under renovation and closed, but his homes were open. Although after the French war, he could have lived in the Governor General's house, (the imposing yellow structure in the Facebook photo) he chose instead to live in the rooms formerly occupied by the electrician who maintained the property.  Later, he had a beautiful three room wooden "stilt house" built for himself consisting only of a bedroom, study and meeting room.  He returned to his former quarters daily for meals and restroom facilities.  The Vietnamese seem to remain very taken with his modest tastes.

They don't seem to be nearly as taken with their current government.  Notwithstanding a little looking around to make sure no one else was eavesdropping, our guide and another tour group operator we met on the overnight train to Lao Cai were both critical of the official corruption. 

We toured a couple of ancient (1000 year old) temples and learned a little of the differences between the Buddhist worship spaces and those devoted to Tao, Confucian and local deities' observances. We also managed to get into the Hanoi Catholic cathedral as well.  The highlight of the day for me was a visit to the Temple of Literature, built as a Confucian temple a thousand years ago and the site of the first national university opened in the 13th century to train the top ranks of the mandarinate.

Lunch was at a fine restaurant run by a local celebrity chef who operates a cooking school.  By the time we got to the National Ethnological Museum, the heat, the lingering jet-lag and the couple of beers at lunch made for a slow slog through what I suspect is a really interesting museum.  I suspect the same couldn't be said for the "water puppet" performance that came next.  I'm not sure I could have stayed awake for it even if I weren't still dead tired from the trip.

After a good, light dinner at a Belgian restaurant, we caught what was supposed to be the night train for the north.  A train ahead of us derailed and as of the time I'm writing this, it's 8:00 AM and this is turing into the noon train to Lao Cai.  I'll post pictures to FB and write more tonight.