Vietnam Day 2: Ngoc Son Temple, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Ethnology Museum, Confucius Temple, Old Quarter

Vietnam Day 2: Ngoc Son Temple, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Ethnology Museum, Confucius Temple, Old Quarter

After Breakfast , our guide  for the day met us  and took us by walk to the Hoan Kiem Lake.

Lake is just 200 m from the hotel. As we walked, he explained to us about Vietnam , Hanoi, the founder of Hanoi.

Some facts  as explained by the guide:

French ruled Vietnam from 1858 to 1962.Hence there is much French influence  here  in terms of architecture, language.

Before Vietnam got Independence , Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos  were all together  considered as 1 country  called Indo China.

Hanoi is the biggest city area wise.

Population wise, Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City  is biggest with 12-14 million people.

2^nd biggest is Hanoi with 10 million people.

We then visited the Ngoc Son Temple. We  were explained about  how the turtle brought the  sword  that was lost  in the lake  and gave it to the king . Thus the turtle is considered lucky. Also the last turtle that  lived in the lake, died recently and that is  brought  to life by keeping the skin  and humidified and kept in a glass case in the  temple. The temple has an altar for General  who fought the Mongolians. Also there is an alter  for God of Higher education and medicine, God  who keeps the record of Good and Bad Karma.

Also there is a turtle tower in the middle of the lake. The red Sun Beam bridge to the temple also looks spectacular.

When we visited Hanoi,  the city was preparing for their New Year and was all getting ready in terms of decorations, shopping,  planting flowering plants near the park and Lake. Also we did witness some dance rehearsals in the park.

We left to see the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. On the way there was French Quarter  with many French Villa, Opera House .The Mausoleum was closed on Friday .But we could enter the complex and see all the area where Ho Chi Minh lived.

Lenin lived in Soviet Union and Ho Chi Minh liked Lenin’s principles. Ho Chi Minh died on National day of Vietnam September 2^nd , but  the government seems to have announced to Public a day later( as told by our guide). Ho Chi Minh liked Minimalistic  lifestyle. He didn’t want to live in the Palace  just for himself. So he lived in a small house with 2 rooms. The Palace was used for Foreign guests. We visited his living place, his secret place to hide , cars used by him, the Mango trees  looked after by him, the fish pond where he spent some time .Vietnam has only 1 party and the party President was the Prime Minister of Vietnam. Recently  this has been changed, there is another role as President .

North Vietnam seems him as their father of the nation. South Vietnam is not so happy with  his principles.

Then we visited the single Pillar Pagoda. This was destroyed by the French  when they left Vietnam. According to history, King had  a dream  of Buddha with a baby in his hands  rising from  the pond and asked the King  to build a temple for him. The Buddha in the dream had 1000 hands and 1000 eyes. After the temple was built, the King had  a baby that he longed for.

Later we visited the Ethnology Museum.There are many languages in Vietnam but there are no religion because it is a Communist  country.40% of the Population follow Buddhism. The Ethnology Museum has information about all the ethnic tribes of Vietnam. Their culture, lifestyle, history, even house structures are well explained in the museum.

We visited the Confucius temple in Hanoi. The Chinese scholar  has a temple built for him in Hanoi. Though Vietnamese doesn’t seem to like China, China has ruled them for long and so Confucius  has made a impact on them. Parrot signifies abundance, so parrots are kept in temple. A Bird standing on tortoise is another  structure kept everywhere in temples. This signifies tortoise is helped by the bird during dry season and  when the water level in the water body rises in wet season, the tortoise helps the bird from not drowning. The  temple hosts  a university in the olden days. So there is stones on a turtle back called Turtle Steles with names of the students who passed the exams each year. These stones are in the Unesco World Heritage list. The temple has many courtyards and lake. The altars at this temple are for many leaders of the state, Kings, Vietnamese scholars. There is a fish pond, Dormitories, Library for students.

Then we  had lunch at Namaste Hanoi Indian Restaurant. We had proper south Indian food here. Read my review here.

Then we rode a rickshaw  each , driven by the rickshaw men along the old quarter streets, seeing the different lanes selling  different articles like  traditional medicine, new year decorations, dresses , leather items, Copper and Brass articles and reached our hotel.

After refreshing, we walked back to the lake from the hotel. During weekends, the  roads around the lake are made as pedestrian zone and no vehicles are allowed in the night. We walked around the lake , clicked some pictures  .As we walked near the statue of Ly Thai To , the founder of Hanoi, there was a dance rehearsal was  going on with many ladies dancing to a Vietnamese song  in traditional dance style. Later we went to the Thang Long Water Puppet theatre and bought the tickets for the  show. Ticket cost 100000 VND per ticket.We walked through the small roads in the Old Quarter, which were preparing for the night market. We bought some fresh fruits on the road .Then walked back .

Water Puppet show was quite interesting. It is a puppet show but on water. But it was in the Vietnamese language, hence couldn’t understand the narration. There was orchestra  who sang and  made beautiful music. The  fireworks in water, the animals, people, fairies were really good. The turtle and sword  story was depicted. After the water Puppet show , as we walked back  to the hotel ,there were dance performances, small kids driving toy cars, small games, musical instruments being played, singing  everywhere on the streets. The same area was with heavy traffic few hours back and suddenly the same street looked calm  with 0 traffic.