HANOI CONTINUED

Hanoi is situated on the Red river and the Vietnamese take passionate pride in their national identity. The final resting place of their former leader Ho Chi Minh is in a glass sarcophagus set deep within a monumental edifice. That is despite the man saying in his will that he wanted to be cremated!!!


There are crowds of people who go to pay their respects. It is very daunting. There are guards all over the place and they shout at people who have hats on or who smile or talk. You really are herded through. I got their just as it was closing for the morning so they rushed me , literally shouting at me and clapping their hands to get me to run to the entrance of the mausoleum to queue up. Thankfully the taximan came with me, so he showed me the way to run. It was hilarious really and I had to stop myself from laughing. Then we went into the chamber and filed round his embalmed body, which incidently gets a three month holiday to Russia every year to be maintained. I have to say I was moved by the solemn way many of the Vietnamese people walked around.
I then went onto the Temple of literature.It is so peaceful there. The building is dedicated to confucius. It is a well preserved jewel of traditional Vietnamese architecture in the 11th century style with roofed gateways and low-eaved buildings.


I loved walking round it despite it being bitterly cold, my fingers were stinging it was freezing.I thought if I ventured inside it would be a bit warmer. But even the musicians inside had woolly hats and scarves on. I do not know how they managed to play. The music was lovely and peaceful.


My room at the guesthouse did not have heating, but you could hire a heater.Only they had none left the first couple of nights I was there. So I literally slept with my clothes on and a woolly hat!(That is after all the blummin hassle I had gone through to get to this place from the airport.It sounded good in the book! I suppose I only paid 20 dollars so I could not expect much!But I had hoped to be warm)l Oh the glamourous life of being on the road. On top of it all I began to feel as if I was getting a cold as well. I wandered round the market streets of Hanoi in the evening and I just found the people aggressive and unfriendly. Thankfully I found a great cafe with a little heater so I sat reading there for ages reluctant to venture back to my cold room for the night.