SOUTHEAST ASIA 2024—MARCH 5, HANOI TO SIEM REAP

March 5:  Last day in Hanoi.  We stopped by Huulala to finalize the payment and shipping of the jacket (above) they were making for me. This city had been our hands-down favorite so far, but we were keeping an open mind, because at 16:20 we would board Viet Jet Flight VJ4913 to Siem Reap, Cambodia, the site of Angkor Wat.  Before then, though, there were still some things we wanted to see in Hanoi.

We hadn’t yet visited Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum (above) or the Presidential Palace, so we put them on the morning’s agenda.

The atmosphere at the Mausoleum was beyond sober; it was chillingly intimidating.  The Vietnamese take Uncle Ho, the father of their country, rather seriously.  Lonely Planet describes the scene:

In the tradition of Lenin, Stalin and Mao, Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum is a monumental marble edifice. Contrary to Ho Chi Minh’s desire for a simple cremation, the mausoleum was constructed from materials gathered from all over Vietnam between 1973 and 1975. Set deep in the bowels of the building in a glass sarcophagus is the frail, pale body of Ho Chi Minh. The mausoleum is usually closed from 4 September to 4 November while his embalmed body goes to Russia for maintenance.

Dress modestly: wearing shorts, sleeveless T-shirts or hats is not permitted. You may be requested to store day packs, cameras and phones before you enter. Talking, putting your hands in your pockets and photography are strictly prohibited in the mausoleum. The queue usually snakes for several hundred metres to the mausoleum entrance and inside, filing past Ho’s body at a slow but steady pace.

No talking.  No smiling.  Do dawdling.  The inner sanctum was freezing and Uncle Ho was waxy.  The whole experience was beyond bizarre.  No photos allowed, so I pulled the one above off the net.

On the same grounds as the Mausoleum lie the Presidential Palace (above) and Ho Chi Minh’s Stilt House.  Both are described in Vinpearl:

The Presidential Palace is a part of the Presidential Palace Historical Site complex, where President Ho Chi Minh lived and worked between December 19, 1954 and September 2, 1969. Recognized as a special national [historic] site, the complex is likened to a museum featuring the life of President Ho. Even though the Presidential Palace is closed to tourists, the house of Ho Chi Minh and adjacent grounds are still open to visitors.

The Presidential Palace was built between 1900 and 1906 as the presidential area of the Governor-General of French Indochina. It was designed in a European style by a French architect named Auguste Henri Vildieu. Having taken approximately 7 years to be built, this structure was the most luxurious construction [in Vietnam] at that time.

After 1954, it was originally intended to be President Ho Chi Minh's official residence. Yet he refused, feeling that it would be inappropriate to stay in such a large and opulent building while his people were homeless and starving. Instead, he lived nearby in a traditional Vietnamese house-on-stilts surrounded by a garden and a fish pond.

The Presidential Palace is now mainly used for meeting foreign national officials as well as important guests from all over the world coming to Vietnam.

Above is the office where Uncle Ho worked before he moved into the stilt house.  Note the framed photographs of Marx and Lenin over his desk.  (By the way, Lenin also got stuffed and is on view in Red Square)

The house on stilts was a gorgeous wood construction like something that Frank Lloyd Wright might have designed.  From Vinpearl:

The wooden stilt house was where President Ho lived and worked from 1958 to 1969. It was roofed with baked clay tiles and made of Menghundor, a common wood in Vietnam. The first floor was used as the living room where the President would receive guests. The second floor, with two rooms of 10 square meters, was where he worked and slept. The house was furnished simply and neatly, reflecting the President's modest way of life.

Also on the palace grounds is the One Pillar Pagoda, a popular spot for selfies.   From Vinpearl: 

Researchers indicated that between 1028 and 1054, during the Ly dynasty, Emperor Ly Thai Tong erected One Pillar Pagoda. According to the legend, Emperor Ly Thai Tong once had a dream in which the female Buddhist goddess, Quan Am Bo Tat, invited him to a lotus seat. He made the decision to construct a holy place in the shape of a lotus flower after explaining this tale to a monk, Thien Tue.

Due to its ability to bloom and spread its fragrance while emerging from a dirty environment, the lotus is revered in Confucianism and Buddhism as a representation of purity, prosperity, and wisdom. One Pillar Pagoda is regarded as the Emperor's sincere expression of thanks to Quan Am Bo Tat.

We needed one last egg coffee before leaving Vietnam and we decided to see if we could find the coffee shop recommended by the young man from Hanoi we met on the train the day we left Saigon for Mui Ne.  

We figured out from the screen shot we took of his phone that the name we were looking for was Cafe Dinh:  With a tap on Google Maps, voila!   

Back at the hotel, our concierge gifted us some honey sesame candies and got us into our cab for the airport. The flight to Siem Reap left on-time and was uneventful, just the way we like them.  The trip from the airport to our accommodation was another story.

We had booked at Dontrei Villa through booking.com, and the hotel had arranged for an airport pickup by a Tuk Tuk driver.  He met us in his open-sided, rickety vehicle, powered by a 50 cc motorcycle engine, hoisted our suitcases into the space between him and us, and off we hurtled into the darkness. 

I hadn’t really paid much attention to the distance from the airport to Dontrei Villa, nor had I realized that we would be traveling on a four-lane, unlit highway at night, in a vehicle with the power and speed of a souped-up lawn mower, sharing the road with large trucks and speeding taxis, for a travel time of a little over an hour and a half.  Our driver, who was perhaps more accustomed to country roads, kept hitting the reflectors embedded in the asphalt, causing the Tuk Tuk to bounce briefly into the adjacent lane, threatening to catapult us and our luggage into the dark, flat, arid, stifling hot void of Cambodia. 

Our driver, whose name I have repressed, deposited us safely at Dontrei Villa at close to 9 pm, and we arranged for him to pick us up at 4 am the following morning, as we had booked a sunrise tour of Angkor Wat.

We waved" see you later" to the Tuk Tuk driver and entered the Dontrei Villa courtyard, where we found a lovely tropical setting, festive lighting, and a relaxed concierge.  Even though it was late, he assured us we could wander over to the outdoor dining room at our leisure and order dinner.  Very chill and just what we wanted after our hair-raising ride from the airport.

 

 

The room was one of the nicest of our entire trip, with a private pool and an outdoor wash station.  A quick unpack, a toe dipped into the pool (delightful!), and then over to the restaurant for a Margarita, a Mojito, and a light dinner. 

 

We were out of Vietnam now and in Cambodia, facing a whole new language, culture, currency, and exchange rate, but with a familiar Saigon-like climate.  It was 30°c at 11pm and very humid.  Thank goodness for that pool!

Keep it real!

Marilyn