Hanoi February 4, 2023

Toured Hanoi, weather cloudy with very light drizzle, mild temp. Lunch on our own and dinner with the group, about 80 of us tour in three busses. Dinner was at a French fusion place. Today was our 45th anniversary.


Updated rickshaws 


Visited Ho Chi Minh’s home and final resting place, very modest guy, this was his office.
Tree enveloping wall at Confucius temple.
Some of Confucius’ teaching, interesting how sins in past life result in bad stuff in this one.
Bonsai
Confucius was a teacher, he is revered.
Asian New Year occurred recently, cumquats fruit this time of year and are considered lucky
Ho Chi Minh’s burial place - he is well preserved and can be viewed for several hours each day, same manner as Lenin in Moscow. Ho willed that he be cremated, which is unusual for Vietnam, to avoid the spectacle like Lenin but his followers decided to postpone cremation in favor of a Solviet style treatment - Russians built his tomb.
Names of accomplished scollers were added to these tablets but over years names faded
Insence is a common offering
Entrance to Confucius temple
Another of tree and wall
Entrance to Hanoi Hilton, a prison built by the French to punish political enemies, later vied by the N. Vietnamese to hold downed US pilots - John McCain was here 5 years. The Vietnamese have an interesting view of the war - they fought to remove foreign oppression, they were colonized by the Chinese and then the French. The US supported a faction within S. Vietnam who wanted power. N Vietnam, led by Ho Chi Minh wanted to unite Vietnam, he was not a communist but was forced to buddy up with Russia for support and weapons. Although Vietnam is communist it does not have centralized control like Russia and China - it’s very capitalist with free markets, ownership of land, etc., but only one party is allowed.


 Confucius.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

South America 1

Image
 Departed Atlanta for Viking S. American cruise Jan 30 arriving Santiago Chile early the next morning, weather there was warm, sunny and dry in the 90’s. After an early check in we joined up with a walking tour via Uber. The group, Americans mostly visited a few public buildings and churches, we were running on fumes having slept little on the flight. As usual, pictures are not in chronological order, I have not mastered this program so I’ll just deal with it. This post covers departure thru day 3 of our cruise. The day after arriving Santiago we explored on our own before heading to Valparaiso where we boarded Viking Jupiter. Santiago is nestled between to mountain ranges, Andes to the east and Coastal Range to the west, it’s hilly, on the largest hill is a statue of the Virgin Mary, we went up via funicular, great views of the city. Early afternoon we took a van to Valparaiso, about two hours and boarded Jupiter. Hotel in Santiago. Feb 4 was our 47th anniversary, had a nice dinne...
Read more

South America 3

Image
 After three sea days we stopped at Puerto Madryn, Argentina and saw lots of penguins. We are heading north in the south Atlantic having rounded the horn. We were originally scheduled to stop at the Falkland Islands where there are many penguin colonies but high winds made tendering impossible so we passed the islands by and stopped at Puerto Madryn further north. Puerto Madryn was founded by Welsh settlers - South America has encouraged groups from Europe to settle, there are areas with Germans (well before the Nazis), Bosnians and others - the Welsh wanted a separate state but settled on a remote colony to limit influence of other cultures. Today mining Bauxite for aluminum, fishing and sheep ranches are the main industries. Unlike the west coast of S. America it’s very flat and dry, windy too. The bus trip to the Punta Tomba penguin colony took 2 1/2 hours but it was worth it - the colony has 18,000 pairs of Majalantic penguins, there are 18 species, all south of the equator exc...
Read more

South America 2

Image
 We are cruising south, after several sea days stopped in Punta Arenas Chile, a small town on the mainland. Originally a penal colony but since so remote that did not work well so immigration offers were extended, Croatians accepted so many of them here. Along the way we got close to a glacier. J Glacier up ahead. Glacier is about 200 feet tall, two miles wide. Monument in the center of Punta Arenas commemorates Magellan and native peoples. One native group had big feet, Patagonia means big foot in Spanish, thus the name of this area of Chile/Argentina. Roast piglet for dinner.  View from upper area of Ushuaia, the southern most city in the southern hemisphere. We are now in Argentina. Ushuaia is the departure point for many Antarctica expeditions.  Panorama from view spot. In Ushuaia we visited an outdoor museum with old farm and construction equipment as well as houses, shops etc. Another shot from view point. Note the collection of locks left by lovers.
Read more