Hanoi Things to Do Tips by NedHopkins

The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum is adjacent to a large park that includes the HCM Museum, the Presidential Palace, the house in which Ba (Uncle) Ho lived the final 15 years of his life, and the famous One-Storey Pagoda.

Though I declined to visit the Lenin Mausoleum on my visits to Moscow, I gladly waited and trod in the line to see the mummified remains of little man who fought the French, the Japanese, the Chinese, and the Americans for his country's independence. Despite land reform excesses early in his rule of "North" Vietnam, Ho was a humanitarian compared with such Communist monsters as Pol Pot, Mao Tse-tung, Stalin, and -- yes -- Lenin. He lived simply, unlike Mao and Stalin, and -- also unlike them -- conducted no massive purges. (Lenin ordered the Tsar and his family murdered; Ho allowed Emperor Bao Dai to leave Vietnam for a sybaritic exile in the south of France.)

A short distance behind the mausoleum is the impressive HCM Museum, with interesting displays from Ba Ho's life as well as his and his countrymen's struggle for independence.

One of those displays is a small memorial pagoda (pictured below). The clock in the left foreground is stopped at the hour and minute of Ho's death in September 1969, nearly six years before his dream of an independent and united Vietnam was finally achieved. (Lonely Planet claims photographs are not permitted in the museum. That is not true.)

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Directions: Ba Dinh District

The 'Temple of Literature' was founded in 1070 as a school for budding Confucian scholars. Unlike most similar Chinese institutions, which adhered to a regimen of Confucian studies well into the 20th century, the Vietnamese added natural history and other fields of study. By the time of the French takeover, in the mid-19th century, the 'Temple of Literature' was a full-fledged university, with offerings not only in Confucian studies but also in a broad range of the arts and sciences.

Surrounded now by the modern and bustling city of Hanoi, the 'Temple of Literature' is an oasis of calm and a splendid example of Vietnamese architecture.

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Directions: About a mile west of the Old Quarter

Hoa Lu, two to three hours south of Hanoi by road, is interesting for two attractions: 1) its setting amidst karsts that arise out of the ground in the same way Ha Long Bay's do out of the water and 2) two temples that date back a thousand years.

The karsts, typically surrounded by rice paddies, are dramatic.

The temples come from a brief period (980-1009) when Hoa Lu was the capital of Vietnam -- a much smaller nation then than now -- under the short-lived Dinh and Le dynasties.

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Address: South on Highway 1A, about 50 miles from Hanoi

Tam Coc is a little over 60 miles south of Ha Noi. It's notable for its dramatic landscape which includes karsts and caves on the Ngo Dong River.

The house in the picture is a typical Vietnamese structure -- three to five stories high, deep, and narrow, often with an open area on the top floor. (In the south houses are more likely to be only half as wide.)

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Address: South from Ha Noi on Highway 1A