::: March 12, 2017 VIETNAM, Hanoi City Tour

I frequently go on a City Tour if I am in an unfamiliar place. I find you get a good overview of the city and if you want, you can revisit any place you want later. There are many places to see in Hanoi and we visited only some of them.

First, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum which was an experience not soon forgotten. The whole event took 3 1/2 hours from the moment we alighted from our bus until we sat down again. All of this for a 10 second brisk walk by viewing of the preserved body of Ho Chi Minh, Chairman of the Communist Party of Vietnam from 1951-1969. He is considered the founding father of Vietnam. He was also President and Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. We waited in line for 2 1/2 hours, viewed other areas of the complex and walked several kilometres. It helped to chat with our group and our tour guide was there to give us encouragement. Photography with a big camera was not allowed for most of it. My friend did manage a few shots and combined with mine, I have a few to offer. There were thousands of people, school kids, over 5000 Chinese tourists and thousands of other tourists. A small section of the lineup.

 

 

Regular guards...

 

 

Special Honour Guards ... sorry for picture quality as "photos not allowed".

Note: For those that want to see pics of Ho Chi Minh body you can go here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh_Mausoleum

 

Exiting ...