ATTRACTIONS - Western Quarter

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During the French-colonial era, this district of tree-lined boulevards and grand villas was named for its proximity to the central Hoan Kiem Lake and for the people allowed to live here. The Western Quarter was something of a ‘gated community’ for foreign expats. A walk-around here – for example along Dien Bien Phu St from the center, past the Lenin statue by the flagtower to Ba Dinh Square goes by some of Hanoi’s most luscious addresses, now home to embassies, cultural centers and – previously – General Vo Nguyen Giap, who did a fair share of work in getting Vietnamese control of it in the first place.

→ Note the museum is closed Monday and Friday, and Ho’s house and museum are closed Monday and Friday afternoon. You can see it all in half a day.

HO CHI MINH MAUSOLEUM
Nothing speaks of the immortality of a political theory than people made of plastic. Well, maybe that’s not fair, but – against his wishes – Ho Chi Minh follows Lenin, Mao (and Stalin) into the world of embalmment and grand military-style marble mausoleums in the nation’s capital’s great central plaza. And, without a doubt, all visitors to Hanoi should come.

The mausoleum (built with Soviet help in 1975, six years after Ho’s death) is set on Ba Dinh Square, 2km west of Hoan Kiem Lake, the site where Ho quoted the US Declaration of Independence on September 2, 1945, while starting Vietnam’s 30-year quest for their own. You can wander the square freely.

On all days but Monday and Friday, visitors queue in huge lines for the mausoleum that move quickly for a 70-second, air-conditioned look at Ho. Guards run a very organized line and system: women in ao dais bark orders in walkie-talkies and divide visitors into two lines divided by height (!), give plastic bags to carry cellphones in. You have to hand over cameras, which are transported to the exit and returned (this is Vietnam’s most efficient customer service without a doubt).

As you approach the mausoleum you’ll see one of Ho’s famous quotes: ‘khong co gi quy hon doc lap tu do’ (‘nothing is more valuable than independence and freedom’) As you go in try to stick to the left of the two lines for the closer looks at Ho and his goatee. Remember the rules: no shorts, no talking or hats on inside the mausoleum, and obviously no photography or videos.

Ba Dinh Square, lines start a block west of the building (at Ngoc Ha & Le Hong Phong Sts); admission free; open Apr-Oct: 7.30-10.30am Tue-Thu, 7.30am-11am Sat & Sun, Nov-Mar: 8-11am Tue-Thu, 8-11.30am Sat & Sun

HO CHI MINH’S HOUSE
After filing thru the mausoleum, follow the walkway north, where you’ll reach a ticket office to Ho Chi Minh’s House and then pass by the (restricted) Presidential Palace, a golden century-old palace built to be the home of the French Governor-General of Indochina.

Through the gardens is the popular Ho’s house, a modest Vietnamese-style home on stilts. Ho had it built after defeating the French in 1954. You can walk up to peek into his living and working areas, and look over the pond it face. You exit on the other side at a frenetic collection of ice-cream stands, Pepsi ads, souvenir t-shirts and crafts shops. A new age, innit?

Admission US$0.65; open Apr-Oct: 7:30-11am & 2-4pm Tue-Thu, Sat & Sun, 7.30-11am Fri; Nov-Mar: 8-11am & 1.30-4pm Tue-Thu, Sat & Sun, 8-11am Fri

ONE-PILLAR PAGODA
The exit from Ho’s house leads on a garden road (past more souvenir stands) to one of Hanoi’s most cherished symbols, the tiny One-Pillar Pagoda. Built originally in 1049 on a realized dream by the aged, heirless superstitious king Ly Thai Tong – who dreamt of Buddha providing a male son (Ly Thai Tong then married a village girl and got his son). Other stories say he built it to ‘hook up with’ the Goddess of Mercy for eternity. The square pond features the unique lone-pillar pagoda – a common spot for couples and families to pose for photographs. It’s actually a reconstruction: the French blew up the original in 1954, as a departing gesture of congratulation after losing the war.

HO CHI MINH MUSEUM
Slagged as dated commie propaganda – and it is – this memorable Soviet-aided museum is a bizarre wonderworld of socialist realism exhibits unlike anything you’ll see in Southeast Asia. It’s the best of the many Ho Chi Minh Museums around the country (admittedly not saying much), and surely worth a 30-minute peek to cap off a morning in the mausoleum area – even if it sends the majority of visitors shaking their heads.

The odd three-storey white building is designed in a lotus-leaf shape and opened in 1990 (Ho’s 100th birthday); its layout’s symbolism (past/present/future) is beyond comprehension to novices (or most museum workers). There are photo exhibits on the second-floor – with English subtitles and photos of Ho chuckling with Mao – but the best is the third-floor with a chronological walk-around with mystifying gems like glass-panel etchings of early-days industrialization, a maze-like walk through Picasso images and sculptures, and a 1958 Ford Edsel bursting through the wall (the car – a notable US failure – refers to US Secretary of State Robert McNamara’s days with the car company). My visit timed with workers vacuuming out exhibit floors – a hilarious juxtaposition. Sometimes staff may you check cameras, sometimes they happily let you snap away.

Admission US$0.65; open 8-11.30am & 2-4pm Tue-Thu, Sat & Sun, 8-11.30am Fri

B-52 POND
Huu Tiep Lake, about a kilometer west of the mausoleum (and lost in backroads), is a ugly moss-covered pond surrounded by modern housing with the remains of a B-52 bomber shot down by North Vietnamese artillery in 1972 (when this whole area was undeveloped). Some motorcycle guys around the mausoleum will offer a look at it, and scrappy artillery museum. It should cost a couple dollars to go see them and return to the center. It’s very hard to find on your own.

MILITARY HISTORY MUSEUM
A 300m-walk back towards the center from the mausoleum area – and across from a Lenin Statue – this museum’s most interesting exhibits are outside. The red-brick Flagtower (built by King Gia Long’s orders in 1812) offers a good vantage of the fascinating scrap-heap sculpture, pieced together of bomb-blasted wreckage from the American War. Inside are dated, photo-heavy exhibits on the military’s role in gaining independence with its wars against France and the USA. The highlight is the blinking-light diorama and film on Dien Bien Phu (the 1954 war-ending battle). Nearby a French helmet with a clean bullet hole reads ‘evidence of French failure.’

The museum is actually at the southern gate of the Citadel, built on the site of the conquered Imperial City by Gia Long (the first king of the Nguyen Dynasty), who unified south, central and north Vietnam in a bloody swoop in 1802 – then moved the capital to Hue (sacre bleu!). Little remains of the imperial past inside, but you can see the flagtower here, and the four gates that surround the walls that extend all the way north to Phan Dinh Phung St; if you’re up there, look for the cannon-cracked walls near Bac Mon Gate, which came from battles with French troops in 1882. (Hanoi’s planning to open up more of the Citadel in time for its 1000th birthday in 2010.)

Museum: 28 Dien Bien Phu St; admission US$1.25; open 8-11.30am & 1-4.30pm Tue-Thu, Sat & Sun