Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [263]
Whatever the truth, most people find the pagoda an anticlimax – partly because of its size and the concrete restoration work, and partly because of the overpowering presence of Ho Chi Minh’s Museum. Behind the pagoda grows a bo tree, said to be an offshoot of the one under which the Buddha gained enlightenment, which was presented to Ho Chi Minh on a visit to India in 1958. Finally, take a peek in the adjacent Dien Huu Pagoda (daily 6–11am & 2–6pm): inside is a delightfully intimate courtyard full of potted plants and bonsai trees.
Hanoi and around | The City | Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and around |
Ho Chi Minh’s Museum
The angular, white building just 200m west of the One Pillar Pagoda is Ho Chi Minh’s Museum (daily 8–11am & 2–4pm; Mon & Fri closed 2–4pm; 15,000đ), built with Soviet aid and inaugurated on May 19, 1990, the hundredth anniversary of Ho’s birth. The museum celebrates Ho Chi Minh’s life and the pivotal role he played in the nation’s history; not surprisingly, this is also a favourite for school outings. Exhibits around the hall’s outer wall focus on Ho’s life and the “Vietnamese Revolution” in the context of socialism’s international development, including documents, photographs and a smattering of personal possessions, among them a suspiciously new-looking disguise Ho supposedly adopted when escaping from Hong Kong (see "The life of Ho Chi Minh" for more on Ho’s life story). Running parallel on the inner ring are a series of heavily metaphoric “spatial images”, six tableaux portraying significant places and events, from Ho’s birthplace in Nghe An to Pac Bo cave and ending with a symbolic rendering of Vietnam’s reunification. Go in for the surreal nature of the whole experience, but don’t expect to come away having learnt much more about the man.
Hanoi and around | The City | Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and around |
The Military History Museum and the Cot Co Flag Tower
From Ho Chi Minh’s Museum, head back east past Ba Dinh Square to Dien Bien Phu, a road lined with gnarled trees and former colonial offices - interspersed with gingerbread villas. Around 500m from the square, Lenin’s statue still stands opposite a white arcaded building housing the Military History Museum at 28 Dien Bien Phu (Tues–Thurs, Sat & Sun 8–11.30am & 1–4.30pm; 20,000đ). While ostensibly tracing the story of the People’s Army from its foundation in 1944, in reality the museum chronicles national history from the 1930s to the present day, a period dominated by the French and American wars, though it’s noticeably quiet on China and Cambodia.
The museum forecourt is full of weaponry: pride of place goes to a Russian MiG 21 fighter, alongside artillery from the battle of Dien Bien Phu (See "The Battle of Dien Bien Phu") and a tank from the American War, while the second courtyard is dominated by the mangled wreckage of assorted American planes piled against a tree. The exhibition proper starts on the arcaded building’s second floor and runs chronologically from the 1930 Nghe Tinh Uprising, through the August Revolution to the “People’s War” against the French, culminating in the decisive battle of Dien Bien Phu. If there’s sufficient demand, they’ll show an English-language video to accompany the battle’s diorama; despite the heavy propaganda overlay, the archive footage is fascinating, including Viet Minh hauling artillery up mountain slopes and clouds of French parachutists. Naturally, General Giap and Ho Chi Minh make star appearances – after the ubiquitous still images, it’s a shock to see Ho animated. The American War, covered in a separate hall at the rear, receives similar treatment with film of the relentless drive south to “liberate” Saigon in 1975.
Within the museum compound stands the thirty-metre Cot Co Flag Tower, one of the few remnants of Emperor Gia Long’s early nineteenth-century citadel, where the national flag now billows in place of the emperor’s yellow banner. In 1812, Vietnamese architects added several towers to the otherwise European-designed citadel, and when the French flattened the ramparts in the 1890s