Uncle Ho is Watching
Well despite our late arrival last night, it’s been a busy day all day long for us. We started off around 9:30 am with a full day ahead of us and the excitement of a new city to explore. One of the first things to notice about Hanoi is the air quality. While it’s not extremely bad, it’s still a bit more smoggy than it has been in other cities. Also, something cool that is happening is the Communist Party Congress is starting tomorrow, I believe this is where all of the major members of the party get together and lay out policy plans for the country over the next few years, sort of like a Democratic or Republican National Convention. Also leaders are chosen at the party congress so it’s a pretty big deal. Anyway in preparation for that the city is decked out in full patriotic fashion, and there isn’t a single street without at least 15 Vietnamese flags out.
Our first stop for the day was Uncle Ho’s (aka Ho Chi Minh’s) Mausoleum.
This was both cool and slightly creepy. They basically have his body preserved and covered over in wax, and on display within a huge memorial structure. It’s really cool how they have this practically living memorial of what I basically see as the embodiment of their nation. Although I can’t imagine having the US preserve someone like George Washington in a memorial.
After viewing Ho Chi Minh’s body we wandered through the presidential complex which contained the presidential palace which is still used today to welcome international visitors, and as a place for the president to work. The complex also showcased Ho Chi Minh’s former residences, which were understandably, quite simple much unlike the US White House. Ho Chi Minh did have a nice selection of foreign cars that he used so I guess that’s where he indulged himself.
It was about time for lunch so we headed over to a restaurant called 1946 where we enjoyed a huge lunch with Dr. Ginger R. Davis and one of her students Anh Pham. I got to speak in depth with Anh on the subject of gaming which was really quite exciting. I have been curious ever since coming over here about the differences between gaming here and in the US. One of the biggest things is the acceptance of piracy here, many Vietnamese apparently use bit torrents to pirate games in order to circumvent Government censorship or to simply be able to afford to play a lot of the games that release. The government apparently doesn’t regard this as a huge offense, because they haven’t taken actions to stop the torrents, which is the complete opposite of how things are working in the US right now.
Apparently the Vietnamese government attempts to heavily censor the games over here due to violence or sexuality within the games. This generally applies to most of the games that are played online (generally MMORPGs) since it is easy to pirate offline games and work around censorship. It makes me really thankful for the freedoms we have in the US. I’m going to use this as a chance to plug my other blog Dungeons, Dragons, and Darley. This is going to the online version of my Trinitonian column, and I’m also hoping to add some extra content. I’ll certainly be going into some more details about my talk with Anh over there, so feel free to check it out. (Note, I probably won’t get to that until after returning to the US)
We enjoyed a Vietnamese history lecture after lunch from Dr. Ginger Davis, and it was quite interesting. It’s amazing how many times Vietnam has been exploited by colonialism, and it’s really sad how difficult a life these people have lived. One of the interesting things that came up in our discussion was recent Vietnamese – US relations. Dr. Davis, told us that the Vietnamese loved Clinton, and there were even some cafes in Hanoi named after him, and that they also shared similar feelings about Obama, although not quite as strong. However Bush was way too much of a warmonger for their liking and therefore was definitely not one of their favorite US leaders.
We finished the afternoon with a visit to the Temple of literature, which was a place dedicated education and knowledge. There was a courtyard that had tablets for each year since 1442 and on the tablets the names of students who passed the national doctorial exam were engraved. The tablets were also mounted on the backs of turtles which was pretty cool. I’m guessing this exam has to be extremely difficult since they are able to fit all the names on these stone tablets. This temple also had several shrines to Confucius which I believed was very symbolic of knowledge, but don’t quote me on that it was a little difficult to hear our guide.
All in all it was a good day although it was quite cold outside, and a little wet although there wasn’t too much rain. It’s amazing how many things we fit into each day, and I’m amazed I am able to maintain the energy I do. Tomorrow we head off to Ha Long Bay and our overnight on the Chinese Junk, I honestly don’t know why the boat is called that but I’ll let you know when I find out. Hopefully the weather will improve a little contrary to the forecast, I’m doubtful that I will have internet access tomorrow night, so I may not be able to update the blog. Rest assured that I’ll be back with another entry the day after, and it should be a good one.