Uncle Ho

This morning Geoff and I got up early to go pay a visit to Ho Chi Minh, or "Uncle Ho" as he is known here. After he died in 1969, he was embalmed, ala Lenin, and put on display in a mausoleum in central Hanoi. The mausoleum is very similar to Lenin's, an imposing Soviet-style bunker.

Many Communist leaders have been mummified. The first was Lenin, who is still on display in Moscow. The only other one you can see today is Mao Zedong. Stalin was on display briefly, while Kim Il-Sung was mummified, though I don't know if the public was allowed to view him. The same goes for Sukhbaatar, the great Mongolian leader. Supposedly the Soviets preserved him, but I'm not sure if he was ever viewed by the public.

In most respects, seeing Ho Chi Minh is like seeing Mao. You must leave your bags, cameras, and just about everything at the bag check (though you must pay some money in China) and then join the queue. In China, there is a continuously moving line, while in Hanoi, they take groups of fifty or so at a time.

It is best to visit in the morning, since the lines are the shortest. To get there early we took a taxi, and the fare was about twice what it should have been as the driver had a crooked meter. After we arrived he had the gall to say that the meter was for one person and we'd have to pay double the already rip-off price. Then he refused to give us our change. I suggested that we get a police officer to help us and he gave me some of the change and didn't cough up the rest until I started writing his info down. Despite this, Hanoi is still better than Ho Chi Minh City.

The line starts forming at the security gate near the mausoleum. There were two large mainland Chinese tour groups already there, but they were sitting in a rest area near the gate. While we were waiting two Chinese girls came up to us to get our picture. I deal with enough of that BS in China and turned around.

Once the sun came up it started to get hot so we walked to a shaded area near where the line would start forming. I guess the Chinese groups thought that they needed to hurry to get in the front because they immediately rushed to get in front of us. Even after the line formed to where we were standing some of them kept cutting in front.

The best part came when a VIP group got to go in early. One of the Chinese groups tried to jump the queue and go in with them. They were rebuffed, and when the rest of us got to go in they were told to go to the back of the line since they tried to cut. Since they lost face one of the men flipped out and started yelling. After that didn't work they all went across the road and waited. Truly, seeing them get their comeuppance made my day, if not the whole trip. I only wished the soldiers would have come over and forcibly ejected them from the area.

Inside the mausoleum, Ho Chi Minh looks like a wax dummy, but much more lifelike than Mao. Like in Mao's mausoleum, you don't have much time to look, as the soldiers keep you moving. Overall it's a bit more dignified than Mao; after you leave you're in a nice park, and don't have to run the gauntlet of knick-knack sellers. Now all I need to do is to see Lenin, and then I'll have completed the unholy trinity of Communist corpses.