Vietnam - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 839

25,000VND), built by the president in
1954 and modelled on an ethnic
minority stilt house. he ground-level
meeting area was used by Ho and the
politburo; upstairs, his study and
bedroom are austere, with a simple bed,
desk and bookcase on display. Ho Chi
Minh's cars, including a Soviet ZIL, are
parked nearby and the rather orange
Presidential Palace - a restored colonial
building - stands in stark contrast to the
leader's humble lodgings. Ho Chi Minh's
Museum (Mon-hurs, Sat & Sun
8-11.30am & 2-4pm, Fri 8-11.30am;
25,000VND) contains many
photographic displays, a collection of
“feudal and imperialist” objects and
symbolic art installations celebrating
Ho Chi Minh's life and the pivotal role
he played in the nation's history.
Close by the mausoleum is the tiny One
Pillar Pagoda , which rivals the Tortoise
Tower as a symbol of Hanoi and
represents a flowering of Vietnamese art.
Founded in the eleventh century (and
reconstructed in 1954), it is supported on
a single column rising from the middle of
a lake; the whole structure is designed to
resemble a lotus blossom, the Buddhist
symbol of enlightenment.

Confucian sanctuary and its historical
centre of learning (daily: mid-April to
mid-Oct 7.30am-5.30pm; mid-Oct to
mid-April 8am-5pm; 20,000VND). he
temple is one of the few remnants of
hang Long, the Ly kings' original
eleventh-century city, and consists of five
walled courtyards, modelled on that of
Confucius's birthplace in Qufu, China.
As you enter the third courtyard, via an
imposing double-roofed gateway, you'll
see the central Well of Heavenly Clarity
(a walled pond), flanked by the temple's
most valuable relics: 82 stone stelae
mounted on tortoises. Each stele records
the results of a state examination held at
the National Academy between 1442 and
1779, and gives biographical details of
successful candidates. he fourth
courtyard leads to the ceremonial hall , a
long, low building whose sweeping, tiled
roof is crowned by two lithe dragons
bracketing a full moon. Here, the king
and his mandarins would make sacrifices
before the altar of Confucius. Directly
behind the ceremonial hall lies the temple
sanctuary, where Confucius sits with his
four principal disciples. he fifth
courtyard was formerly the site of the
National Academy, Vietnam's first
university, which was destroyed by
French bombs in 1947.

11

Vietnam Military History Museum
he Vietnam Military History Museum , 28
Dien Bien Phu (Tues-hurs, Sat & Sun
8-11.30am & 1-4.30pm; 30,000VND;
W btlsqsvn.org.vn), chronicles military
history from the 1930s to the present day,
a period dominated by the French and
American wars, well documented in two
separate halls, and with a supporting cast
of weaponry from both wars as well as a
Soviet-built MiG-21 jet fighter. Unlike
HCMC's War Remnants Museum, the
captions here are still clogged with
outdated communist rhetoric - “spies”,
“bandits” and “puppet-regime soldiers”
are everywhere. Speaking of outdated
relics, there is a Lenin statue in the small
park opposite the museum.

Ho Tay (West Lake)
North of the city, cool breezes drift off
Ho Tay (West Lake) . In the seventeenth
century, villagers built a causeway across
the lake's southeast corner, creating a
small fishing lake still in use today and
now called Truc Bach . he eleventh-
century Quan Thanh Temple (daily
8am-5pm; 5000VND) stands on the
lake's southeast bank, and is dedicated to
the Guardian of the North, Tran Vo,
whose statue, cast in black bronze in
1677, is nearly 4m high and weighs 4
tonnes. he shrine room also boasts a
valuable collection of seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century poems and parallel
sentences (boards inscribed with wise
maxims and hung in pairs). he gate of
Quan hanh is just a few paces south of
the causeway, hanh Nien, which leads
to Hanoi's oldest religious foundation,

Temple of Literature
he Temple of Literature , or Van Mieu ,
west of the centre in a park off Nguyen
hai Hoc, is Vietnam's principal