Uncle Ho, Bamboo Hats and Hong Kong
I am writing this almost 10 days since we departed Vietnam. We did, as mentioned in the previous post, arrive at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum a little later than planned- 7:25am to be exact. We headed for several apparent entries to the site but on duty guards would inevitably stop us and direct us towards the left. We eventually found the main entrance for "tourist riff raff" and locals some distance from the tomb. We quickly joined the line, which seemed to consist of several tour groups from China. One spent some time chatting with Susanna who understood their dialect. They seemed somewhat stunned as she discussed Canadian weather and pulled up photos on her phone of our front yard buried to a depth of 3 feet in snow. Our line barely moved between 7:30 and 8am but shortly after began to move forward at a rather fast pace. After clearing security we were released into the main Mausoleum Gardens. Our entry into the tomb was delayed somewhat due to a large group of students...