Doesn't Thom look thrilled to be standing in front of the mausoleum where visitors line up for hours to see Ho Chi Minh's remains? Maybe because it's been called one of the world's ugliest buildings, an assessment I don't share as a cemetery aficionado. It just looks like a tombstone on steroids.
Call me macabre, but I was VERY disappointed when Thien said we didn't have time to go inside. At least we'd gotten to see Lenin's desiccated corpse lying in state when we visited Moscow 15 years earlier. For many years after Ho Chih Minh was finally laid to rest here in 1975, the Vietnamese shipped "Uncle's" body to Russia for annual refreshment. The display of dead bodies goes a long way towards keeping the cult of personality alive.
Thien photographed our tour group, which soon became known as the "Sticky Rice Crew" (7 Brits, 3 Yanks, 2 Canadians and 2 Danes) on What's App.
Afterward, we got a glimpse of the Presidential Palace, erected by colonial forces to house the governor of French Indochina.
Thom decided he'd found the exterior color scheme for the Florida Folly.
Ho Chi Minh lived modestly nearby on a small lake for many years.
It's the only time during our trip that I felt as if we were under strict surveillance.
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