Guards approaching Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum for the changing of the guards. Hanoi, Vietnam.

Our first impression of Vietnam–thanks to the airport–was that we were walking into some sort of police state. Any sort of official in Hanoi is dressed in a military-style outfit. Traffic police, officials checking parking and so on are all made to appear like authority figures.

It’s most visible in places like the Ho Chi Minh park, where his mausoleum is located. Barriers herd visitors while guards stand watch, stern eyes follow your every move and smiles are hidden behind closed doors.

These were our first impressions of Vietnam. I will move on to our later impressions in later updates but if you want to spoil the surprise, let’s just say they were very different indeed.

Day Forty-Six
London
22 September 2007 22:43

We got up early this morning, quickly ate some breakfast and rushed to the museum — which is close by — to line up for a chance to get one of 500 tickets to see the terracotta warriors.  The tickets are only available in person and as the exhibit is booked solid this was our only chance to see it.

As luck would have it, we did get two tickets after waiting almost an hour.  Next we rushed, via the tube, to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards.  We arrived around half an hour early (as advised by almost everyone) and when we saw the massive crowd, realised we should have come an hour early.

Fighting our way through the crowd, we jostled for a good position.  After around 15 minutes I lost sight of Justine but soon found here right at the front of the crowd, snapping photos.  The changing of the guard was interesting but is lessened but the immense size of the crowd.

We finished off all but one Monopoly street; Whitechapel Road was particularly seedy as had been Old Kent Road previously.  Rushing back to the museum in order to make our allocated entry time we weren’t able to get to Portobello Road as we would have liked.

The terracotta warriors exhibit only had around 20 of the 7000+ warriors, but they are still quite impressive to see in person.  Taller than life size, they are surprisingly life-like and quite imposing.  Standing directly in front of one and staring into it’s eyes, you can easily imagine them springing to life.

After finishing off Monopoly we headed out to a Korean restaurant for dinner.  The barbecued the food at our table and we wrapped meat, vegies and rice in lettuce leaves.  Sort of like Korean tacos.