Going to the Mountains

 Yesterday was spent in part seeing a few sights in Hanoi and then transitioning to the mountains.  Our fearless leader is Trinh, who not only helps to translate the language but also the culture and history.  

First stop was Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum.  We got there riding cyclos, which are bicycles with a comfy seat in the front to ride while someone else does the pedaling.  Back to the mausoleum.  Likely the most popular spot to visit in Hanoi for domestic tourists, it is tribute to a revered leader who helped to usher independence to Vietnam.  I don’t think the significance of his leadership can be overstated.  He died in 1969 but they had to hide his embalmed body until the end of the war, and then this mausoleum was created.  Adjacent to it is the Presidential palace where he declined to live, preferring a small stilt house similar to the type common in the mountains, where he grew up.  The Presidential palace is still where visiting dignitaries are welcomed.  It dates back to 1901 and French colonial rule (former Indochina’s General Governor palace), and so living in the stilt house is a commentary as well of the excesses of colonialism.  

 

The bus ride to the northwest mountains was…an event.  Let us stipulate here that our driver, Tinh, is a Zen Master of driving on some pretty tortuous and narrow roads.  The drive included passing some huts clinging to the side of the mountain, passing on some curves that rendered several of us a bit rattled, and some amazing views.  Included also was needing to stop as the locals were spreading chips to resurface a segment of the road.  Trinh actually helped to shovel chips for a bit.  And then the cows came home too.  

We ended up on the Hoa Binh lake which is part lake part reservoir that owes its existence to the hydroelectric dam at one end.  More on that in the next post. 

The dam was built in the 1994 with Soviet assistance and the 200km lake is beautiful with many fish weirs dotting it.  That dam is a solution to cyclical flooding of Hanoi that resulted in deaths and is the largest hydroelectric dam in Vietnam, thereby going a long way to helping solve their electrical needs.