Saturday, January 5, 2019

Hanoi: The One-Pillar Pagoda, the Thang Long Citadel, and the Temple of Literature

Today is our last day in Vietnam. Trying to maximize the value of time we started the day with the Ho Chi Minh complex, which hosts Ho Chi Minh himself in a mausoleum. The queue was too long, we didn't have a personal appointment with him, and I realized how much I loathe personality cults so we decided to skip him. His body is flown to Moscow every year for conservation. They have vast experience with this anyways. While Ho Chi Minh is continuing to fly to Moscow even long after his death we took a closer look at the One Pillar Pagoda which is located in the same park.


Sometimes looks more like a grocery store:

We've found the devil in the details. It's blue:



After a short walk we reached the Thang Long Citadel. The citadel was the government building complex from the 11th until the 19th century. From 1954 to 1975 the North Vietnamese military headquarters resided here.








After an extremely slowly served lunch we visited the Temple of Literature. This is a temple of Confucius built in the 11th century by the Ly dynasty.






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