Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Hanoi Highlights

Spending a few days in Vietnam’s capital. Lonely Planet is reliably guiding me to some nice sights, but there have been a few surprises along the way. First, the “One Pillar Pagoda.” While attractive (…and harmonious), this gravity-defying edifice turns out to be smaller than a San Francisco garage. Oh, and it’s teetering atop a pillar that’s about as tall as me.










On the other hand, the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum is unexpectedly large. HCM lived reasonably simply throughout his life—and explicitly requested that NO memorial be created in his honor after he passed. So much for that posthumous wish.


Spent my second morning here at the “Temple of Literature.” Begun as a monument to Confucius (in around 1000 A.D.), this became the first National University of Vietnam. Hmmm, I’ve been to Princeton, which fancies itself as venerable, and Santa Barbara, which considers its campus beautiful, and they have nothing on this place.









Lastly, my favorite store so far. To the best of my knowledge, if you want to find one of these in the States, you need to go to the Mall of America …and you probably don’t want to do that ;-)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Ok, I believe your remarks about Princeton and UCSB being upstaged. Mall of America's Lego store, however, womps big petudy on that little establishment. In fact, half the lego creations at the MOA store are bigger than that place.

Still, as you note, one must go to Mall of Stupidity to partake of it and that is not an ancient-civilization experience. The amusement park's cool though. Somehow floating in five or six feet of water in a log flume in the middle of a shopping mall is pretty amazing. And you don't have to buy the picture they take of you on the big drop.

Kris