Fifth day in Vietnam, finally saw some Vietnamese girls wore Long Dress, the Vietnamese women traditional costume, which ‘covers everything, but also reveals everything’!
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Some Vietnamese school children with their teacher. A lot of organized trip from schools in Vietnam to pay Uncle Ho Chi Minh respect.

Presidential Palace was residence of the Governor-General of French Indochina before been served as a state guest house since 1954. Ho Chi Minh believed the building should belong to the people and chose to live in an electrician’s hut on the ground. The Presidential Palace is not opened for visitors, so we could only glanced from afar.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, or in Vietnamese, Lang Ho Chi Minh, is where the remains of Ho Chi Minh (despite against his wish to be cremated) are kept. He is venerated as national hero and father of the Vietnam. There seemed to be 2 entrances to the Mausoleum. The entrance that we were, the queue was mainly formed by Vietnamese, and occasionally tourists came by walking. Adeline paid VND 4,000 each which until now I still don’t know what it was for. Anyway, this was the first time in Vietnam that I saw Vietnamese girls in full traditional long dress costume.
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Hanoi Citadel is a restricted area, once called Thang Long Citadel, home to the imperial city. I hardly noticed the citadel until I saw this 31 m high Hanoi Flag Pillar, a former guard tower, built in 1812 under the Nguyen Dynasty.

Before reaching Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the statue of Lenin is in a triangular shaped square on the side of Dien Bien Phu, the main road to Ba Dinh district.

Ba Dinh district is the main tourist attraction in Hanoi where several principal sights located here. We decided to walk to here after a short rest in Hotel. It was a bad idea, as the weather was steamily hot. But it’s not too far away from Hanoi Old Quarter (Hoan Kiem District).

The railway track on the back alley of houses
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We checked in Wing Hotel at about 8 am, and unexpectedly they request additional USD $3 for early check-in, contrary to what they promised us. Anyway, we didn’t have much choice, as I was very tired, uncomfortable and painful due to sunburnt. Worst was the weather in Hanoi today was very very very hot.

Hungry, we just looked for any food stall to have a breakfast. So we had this. Its name may be called Xoi, but I was not so sure about that. Adeline didn’t quite like it, but I felt that it’s okay. The meat tasted a bit like luncheon. The breakfast costs us about VND 7,000.

We arrived in Hanoi at about 4.30 am wee hour in the morning. We felt it was not nice to wake up the Wing Hotel’s warden so early (they have curfew at night), so went to Hoan Kiem Lake to get a feel of Hanoi in the morning instead. The bonus for the early bird was sunrise over Hoan Kiem Lake.
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