I was planning to go see the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum today, where his body is kept, but it was closed. So I saw the palace and the museum instead.

I heard quite an impressive list of rules about visiting the body, such as you are not allowed bags, no shorts, you can't speak, you have to follow the line of tourists, no cameras or photos, and no putting hands inside your pockets. Then we are shepherded around by guards watching our every move... seems like this guy was taken pretty seriously.

The museum was a tribute to Ho Chi Minh and his philosophies and such, and we couldn't go inside the palace but could walk around the grounds... in an organised fashion of course. I wanted to go back and see something I had skipped but a guard told me I couldn't go against the flow.

There were soldiers marching, several groups taking it in turns, and it was funny to go past the group marching and they would not even seem to notice you, and then walk past a group relaxing on the grass and they would whistle and ask "hellloooooo, where you froooom?", a little bit creepy really..!

I walked around near the lake a bit, and obviously when I wanted to find a xe om to ride home, there were none so I had to retrace my steps and climb through a couple of badminton games until I finally found one.