Cont.....

To dead guys and sour soup then.

Right slap in the middle of the City is a Mallosium for Ho Chi Min. For context it looks like great Parthenon meets the Death Star. We were separated into two lines at the first check point ordered to surrender our bags, cameras at phones at check point two, and final at check point three girls had to cover up. Being of the male race and clearly superior as long as my shorts came to the knee I was in the clear with my t-shirt.

We continued along at a brisk pace like mourners in a funeral procession passing dozens of stern faced rows of immaculately presented soldiers eyes fixed and unwavering, bearing into every corner of your soul. If they were British they would be 00's if they were Russian KGB and everyone else storm troopers! We were frog marched into parthodeathstar, a non-resistant conveyor belt.

As soon as we crossed the threshold an icy cold greeted us so thick you could taste it. It was as if an evil shade had settled upon that place. A soldier grabbed my arms and pushed them by my side and thrust me forward. He silenced my protest and moved me along to the next guard to be roughly manhandled in the same manner.

Maybe this was special treatment reserved for foreigners! We entered a colder room still, I had goosebumps all over my arms, this was properly cold and properly creepy! There was a narrow coffin like glass box in a high vaulted ceiling room. Mounted on the wall were two flags blood red flags, the star of Vietnam and knife and scythe of the soviet union. The glass coffin was surrounded by the scariest guards yet. To all you Harry Potter fans they looked like death eaters....

In the box on horrid display starred back the perfectly preserved aged body of president Ho Chi Minh. Every last hair was perfect. I expected him to move at any moment. He had been dead 40 years! There was an awed silence in the crypt as another chill racked my body. Here was a man without a soul, without any spark of life but displayed in all his humanity.

I was glad to be ushered from his lack of presence.

As to sour soup..... Wouldn't really recommend it to anyone... But give it a go, let me know what you think?