Main attraction is the Citadel - complex of imperial palaces and temples - Forbidden City.
Good opportunity for a group photo.
Our guide - Hoc - introduced us to some basic facts from history of Vietnam. Favorable location - strip of fertile land separated from neighbours by mountains and jungle - enable creation of independent country already 3,000 years B.C. From year 111 B.C., for over 1,000 years Vietnam was dominated by China.
In 1292 Marco Polo visited Vietnam, some 300 years later it was visited by Portuguese missionaries, who introduced Latin alphabet.
The last imperial dynasty - Nguyen - came to power in 1802. In 1858 France attacked Vietnam and in 1887 it became a French colony under a name French Indochina.
Nguyen dynasty kept its imperial position, but they were just French marionettes. Situation changed in 1940 when Vietnam was attacked by Japan. Now the French administration formally subordinated to Vichy France - CLICK - was a Japanese marionette.
Year 1945 - Japan defeated, Vichy France government falls. Ho Chi Minh arrives in Vietnam. Educated in France and Soviet Union, with good connections in China.Ho Chi Minh was born as Nguyes Sinh Cung. Changed his name few times. Chi means will of spirit, Minh means bright, and Ho. Well Ho Chi Minh is a single exception among all Vietnamese names. Normally the last (third) segment of the name is the "first name" by which people are addressed. To address someone by the first segment of the name is a serious indelicacy, with the one exception - Ho, or as Vietnamese use to say - Uncle Ho.
It reminds me old times in Poland, end of 1960-ies. I used to visit a Club of Interational Press to read The New York Herald Tribune, international edition. Specially I liked Art Buchwald's - CLICK - column, always witty and mischievous.
One day he mentioned Uncle Ho. Here is the difference - he wrote - Vietnamese call their leader Uncle with his name as a suffix. Americans call their leaded son with some suffix.
Forbidden City consisted of 148 buildings. After French and American wars only 20 survived. None of them makes impression on me. Vietnamese flag adds some life to Forbidden City.
The next day is exciting, we will be passengers on motorbikes. I have to admit, I had strong reservations about it, which were shared by few people in our group, but eventually Hoc gently persuaded everybody to jump on the seat.
Our drivers have been carefully selected by Intrepid, it is a stable, well paid job, so they care about passengers comfort and safety. From the passenger seat we can appreciate their skills and intelligence and cooperation of all users of the road.
We ride mostly on side roads, among rice fields and small villages. We stop frequently. Sometimes it is just ducks kinder garden.
Parents watch from the other shore.
Building a dyke in a traditional way.
People are friendly, encourage us to try our own hand, usually with a pitiful outcome. Our guide suggests not to crowd around just one seller, spread around, give more people a chance to earn some money.
Important point of our excursion is a visit to a tomb of emperor Tu Duc - CLICK.
Our guide continues a brief lesson of history of Vietnam.
Emperor Tu Duc personally supervised construction of his tomb. The project started when he was still in the prime of his life. Reason was simple, he had no successor. Over 100 wives and concubines and no son.
Construction of the tomb lasted 9 years and caused an uprising of people forced to pay extra taxes and to provide free labour at the tomb.The uprising was suppressed and Tu Duc lived many years in his tomb spending time on poetry and hunting.
And guess what? Tu Duc has not been buried in his tomb. He has been buried in a secret location. All people employed at the burial have been beheaded and the locations stays secret till now.
Hoc mentioned the end of the empire. Ho Chi Minh induced the last emperor to abdicate and offered him some honorary position at the side of the government. The emperor chose to migrate to France.
It brings us to current times, communist government. Hoc does not hide his aversion to communism. An uncle of his mother was executed by communists only because he was a prosperous farmer.
Communist Party? It is mafia. Do you think anybody can join the Party? No way. There are only some 20,000 members. It is an exclusive club only for relatives of the original members.
It is not correct - Wikipedia says, that Communist Party of Vietnam has some 4.4 million members. I suppose Hoc meant those, who really count.
After the tour, at home, I do further research. Interesting, the economic policy of the Party is named Doi Moi - CLICK. What a coincidence - in Polish "doi" means to milk and "moi" means my (plural). So now we know who milks you my good Vietnamese people.
Wikipedia lists Vietnam among countries with the highest corruption in the world.
It is time to corrupt slightly our drivers. For a while we take over the handlebars of the motobikes.
The next visit - Thien Mu Pagoda - CLICK - beautiful complex on the bank of Perfume River.
Hoc - who declared himself as Buddhist - explained the difference between a temple and pagoda. In Buddhism there is no god, so it is not a religion, thus we do not have temples, but pagodas.
Still in many sources I find mentions of Buddhist temples. Interestingly, when I looked at the Internet, I noticed that most people, who ask question about difference between temple and pagoda, are those who visited Vietnam.
One of noticeable exhibits in Thien Mu Pagoda is a car of Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk who self-immolated himself in year 1963 in protest against persecution of Buddhists.
Persecution of religious by the Communist Government?
No, persecution by right-wing government of South Vietnam.
Complicated is the history of this country.
We leave motorbikes and board a boat, which brings us back to Hue.
PS. I would like to acknowledge a following comment:
" I took the photo (from the forbidden city) without the flag, that’s the heritage. There were more than 3,000 victims of a massacre at Hue in 1968 by the VC (Viet-Cong - communists)."
Thank you Peter for bringing a wider perspective to my relation.
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