Last day in Vietnam

An early start wasn't the ideal situation after a big night, but I wanted to post my Christmas presents and then go to the Ho CHi Minh Mausoleum before last admission at 10.15am.

I made it just in time and gave my camera and bag in as requested. It was only towards the front of the queue, way after the security checks and scanners that I spotted the no phones signs and realised my mobile was on in my pocket and I could see some others with theirs in clear plastic bags, but no-one near me. I turned it off in my pocket, trying to muffle the stupid little goodbye tune. I remained quite concerned the whole way round however as there were guards every 10 metres intently watching every move and asking people to take hands out of pockets and to my horror asking someone to remove his something from his pocket. I was now sure I would definitely be in some trouble if they were to discover my phone, but fortunately there was a changing of the guard just before I got to that particular fellow and I got through undiscovered. It is this (ineffective) show of high security and seriousness that makes the experience interesting, actually filing around the plastic looking Uncle Ho surrounded by 6 guards only last a minute at most.

Next to the Van Mieu 'Temple of literature' which is more interesting than it sounds, being a beautiful series of traditional Vietnamese buildings and courtyards dedicated to Confucius dating from the 11th Century, before becoming a university in the 15th. There are a number of stone pillars, or stellae, honoring those who received doctorates. Each one sits astride a stone turtle, obviously and I mused might have been worth taking that PhD for. Though sounds like they had a tougher regime back in the 1450s with an exam every month, 4 big ones a year, plus regional and then a test set by the king.

After some lunch we went to a water puppetry show, which was entertaining, though more than the hour might have become tedious. Fortunately there were 17 mini acts, with no discernible storyline, but basically involving models sploshing about, accompanied by a traditional Vietnamese orchestra. My favourite was the farming of the rice, though the ducks and the fox was quite fun, though the fox looked a lot more like a yellow bagpuss. The phoenix dance was also quite amusing as the after the beautiful bird love-dance, the birth of the baby phoenix was brought about some quite aggressive phoenix rutting.

Then it was goodbye for the last time to Marijn and Marieke and off the the airport. The plane was delayed for over an hour and we only boarded just as they'd turned Liverpool Man U on the telly. I ended up next to a Vietnamese chap on his first trip abroad and first flight. Despite really needing some sleep, I couldn't not indulge him with responses to his raft of questions and actually had a nice long conversation with him as his excitement was actually quite infectious.