A visit to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum was a must during our time in Hanoi. He's not the first embalmed communit leader I've visited (Mao in Beijing), and he definitely won't be the last. Built between 1973 and 1975, the massive square structure is modeled after Lenin's mausoleum in Moscow. In front of the Mausoleum, is Ba Dinh Square, where Ho read out the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence.
After turning over our cameras, inside the mausoleum we were kept moving along past Ho Chi Minh while being watched by many guards. No talking or smiling is allowed, your hands must remain outside your pockets and everyone is to keep moving. Inside his glass sarcophagus, he looked very serene and certainly very well preserved... especially for a 120 year old. His face & hands were lit-up with spotlights.
Uncle Ho takes a 3 month "holiday" each year to a Russian "spa", where the embalming experts refresh his preserved body.
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