Pm: Short drive to the outskirts of Hanoi to visit the Museum of Ethnology. After a briefing you have free time to explore around this biggest museum in Vietnam.

Head back to the centre of Hanoi via visiting  temple of Quan Thanh and the oldest pagoda in Vietnam, Tran Quoc. Take a relaxing walk along Thanh Nien street next to the famous West Lake. Transfer to your hotel. (L)

Note:

• Please dress properly while visiting Ho Chi Minh mausoleum - Long pants & long sleeves are required to enter the Mausoleum.
• The intinerary above can be changed due to the time you book the tour

Inclusion

Tour includes:

• Transportation.
• Hanoi expert guide
• All entrance fees during guided time

Lunch and cold water (in the Van)

 Reservation:

Tour Hightlights:

Ho Chi Minh Mauseoleum

Located in the center of Ba Dinh Square, it is a large memorial dedicated to the vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh. It’s a macabre experience, but most foreign visitors seem to find it strange while moving around, perhaps due to the undisguised reverence of the Vietnamese people presence. The building was erected with assistance from the USSR, and is a good example of Soviet architecture of the period. It’s guarded by an honour guard of Vietnamese soldiers in immaculate white dress uniforms who march around the building at regular intervals. The grandeur of the mausoleum is a strange contrast to the simple stilt house where Ho Chi Minh lived and worked. Built in the style of ethnic minority dwellings, it overlooks a large carp pond and is a calm sanctuary. Visitors can look through the windows to see the austere furnishings and his few personal possessions. On his desk each day is a vase of his favourite blossoms, hoa hue trang, a sweetly scented flower rather like a tall white bluebell.

Ho Chi Minh Residence

A stilt-house that Ho Chi Minh moved into on May 17, 1958, had two rooms of just 10sq.m each. He lived and worked there for the remaining 11 years of his life. Today, the stilt-house and its furnishings have been preserved must as they were in the 1960s. In the area under the house, Ho Chi Minh would receive visitors and meet members of the Political Bureau. In the centre of the floor is a long table, with wooden and bamboo chairs around it. Uncle Ho used a rattan armchair in the left-hand corner to sit and read, or rest. In another corner are three telephones that he used to talk to the Political Bureau, the Operations Department and others, and a steel helmet that he wore during the years of the American War. President Ho Chi Minh's Residence. In the right-hand corner, he kept an aquarium with goldfish to amuse visiting children. The two rooms of the stilt-house are sparsely furnished. One, the bedroom, contains only a bed and wardrobe. The other, the study, houses a table, chair and bookshelf. His appliances were just the bare necessities: a palm-leaf fan, a brown paper fan, a bamboo mosquito catcher, a little thermos-flask, a bottle of water, a radio-set given by Vietnamese nationals in Thailand, and a small electric fan – a gift from the Communist Party of Japan. A little brass bell used to hang on the door. In the stilt-house, Uncle Ho received top cadres, children and his close friends. He spent most of his time writing letters, revolutionary articles encouraging "good people, good deeds," and documents of great historical value on important political tasks such as his 1966 Call against US Imperialism, for National Salvation. Plants and trees were grown in the area around the stilt-house, as Uncle Ho was a poet with a great love for nature and pet animals. The garden is bordered with hibiscus, and the gate of climbing plants is typical of rural Vietnam. The front garden is decorated with little bushes of fragrant jasmines and eglantines, while at the rear is a stand of star-fruit trees from the country’s south. Spring sends the garden into a colourful riot of mangoes, white blossoms, and orchids. Uncle Ho regularly practiced martial arts and taichi with the guards in the garden, also the place where he once conducted people singing the famous song Unity, like a real orchestra conductor. In front of the stilt-house is his fish-pond, teeming with fish that he fed with great care. He only had to clap his hands and they came in shoals for food. The house clearly reveals his humility, his erudition and his love of simplicity and nature.

One Pillar Pagoda

A temple built by  Emperor Lý Thái Tông, who ruled from 1028 to 1054.According to Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu (A Complete History of Great Viet), the pagoda was built in the winter of 1049 under the reign of King Ly Thai Tong who dreamt of seeing the Goddess of Mercy sitting in a lotus throne and taking him to it. When waking up, the king told mandarins about his dream and one of them thought that it was a bad omen. Monk Thien Tue advised him to build a pagoda and a lotus-shaped tower like what he saw in his dream. When the pagoda was inaugurated, monks went around the pagoda and recited the Buddhist scriptures to pray for longevity of the king. For this reason, the pagoda is also called Dien Huu (long lasting happiness and good luck). The present wood pagoda is in the shape of square with each side of 3m and a curved roof. It was designed to resemble a lotus stretching up out of the square pond and placed on a big stone pillar including two blocks which are connected together skillfully. This stone pillar is approximately 4m high (excluding the underground section) and 1.2m in diameter. The pagodas structure also shows the harmonious combination of imagination and unique architecture with a system of wood beams that create the solidity and beauty for the pagoda.

Temple of Literature

A temple dedicated to Confucius in Hanoi. It is certainly the most famous of all temples in Hanoi, as it also functioned as Vietnam's first university to educate the country's bureaucrats, nobles, royalty and members of the elite. .The temple is also featured on the one hundred thousand dong banknote. The Temple of Literature was founded in 1070, at that time functioning as a Confucian temple. The Temple of Literature is considered one of the finest historical sites in Hanoi. The layout is based on Confucius' birthplace in Qufu, Shandong Province, China. It consists of five courtyards aligned in sequence. The main entrance is through the impressive twin-tiered Van Mieu Gate. It leads to three pathways that run the length of the Van Mieu complex.