Ba Đình - The Heart Of Hanoi...

And here we are on Ba Đình, a square in the heart of Hanoi, an area of historical significance...

Heading towards Ba Đình square...

The National Assembly building - the parliament of Vietnam...

The cờ đỏ sao vàng - the national flag of Vietnam...

The mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh...

Quite literally Uncle Ho is the father-figure of the country. He led the revolution against the French, liberating the country, and then leading the Northern side of the divided nation practically until his death in 1969. Even though he was a communist, he was a progressive personality - one of his initiatives was to promote Chữ Quốc Ngữ - Vietnamese writing system in Latin characters, to eliminate illiteracy. And he was a poet of repute...

to

Nước Cộng Hòa Xã Hội Chủ Nghĩa Việt Nam Muôn Năm - State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam forever...

The embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh is preserved in a glass case in the cooled, central hall of the mausoleum, with a military guards to honour him. Unfortunately, the mausoleum was closed for renovation...

Standing on guard...

Apparently, this building has been rated as one of the ugliest buildings in the world, by CNN and I don't see why, I didn't find it exceptional, but it isn't ugly at all...

A  serious looking guard watches over the crowd...

The National Assembly is quite a modern building...

A communist symbol overlooking the Ba Đình square...