More of Ho Chi Minh

Our little guide took us to this beautiful plaza honoring Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh never married and never had children. So it's interesting that the statue shows him with a child. The people of Vietnam love Ho Chi Minh because he freed them from the French rule. At least, that is my understanding of how they feel.

Notre Dame Cathedral of Vietnam. There is much beautiful hand painted stained glass pictures in this cathedral. This building is a very old building and the Catholic Church has been here for many years.

The Old Post Office building is still in use today with many windows to serve people. There is also a central souvenir shop to try and get tourists to buy in every building, I think! It is a beautiful building and reminds me a little of some of the buildings in Europe.

The last place we went to was a lacquer shop where they have a process of painting on lacquer after they put a design of eggshells or mother of pearl. THen they wash off the lacquer and sand it until the picture shows. This is very time consuming and costly. Sometimes they will just put several layers of lacquer on a plate and then paint a picture on it, put lacquer on it and sand until the picture shows. This is less costly and of course, that is the one I bought. But it still cost $24! But I love the plate. It is of gold fish which means happiness and good luck.

These are plates before the first coat of lacquer. These are designed with egg shells. Amazing.

Here is my plate. Hand painted and lacquered.