561

March 28, 2009
There is only one queue in Vietnam. Everywhere else everybody fights to be served first, in front of the Mausoleum there is something very un-Vietnamese. If there would be any attempt for forming a second queue, it would be dwarfed by the size of the original.
Here, people are waiting to enter the Mausoleum, where the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh is on display. Several months before his death on September 2, 1969, he wished to be cremated and his ashes buried in three urns on three different hilltops of Vietnam (the North, Central and South areas). Similarly to the requests of other communist leaders this wish was not respected. In Vietnam he has an almost god-like status, yet they did not do what he requested. You ask one thing and you will get something completely different. Still very true these days.
There are exactly 561 people in this queue.