House on Stilt

House on Stilt
House on Stilt
House on Stilt

While the Palace remains strictly off-limits to visitors, the expansive garden and pond at the rear of the Palace is wide open. A 300-foot path called "Mango Alley" leads from the visitors' entrance, around a carp pond, to the stilt house claimed to have housed Ho Chi Minh from 1958 to his death in 1969.

"Uncle Ho's Stilt House", or Nha San Bac Ho in the original Vietnamese, is an integral part of the "Uncle Ho" legend built up by glowing Vietnamese propaganda over the years. The stilt house's design is based on traditional houses from the Vietnamese northwest, which reminded Ho (it is said) of the houses in which he took refuge from the French while he was still a revolutionary.

There are only two rooms in the stilt house, both of which are no larger than a hundred square feet, and contain Ho's legendary personal effects. The house even lacks a toilet - Ho was supposed to have scrapped the toilet from the original design. The void deck under the house was used by Ho as an office and receiving area for important guests.

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