At first, the imposing sight of Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum seems to be only a dark and foreboding vision, the deep-grey granite of its colonnades too stern a reality for a leader affectionately known as "Uncle Ho" during his lifetime. But as the morning sun rises over Hanoi's Ba Dinh Square, its tropical rays touch the inner walls of the massive, three-story structure, bringing a hint of life to this austere monument. Over one hundred years since his birth and almost thirty years since his death, the figure of Ho Chi Minh still confronts the visitor to Vietnam with his enigmatic presence.

When visiting Hanoi, the mausoleum in Ba Dinh Square, the surrounding parklands containing the former Palais du Gouvernement, the utterly beautiful One Pillar Pagoda, the Ho Chi Minh Museum and his exquisite stilted house, hold attractions that the discerning visitor should not miss. Ba Dinh Square is also the place where On September 2, 1945, on a wooden platform whose location is now marked by the mausoleum, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independence of Vietnam to a crowd of over half a million, and to the world at large. One of the most famous sayings on his speech is  "All men are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness . . ."

Ba Dinh Square occupies the site of what was once the Western Gate of Hanoi Citadel. After the conquest, the French truncated the western portion of the fortress, establishing the district as a pleasant, park-dotted area of graceful villas that today house many of the foreign consulates. Chi Lang Park, sitting in the shadow of the Citadel Flag Tower along Dien Bien Phu Road, was once a lake where imperial solders soldiers bathed the royal war elephants. Just to the north of the Square, still used for official government functions, the Edwardian-styled Palais of the former French Governors General of Indochina was constructed in 1906. Across the common stands the modern National Assembly Building, to the west, the famed Lycée d'Albert Sarraut is still an institute of learning.

Several oval-shaped funeral wreaths flank the open doorway of the mausoleum, a brief flash of green and yellow and red against dark stone. A gust of air conditioning pleasantly hits my face as we pass under the inscribed words: Chu Tich Ho Chi Minh, meaning simply, President Ho Chi Minh. Inside, the quotation inscribed in gold on the foyer's red marble reads: "There is Nothing More Precious than Independence and Freedom."

Just behind the building, walking along the driveway around the north wing of the four-storied, ochre-walled Presidential Palace, the soft scent of jasmine, frangipani and dog-rose mingle in the moist air of the gardens. Now named Bach Thao Park, this beautiful parkland surrounding the former Palais was the Jardin Botanique of the French colons, carved out of Khan Xuan District in 1890. Mango trees line the path leading to Uncle Ho's residence.

Surrounded by rose-mallow and areca trees, the carp pond draws visitors to the low flight of steps leading to the water. Invariably, they clap their hands above the mirrored surface, summoning large, soft-finned fish to a meal.

A blaze of white walls, modern-styled in the symbolic shape of a lotus, the Ho Chi Minh Museum is nearby on One Pillar Pagoda Street. The two main floors are filled with historical documents, photographs, memorabilia, and today, it seems, with half the school children of Hanoi; their excited chatter rises in the air, filling the cavernous exhibition halls.

The One Pillar Pagoda is a quieter place. The Chua Mot Cot (One Pillar Pagoda), which stands in the park behind the museum, could be considered as the heart of the Hanoian people. It is dedicated to Quan Am.

The Quan Am Bodhidsattva is revered throughout Asia as the Lady of Mercy, sometimes depicted as a robed matron with hand raised in blessing, sometimes holding a willow branch that drips mercy for the world's suffering people, and, at times, seated on a lotus blossom. Long ago, she is said to have lived as a single pious woman, even going so far as to disguise herself as a man in order to enter a Buddhist monastery. Accused by a disreputable woman of fathering her child, Quan Am voluntarily left the monastery, and raised the child as her own. She returned to the monastery when the child reached adulthood.

Many pagodas have representations of the Lady of Mercy, but the One Pillar Pagoda is in itself a representation of Quan Am. The legend of its building says that more than a thousand years ago, in a dream, King Ly Thai Tong was led to a lotus tower upon which sat Quan Am. At her instruction, he was led to a woman in fields who became his wife, and bore his heir. In the year 1049 he built the Dien Huu (Lasting Life) Pagoda to honor Quan Am. Once a large complex, the Pagoda now is a small cluster of buildings centered by the exquisite Lotus Tower, or, as it is popularly known, the One Pillar Pagoda.

Rebuilt many times over the years -- the last repairs were made in 1955 after the structure was dynamited as the French prepared to evacuate Hanoi -- the Pagoda rises on a stone pillar from the middle of a squared lotus pond. Wooden, curve-roofed and tiny, the Lotus Tower is reached by climbing a flight of stairs. A scent of burning sandalwood hovers in the air, within the darkened interior a gilded figure of Quan Am sits serenely upon her bed of golden lotus blossom. There is a single young bonze in attendance, a box for donations sits near the burning joss sticks.

The bustle of the city, the horns and whining engines of the motorbikes, they all seem very far away from this complex of history and green land between the West Lake and the daily tumult that is modern-day Hanoi.