While the Presidential 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 that 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. The house even lacks a toilet. The void deck
under the house was used by Ho as an office and receiving area for important
guests.
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