On May 11th we flew north to Hanoi via Danang. Hanoi is the capital city of Vietnam, and it has beautiful French colonial architecture. We stayed in the Old Quarter, which is apparently the most lively part of the city (and has been for the past 800 years).
Earlier in our trip, other travellers and Vietnamese people alike had warned us that the people who live in the north are not as friendly as those who live in the central and southern regions. Unfortunately, we are now in complete agreement. With a few exceptions, the people we encountered were quite rude, aggressive and self-absorbed.
We stayed in Prince 79 Hotel in the Old Quarter. It's a backpacker place ($6 each per night) but the rooms were very clean and the location was exactly where we wanted to be. We set out to figure out the best way to see Halong Bay. The tours are fairly expensive by Vietnam standards and have a reputation for jamming around 40 people on one boat. Based on our research, we knew that it would not be much more expensive to hire a private car to take us to Halong City and a private boat to take us out on the water.
After having some appetizers (fresh rolls) at an overpriced Vegetarian restaurant (Tamarind Café) we finalized our Halong Bay reservations. We walked a few blocks to Hoan Kiem Lake, where the water puppet show is located. We thought the show started at 8pm and were really late. It turned out that the 8pm show was a private performance but there was a 9:15pm show we managed to get "second class" tickets (20,000 dong or $1.25). We wanted first class tickets (40,000 dong or $2.50) but they were sold out.
The water puppets were really neat to see. It's a permanent theatre with 26 rows of seats. The stage had a backdrop and a bamboo screen at the bottom where the puppeteers work their magic from. There is water about two feet deep in front of the stage. Using sticks behind the screen, the puppeteers put on the show in the water.
The ancient art of water puppetry (roi nuoc) is at least 1000 years old and was practiced only in northern Vietnam until the 1960s. It used to be practice in rice paddy fileds, ponds and lakes. Today, the wooden puppets can be up to 50cm long and weigh as much as 15kg. Some puppets are simply attached to a long pole, while others are set on a floating base. Music is provided by a live band and the story is told by singers in the band.
The performance was a lot of fun, and had a mythical pastoral theme. There were also fire-breathing dragons, which shows just how advanced these puppeteering techniques really are. There are some "contraband" photos of the performance, which will appear on Flickr in late May.
Halong Bay
Halong Bay was fantastic, and deserves a separate blog post.
Now in Saigon
It's now May 14th and we are back in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) to make our arrangements for the MeKong Delta and Phu Quoc Islands. We're also planning to see the Cu Chi tunnels today.
Elephant Ride Photos
The woman we stayed with in Lak Lake was kind enough to send us a few photos from our elephant ride, which are now posted on my Flickr site.
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