Hanoi, Vietnam

At Hoam Kiem Lake.
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Well, Laurie told you a little bit about traffic in Vietnam, so it's Adam here, to tell you about the Water Puppet Theater.

Hanoi is well known for the Water Puppet Theater.  Apparently it's a tradition dating back over a thousand years. It's definitely a tourist thing. Whole buses of tourists, (Fodor folk, you know the type), were dropped off in front of the theater. This, for them, was a big deal. This, apparently for everybody, was a big deal. We knew we had to see it.

I tossed it to Laurie, and said, "What does that smell like?" She knew the answer right away. "Vietnam," she replied.

Water Puppets. They're in there. You just gotta look hard.
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We piled into the theater and found our seats. Now, I'm bigger than the average Hanoi person. I'm bigger than the average Asian person. I'm bigger than the average American. I stand at 6'3". I swear to you, the row didn't have enough room for me to sit in my seat and just put my feet on the ground. My knees were pressed solidly against the back of the chairs in front of me with my toes just barely hitting the ground. I shifted and squirmed and tried everything possible to resposition myself to find comfort. Nothing doing. I had to contort my body from side to side to fit. Already it was agony. I had no idea what I was in store for.

Water Puppets.
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The performance uses live musicians. They are all seated stage-left. So, as we got close to the start of the performance, the musicians showed up. They were introduced, first in Vietnamese, then in French, then in English. They sat down. Their first performance, a musical prelude to the performance was introduced, first in Vietnamese, then in French, then in English. I tried taking pictures, but the theater had a weird combination of lighting that made the pictures turn out pretty lousy. I tried everything. I took some video.

Hoan Kiem Lake.
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Anyway, the band was performing. It was traditional Vietnamese music. It definitely has an eastern flare, like Chinese music. In fact, it's far more similar to Chinese music than to the music of other Southeast Asian countries. There was a solo performance. It was introduced, first in Vietnamese, then in French, then in English.

Then a puppet came out. It was a boy, possibly a man. He emerged from the curtains, onto the water stage. He glided across the water as if propelled by a large staff underneath him. He was propelled by a large staff underneath him. These puppets were controlled not from above with strings and levers, they were controlled by some sort of staff-like device underneath them. His arms flailed about up and down repetitively as he glided back and forth across the water.  I turned to Laurie, "Not exactly the world's best puppetry."

Prison cell at "Hanoi Hilton" (Hoa Lo Prison).
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There was a program that titled each scene. It didn't so much explain what was going on as much as simply title the scene. The title was usually enough to figure out what was going on, "Two men fishing," "Unicorns playing with a ball," "Boy fishing with father," etc. Lots of themes centered around fishing, which I guess, when you're doing a performance on water, tends to work out pretty well. It wasn't really a continuous story so much. A scene would occur, things would dance and flail about to music, then they would exit the stage, and then new things would appear. Some of it was interesting. People trying to catch fish that eluded them, two water animals finding romance, (they had been chasing each other for awhile, then what appeared to be a soccer ball showed up, and it turns out that that was actually an egg that they had conceived, which hatched and turned into a little Phoenix), fish jumping about, people jumping about, dragons jumping about, people flailing about, fish flailing about, dragons and bulls flailing about. At one point what I thought was a flower entered the stage. It turned out to be a butterfly. I sat transfixed and watched it though, as the wing motion, combined with its repetitive back and forth motion, then further combined with the fact that it was continuously smacking itself against a tree, made for a hysterical moment. I mean, the thing just kept smacking itself violently against a tree.

The performance, all things considered, was very cool. I was expecting a more intricate story. One where the adornments and dress of each character told a story of rank and position. One where we learned something about Vietnamese culture. This didn't really do that so much. While the music was playing, they had singing as well, and the singers would occassionally speak lines, but it was Vietnamese of course, so we couldn't understand anything. It was cool to hear the music, and we'd recommend to do it, just for the morbid curiousity of the whole thing, but ultimately, it wasn't the most exciting thing in the world.

Hanoi has been positively amazing. We adore this town. Last night Laurie and I were talking, and on our global list of cities of the world, Hanoi has moved above Bangkok as number one! You really have to experience. We had stopped at the hotel yesterday during midday, briefly, to freshen up, take a quick shower, and get our second wind, (we had been walking all day in unbearable heat, I was sweating in a ridiculous way), and I took my shirt off to smell, to see if I could wear it for the evening or if it was too rank, (yeah, I know, but when you're in a foreign countries, normal rules don't apply), and I tossed it to Laurie, and said, "What does that smell like?"  She knew the answer right away. "Vietnam," she replied. It was so true. Vietnam has a distinct smell. I don't know what it is. It's probably some combination of the spices from cooking, and who knows what else. But its cool.  Hanoi is more like China to us then other parts of SE Asia. The Old Quarter, where we're staying, is unbelievable. Mopeds are zooming by with cars and minivans, bicycles and pedestrians. You must always be alert. Every building is a stall, selling some types of goods. The street names of the Old Quarter used to be named after what they sold, but that isn't the case anymore. The names remain, so some street might translate to "Pickled Fish St.", but they won't just be selling pickled fish anymore.

I want to share a lot more about Hanoi, and I will, but we're off to Halong Bay right now. So, when we come back, we'll tell everybody about Halong Bay, and more about Hanoi, including the Bia Hois, Hanoi Hilton, and other great sites.

Ciao.