Saturday 5 October
8.30 am departure for the airport for our last domestic flight (Hue to Hanoi) and fingers crossed for some lower but dry temperatures!
Hanoi was indeed cooler at a mild 30 degrees - how the bar has changed! We had our first bowl of Pho for lunch (beef noodle soup) which was quite nice. The photos below are not very clear as they were taken from the bus but they show (if you look carefully at the street one) part of a 3km stretch of mosaic wall which was quite pretty.
The bridge behind this last picture was partly destroyed by American bombs and has been partly rebuilt without the suspension structure.
We then went to visit a water puppet show, which is apparently a special feature of Hanoi, and this particular man is the 7th generation of his family to continue the art. He makes all the puppets and has a theatre with a water stage set up in the 3rd floor of his home where he provides daily shows to tourists. It takes him about 1 month to make a puppet as it is a multi stage process of carving, resin, drying, resin, painting, etc. Our guide said she fondly remembers the anticipation she had for the water puppet shows as a child as they only got to go at New Year and they didn’t have access to other types of theatre. The puppet making and shows were something that farmers would do during the “off season” but not a lot of the younger generation are as keen to continue this as they prefer to work in the city.
After the puppet show we checked into our hotel (which is located in the old town Hanoi, near the French Quarter - near the Opera House) and had some relaxed time to ourselves, including a coffee in the Starbucks downstairs! Tomorrow we are doing a half day City tour and then have free time so who knows what adventures await then.
8.30 am departure for the airport for our last domestic flight (Hue to Hanoi) and fingers crossed for some lower but dry temperatures!
Hanoi was indeed cooler at a mild 30 degrees - how the bar has changed! We had our first bowl of Pho for lunch (beef noodle soup) which was quite nice. The photos below are not very clear as they were taken from the bus but they show (if you look carefully at the street one) part of a 3km stretch of mosaic wall which was quite pretty.
The bridge behind this last picture was partly destroyed by American bombs and has been partly rebuilt without the suspension structure.
We then went to visit a water puppet show, which is apparently a special feature of Hanoi, and this particular man is the 7th generation of his family to continue the art. He makes all the puppets and has a theatre with a water stage set up in the 3rd floor of his home where he provides daily shows to tourists. It takes him about 1 month to make a puppet as it is a multi stage process of carving, resin, drying, resin, painting, etc. Our guide said she fondly remembers the anticipation she had for the water puppet shows as a child as they only got to go at New Year and they didn’t have access to other types of theatre. The puppet making and shows were something that farmers would do during the “off season” but not a lot of the younger generation are as keen to continue this as they prefer to work in the city.
After the puppet show we checked into our hotel (which is located in the old town Hanoi, near the French Quarter - near the Opera House) and had some relaxed time to ourselves, including a coffee in the Starbucks downstairs! Tomorrow we are doing a half day City tour and then have free time so who knows what adventures await then.
 |
| Puppet workshop |
 |
| Water puppet theatre before show |
No comments:
Post a Comment