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15 July: Hanoi

Today was an admin day, we had to find another accommodation, research the different Halong bay tours and also do some of the touristy things on offer. We headed out firstly to find another guest house, further down the road there were various hotels that we visited and compared, before finding one which we liked. They were willing to give us a room for $8, fan, TV, balcony and refrigerator. The young woman was also very helpful and was able to provide us with much information regarding Halong bay tours.

We returned to our guest house and started packing to leave, as we were about to exit, the owner offered us a better room than we had the previous evening at the same price. We decided to have a look and after 15 minutes of comparing the two we decided to stay. It unfortunately didn't have a balcony, but there was a huge window and we liked it a little more, best of all we didn't have to climb 4 flights of stairs. We went down and informed her and she also provided us with a magnitude of information on different tour operators to Halong bay.

Not wanting to make a rash decision, we informed her we would decide later, we headed off to the other guest house where I apologized to the lady that we wouldn't be able to stay there. From here we headed off to the Hoan Kiem lake in the center of historic Hanoi. Walking around the lake, one becomes aware of the gatherings of friends and children around the lake circumference. The surrounding sections around the lake are designated as a park area, with shortly cut grass, contemporary art statues and park benches to sit on and admire the view.

At the center of the lake is an island on which a Pagoda is built, this was done as a result of a legend, where the Chinese tried to invade Vietnam. The king took a boat ride on the lake, when a mythical water turtle carried a super natural sword and presented it to the king. In the end the king stopped the Chinese invasion and returned the sword to the lake, hence Hoan Kiem Lake, translates into the lake of the sword. A small red bridge links the Pagoda on the island with the shore. This bridge is captured in every form of painting and embroidery in every shop.

Along the way around the lake we stopped at a shop, purchasing two ice creams just to cool down some, as we sat and watched tourists passing and locals chatting or playing cards. Across the road we bought two tickets for a water puppet show for 20h00 tonight, before heading back, stopping on the way for a noodle and pork soup and sweet pastries.

We relaxed in our room for about two hours, then left to watch the water puppet show located adjacent to the lake. The walk is only about 10 minutes and we arrived early by 20 minutes, sitting in the waiting room until we were allowed to enter the theater. We were shown to our seats, about 6 rows from the front seats and 15 from the back. All in all we had quite nice seats to view the play. The show started with an introduction of traditional music, we were also given a pamphlet naming the scenes that they will portray.

The stage is set with a traditional Vietnamese temple/house with a pond in front and roads running along the house and in front of the pond. It is in this pond that the water puppet show is performed with either wood or porcelain dolls. The scenes depicted are from the ordinary fishing, agriculture, dance of the dragon and phoenix. Although one cannot understand the Vietnamese words, the pamphlet and the depictions performed lead one on a lot and in the end its incredibly entertaining. In total the show was only one hour, we were not able to get many photos due to the blur of the moving puppets, but we were able to get pieces of it on the video camera. It's amazing how good they are with the puppets, in the end the 'curtain' was lifted and you could see the puppet masters standing up to their hips in the water.

After the show we bought dinner at three different street stalls, everything from spicy salad, fresh spring rolls to noodle soup. It's really more fun to try different dishes at different places and rather share everything. After this we walked through the market some distance from our hotel, one can find almost anything there from toys, souvenirs, paintings, fruit, clocks, clothing and so on, the streets are even named after what one can find in them, for example shoe street, but in vietnamese.