Day 159 (Wed 13 Dec) - Hanoi

Up early for a simple breakfast.

We arranged with David, the energetic owner of the hotel, our trip to Halong Bay and also Sapa.

Walked round the old town ( [1], [2], [3], [4] )and bought some new travel gear. Some of our trousers are looking a trifle worse for wear!

A really nice feel to the town even though the traffic is mental. Having spent 3 and a half months in India, however, we feel rather at home. Went round to the water puppet theatre and bought some tickets for this evenings show.

Round about lunchtime we stopped off by the lake in the centre of Hanoi for a bevvy, stopping only to take a picture of Santa and Jo. Quite chilly as the weather is overcast.

We were still looking round for lightweight waterproof jackets so popped off to a posh shopping mall. We found some jackets and then got totally confused as to how much they actually cost. We found that the tickets state a value, say 420000 Dong, but it is actually written as 4.2. Very odd. Anyway we bought some jackets that once we had worked it all out (with the help of a calculator) came to about 20 squids each.

Dropped off our purchases at the hotel and wandered over to the theatre for 7.45pm.
Sarb thought that water puppetry involved jets of water being shot around the place accompanied by music and lighting. He was mildly surprised to find that water puppetry in Vietnam does exactly what it says on the tin i.e. it is a performance where puppets perform on a stage of water. Luckily he hadn't shared this information with Jo prior to the show so her expectations were somewhat different.

Anyway it was really very, very good. The water stage has a curtained backdrop from where hidden puppeteers ply their trade using long sticks and a casually thrown in firework. The dragons prancing through the water was particularly memorable.

After our bit of culture we wandered off for a bite to eat.