In search of Hanoi's water puppets

-
"You've never been to Hanoi if you haven't seen the water puppets," Jojo Lapitan said over lunch on the last day of the International Rice Congress in Vietnam. I guess I have experienced Hanoi then, since I went to the puppet show on my third night in this vibrant city...

_o_  _o_  _o_  _o_
/_\   /_\   /_\   /_\

Getting there was nothing short of a challenge...

It was the night after the Grain Quality and Nutrition technical session. People were ready to go out and relax, as we have finished our presentations. A large group in a foreign city, with different agendas, and only one Vietnamese among us... that certainly spelled disaster – we couldn't stay together as one group. We were supposed to eat a buffet dinner, but the place we went to was packed. The group decided to split up: the shoppers and the tourists. Tran, the sole Vietnamese in the group, went with the shoppers; while the tourists (including me) wandered off armed only with road maps provided by the friendly staff of the Royal Gate Hotel. 

Our goal: arrive at the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre in time for the last full show. 

(We wanted to catch the 9:15 pm show.)

Challenge #1: We didn't know where we were.  
The taxis dropped us off a popular buffet restaurant somewhere in Hanoi. Unfortunately, the short drive only allowed me to locate one of the roads we passed by on the map. By the time we got out, I was disoriented. Thank goodness for road maps! While the group was busy figuring out where to go as a big group, I had the chance to at least narrow down where we likely were, with the help of the restaurant staff and those policemen-like people right on the sidewalk. The shoppers left a few minutes earlier than we did.

Challenge #2: We didn't know a word in Vietnamese.
... to be more specific, we did not know how to be conversant with the attendants who were trying to assist us. By this time, I could only attempt to thank people in Vietnamese, and I was sure I was pronouncing the words wrongly. Eventually, we figured that the attendants were saying that we're supposed to go along the main road on a southeasterly direction (thanks, map!) and then turn left on the Ly Thuong Kiet Street. Whew!

At the intersection, we saw the Pacific Place Hotel. I figured that there were English speakers in there because it was a hotel... and I guessed correctly. They drew the path on my map, which I was able to show the rest of the group. 

Challenge #3: It was a LOOOOONG walk.
A few minutes on the road and I knew I wore the wrong pair of sneakers. After a whole day on high heels, all that my feet needed for a long walk were ample arch and ankle supports, and my sneakers didn't have those. I should've brought my trusty running shoes instead, I thought. Time was running out, and we had to walk about 2 km; the orienteering challenge was a welcome distraction.

An hour after we started walking, we finally arrived in the Hoan Kiem District... the water puppet theatre was somewhere close by. We could almost smell it!

(The tourist group, pausing – posing – at the Hoan Kiem Lake. Do they look like they walked the 2km?)

Challenge #4: Shouldn't we have reserved tickets?!?
Okay, I had to admit that I didn't consider this one. Rachelle Ward (a former PhD student in GQNPC) asked me about the ticket situation during a break in the session earlier that day. I didn't know the wisdom behind her question until the group arrived at the theatre. We were ahead by just a few minutes to a busload of tourists, all wanting to buy tickets! The ticket lady said there were no more tickets available; however, I didn't walk all the way to the theatre and not see it. Priscila (Brazil) and I convinced the lady to sell us six tickets (never mind where we sat... we wanted to watch!).

FINALLY! We got in the theatre, sat back, and enjoyed the puppet show. =)

(The stage of the night's performance.)

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in Bagu
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma
Read more