So on our first night in Hanoi we got out there and had a good walk around and found the Thang Long Water Puppet Théâtre which is one of trip advisors recommendation. We managed to get into he next show which was at 630, so we had time to try a Vietnamese coffee featuring the lowest grade of coffee bean which also happens to be the most caffeinated! We were absolutely buzzing
Wired on coffee
The theatre has been running for quite some time but the tradition of Water Puppetry goes back a thousand years, apparently it was started when there was a severe flood. Pretty good way to ‘roll with the punches’
The show began with an explanation of the show then absolutely incredible music! They were using traditional musical instruments and for me the most awesome was the Dan Bau, a single string which is plucked or hit and the pitch could be adjusted with stick , I assume attached to the end of the string to tighten/loosen the tension. The music was an ambient fans dream, I could just imagine it with some dirty Breakstep beats! The music continued throughout and also featured singing and some rather cool looking drums.
The puppetry was fantastic , perfectly in time to the music. They had fire breathing dragon, water spitting unicorns, farmers, fishermen and turtles! The whole show was in Vietnamese but you could get the gist of what was going on. The puppets were controlled by about 8 people, cleverly hidden behind the scene. All this happened in water! So cool
Absolutely awesome start to the night and only 100,000 Dong (about £3.30)
=Still wired on coffee view from the stand, the musicians have taken there position while awaiting the puppets
