Only 1 scheduled activity on today's schedule - a visit to the water puppet show. Actually, it was a private visit to the water puppet master's home/workshop/theater. First stop was the theater for a performance. Click HERE to see a video of the water puppets.
<- The stage is ready.
One of the performers and his faithful steed. ->
<- A romantic couple!
The puppet master ->
On the left, the puppet master is showing us how he controls the puppets. They are attached to a long pipe which has a plunger like handle attached. When the plunger is pushed in, the water inside the pipe is forced out the other end causing the puppet to move or spit water or have it's head pop up or any of a multitude of other actions. During parts of the performance, there are 4, 5 or more puppets racing around the "stage", stretching their necks, waving their tails, or making some other movements. I didn't know how the puppet master was able to control so many puppet at one time. Then the truth came out - his wife is also controlling some of the puppets.
Below is the puppet master's workshop. He explained how he makes the puppets our of a block of wood. It is a very involved and lengthy procedure requiring many iterations of carving, sanding, painting, sanding, smoothing and more of all these. The puppets are articulated in different ways so when they are attached to the pipe, they will have different movements.
After our puppet show, we went back to the hotel and we had some time to walk around the neighborhood. The NARROW streets, carts with things for sale, and small eating establishments.
We decided to try a Vietnamese Hot Pot for dinner. The place was almost across the street from the hotel and looked OK. Dinner was pretty good. Cook it yourself.
On the schedule for the next day was a visit to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and the Ba Dinh district followed by a stop at a mask maker. The order of the day was reversed and as a result the mausoleum was clowed by the time we got there. We did see it from the outside.
Unfortunately, I lost most of the picutes I had from the visit to the mask maker. However I still had a few. We didn't see the masks being made, however we did see a good selection of the product. This family has been making papier mache masks for various celebrations and holidays for many generations. Pictured below are some of the current output.
We were treated to a very nice lunch with the family. Both the food and the company were outstanding.
Ho Chi Minh had wanted to be cremated and his ashes strewn in the North, Central and South of Vietnam. His wishes weren't followed and he was embalmed and his body is in the mausoleum. A VERY impressive building from the outside.
In addition to the mausoleum and the beautiful park, the Ba Dinh district is the political center of Vietnam. The other place we visited in the district was the "One Pillar Pagoda".
