RSSApr 12 2008
Hanoi Addendum: Water Puppets!
I can’t believe I forgot to mention the water puppets!
The ancient peoples of Northern Vietnam entertained themselves by putting on water puppet shows! Probably in their rice paddies. A theater in Hanoi maintains this proud Vietnamese tradition with much-heralded nightly water puppet shows.
When we first heard about Hanoi’s famous water puppets, we, of course, thought, that is so lame. Seriously, a puppet show? Who likes that? Little kids or something?? How dorky!
Okay, so really when we heard about the puppets, the show skyrocketed to the top of our things-to-do-in-Hanoi list. Whatever. I’ll stop pretending we’re not huge dweebs.
So one evening in Hanoi we booked it over to the water puppet theater and snatched up the last two tickets to that night’s show (tickets that were only available thanks to a cancellation. Apparently you have to make something called “reservations.” Not sure what those are, but I’m told it has something to do with people who “plan ahead”?)
I’m happy to report that water puppets are awesome! Apparently puppetry transcends lanuguage barriers because even though we couldn’t understand a single word the narrator said, we found the show entertaining. The puppets themselves were impressive — multi-jointed, fire-breathing, water-spouting affairs.
What ARE water puppets, you ask? Instead of attempting to describe them, please enjoy the following video snippets of the show:
you’re right, it’s much cooler than it sounds.
I liked seeing the dragons heads spit at each other! Is the water warm? Is it clean?! Looks like fun!
I’m not sure if the water is warm, but the puppeteers were immersed in it behind the curtain the whole time, so I hope so!
It didn’t LOOK too clean, especially since its murkiness was responsible for masking the bamboo poles controlling the puppets, but who knows?