I have to say I was a little surprised to see the “Dog Meat Market” marked on the map but I’ve never been that much of a dog lover. The thing that I’ll never forget unfortunately is seeing a metal bowl of water over one of the coal burners that are everywhere here, the surface thrashing around. Looking more closely and seeing a turtle, it’s body bigger than a big hand doing what might have been a funny dance if it clearly wasn’t a horrendous reaction to being boiled alive. A lot of the food is live here and the market in the old town part of Hanoi seems to be the place to see it. I can handle it all except the turtle I think! That was just too far! Where fridges are pretty uncommon I guess it’s a good thing. I survived a raw squid salad a few days ago!
There comes a time when every pant* must be retired. A trip like this can be particularly harsh on the pant. Therefore, of course I was attracted to the Calvin Klein shop in Hanoi. Possibly the only shop for miles around selling a genuine anything. As the door was opened for us I guessed we may not be going to get the bargain I was hoping for. We’ve finally found a cheap country after South America bled us dry and the weak pound took it’s toll everywhere else. It’s almost hard to spend money here, dinner will cost £1-£1.50, smoothy about 50p and coffee 28p. The posh veggie meal with beer we just had at a fancy restaurant cost £5.50 between us. Dinner at a street noodle seller costs a tiny amount. I was somewhat taken a back when I saw the 1,000,000VND price tag on a pair of CK boxers. That’s a whole £42! Probably enough to eat from street stalls, breakfast, lunch, and dinner for two months.
*The meaning of “pant” should be taken as the UK meaning ie. “under crackers”
We couldn’t believe some people we met weren’t going to bother to go and see this Vietnamese institution! The best is supposed to be here in Hanoi near the lake (marked on all the maps and in LP). I didn’t know quite what to expect. It was great to see, not quite the amazing spectacle I’d assumed mostly because the puppets are actually quite small but great none the less. Trying to buy a ticket in the morning for an eve show probably won’t work. Defo need to book in advance. We splashed out (get it!) on the expensive seats and ended up on the front row which gets you pretty intimate with the musicians who also double up as some of the voices. It’s all in a theater with a pool at the font instead of a stage and the performance is traditional with set characters and set scenes, like our pantomime. It’s over in what seems like a flash but I guess it’s more like an hour in reality. My favorite was the Golden Turtle. He does something with a sword along the lines of the “watery bint or tart”, as I believe Monty Python calls her in The Holy Grail.
How genuine they are I’m not sure but it looks like you can buy “used” water puppets from a few shops which would be pretty darn cool to have. I’d certainly get one for my “curio cabinet” if I didn’t have to carry it another gazillion miles. Of course you can buy model ones hot of the production line but a few places seemed to have ones that had definitely seen a good few years of water and rot. Whether that was out the back in a bath of rain water or entertaining the masses who knows. If I went back I’d definitely check them out a bit more carefully.
Been doing pretty well not shedding too many possessions along the way except, for some reason anything to do with our ipod speakers. So far I’ve managed to leave a power supply, and two socket converters behind in scattered places. So, taking a leaf from the local electrical “how to wire just about anything to anything else and survive” handbook I headed off to the market and, just between the fish heads and unidentified miscellaneous meat isles in Hoi An market managed to find some electrical parts. I cobbled together this rather amazing contraption, plus accessories (not pictured). Silent nights no more!
