Watery Bint

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.