My Southeast Asia tour continued today with a visit to Vietnam’s capital city, Hanoi. I was surprised at how green the city was with many trees and parks.
We drove past Truc Bach Lake where U.S. Presidential candidate John McCain crashed his plane during the Vietnam War. I knew that McCain’s plane had been shot down during the war but I didn’t realize he crashed right in the middle of Hanoi. For those of you in Denver it would be equivalent to crashing a plane into Sloans Lake.
The motorcycles were out again in Hanoi as in my previous stops in Vietnam. This cyclist shows the Vietnam version of air conditioning – with a working fan mounted on the back of his bike!
I saw several large karaoke places like this one – visiting a karaoke bar is a favorite past time of many Hanoi citizens according to our guide.
We visited the Museum of Ethnology where Vietnam’s 54 ethnic minorites are recognized. These minorities make up 10% of the population. Xin chao means “hello” in Vietnamese:
Before retiring to our Hanoi Hotel we saw the famous water puppet show
Water puppetry goes back to the 11th century in this region. In its day water puppetry was the equivalent of Star Trek in special effects – complete with a live orchestra, narrator, and singers in addition to the skilled puppeteers behind the scenes. I liked how at the end of the show the puppeteers came out and showed how they maneuvered the puppets in the water – very creative.
Tomorrow we tour more of Hanoi before heading to Cambodia to finish our trip.
