Halong Bay Day 3 to Hanoi

We still had some sites to see this morning. First was breakfast and then we were off to the Surprising Cave. We took the small boat to the entrance and climbed up a lot of stairs to the opening. It was your typical limestone cave, but out here in a bay like this, it was special. There were 3 main rooms and the last one was HUGE! All were lit with colored lights for a nice effect. Unlike most caves I have been inside, this one was not cool in temperature. It was just as hot as the outside air. The air must be able to circulate to flush out the cool. Too bad. I was looking for a little relief. I guess I should look elsewhere. There is no cool air to be found.

 

On our way to the cave we saw another fishing village. Yesterday, after a few hours with our guide, we asked her where she was from. She told us that she grew up in a local floating fishing village and has a 10 month old baby boy. She likes the mainland, but her husband is a fisherman. Chlidren in the villages do not go to school past 10 years old, if at all, so she would rather live on the mainland so her child can get an education. She also mentioned she does not swim. The boys are taught to swim, but not the women. She said that she is now trying, but it will take some time. I would bet, in my opinion, it would be to keep the women on the floating islands and not swim away. Maybe so?

After the cave, we went back to the main boat for lunch and a return cruise back to Halong City. We boarded the minibus and had a 3.5 hour ride back to Hanoi. We had to get cleaned up because we had water puppet theater tickets! We surely had to see what this hype was all about.

 

The water puppets in Hanoi are not like anything in the world. We sat in a theater of about 300. Up front was a stage made of water and room for musicians on the left. All the music was authentic Vientamese which added an extra flair to the performance. The puppets are controlled from a stick under the water that goes behind the screen to the operator. You rarely saw the stick and it took me a few minutes to see how they were being controlled. The performance was done in 9 movements all telling stories about the lives of Vietnamese peasants. Hopefully, some pictures will do it justice.

One thing that stuck out from the orchestra concert and the dancing in Laos was the cameras. All the tourists in the audience had cameras and were not afraid to use them. Strobes, autofocus lights, red eye emitters, and the like were all game. I had a bald guy in front of me and every time the strobes behind me would go off, I would get a reflection in my face of blinding light. People, please learn how to use your cameras and turn off those things if you are going to shoot in a place like this. Also, your little camera's stobe is not effective that far away. Hate to break it to you. Once I got past the camera disturbance, the show was great. I will have to find a video of them on YouTube or something since I did not want to hold my camera up in everyone's face like that.

The video below is taken from a YouTube search. You are viewing through the camera of an annoying tourist. Ha!

 

 

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