Thursday, January 22, 2015.  After breakfast, we cruised back to shore.  At 4 mph, which was top speed for this excursion.  A lot of commercial ships today.  Then it was back on the bus to Hanoi.  Went through a lot of small villages, all of them are very clean.  We saw someone sweeping everywhere.  As in using a broom.  One thing I have noticed is that they burn the trash/leaves etc in the gutter.  

The guide announced that we would be going to see the water puppets this afternoon before we get on the train.  I have no idea what water puppets are.  Apparently, they have performed all over the world.  A lot of the group was excited about this.  The guide explained that the one hour show would be a series of stories about the farmer's life that wrote the performance.   Before the puppets, we went back to the hotel to use day rooms to "freshen up".  Four to a room.  Sounded good.  In reality, we had 45 minutes for 4 people to shower if they wanted to.  Way too short of time and almost no one did.  A bedraggled looking group of people since the showers on the boat weren't the best.  

The theater held maybe 300 people.  The rows were so close together that my knees were jammed against the seat in front of me and I'm not very tall.  One of the men in our group opted to sit on a folding chair at the end of the row.  I don't think "fire code" is in the language here.   There was a large pool in front of the curtain, and a small orchestra on the side.  Have you listened to Asian music?  Sounds high pitched and tinny, huh?  Yep.  For an hour.  Dragon puppets appeared in the water, doing synchronized movements, like dancing.  The people here believe that they came from dragons and fairies so I think this was to signify the beginning.  

I must be severely lacking in cultural arts.  I don't get ballet.  I certainly couldn't follow this.  It was in native language.  After awhile I just made up my own ideas.  The farmer came out and there were fish jumping out of the water while he flailed around trying to catch one.  After 2-3 minutes he finally did.    That must have been his first job or something.   Then he disappeared back behind the curtain.  Out came other characters.  They would dance or chase others around and then they would go back behind the curtain.  At one point, four babies came out in flat round baskets.  I'm thinking "Moses was a quadruplet?"  What?  Then they were out of the baskets and doing synchronized swimming.  Practicing for the Olympics I presume.  

Two big fish puppets came out and fought over a large ball for awhile.  Two large birds came out, courted and a large egg appeared.  After a few minutes it turned into a baby bird.  Six ladies came out and danced.  Another fancier woman joined them.  I thought she must be a queen when another one came out.  No clue.  Back behind the curtain.  When it was over the puppeteers came out in the pool and bowed.  It would have been interesting to see how they did it.  Stella seemed to be really engrossed in it.  After it was over, she turned to me and said "that was bizarre,". An apt description.

We walked back to the hotel and had spaghetti carbonara for dinner.  The others went to local restaurants.  All we've had is native food.  Time for something other than rice, fish, pork, vegetables.

The bus took us to the station for the overnight train to Hue.  Four to a compartment.  Stella, Eileen, Patty and I were together.  Eileen and I have the top bunks.  We turned out the lights about 9:30 and slept in our clothes.  The train here is narrow gauge, 39 inches between the tracks so it sways some.  Not unpleasant, I slept better than I have been.  And it was clean.  Nothing like the train in India.