Water puppets

Following the cyclo tour of the Old Quarter, a visit to the Water Puppet Theatre gave us a chance to get out of the rain for a while.  I was unaware that water puppetry is a tradition dating back over 1000 years in this country and that this is quite a famous attraction for visitors to Hanoi.  The theatre was completely full, and the majority of patrons were Vietnamese.

Musicians to the left of the stage played, sang and recited stories, while the puppets enacted a number of traditional tales through movement on and under the surface of the water.  Puppeteers behind the screen, standing waist deep in water, made it all happen.  How the puppets actually worked is a mystery to me, though I presume they were at the end of long rods hidden beneath the water.  A highlight for me was one of the stringed instruments being played, though I have no idea of its name.