Vietnam Part 2- Tet

So sorry if this post is a little muddled, I wrote it super fast but I wanted to get these photos up! XO

 A photo of an alleyway in Hanoi, Vietnam.  We spent endless hours walking around this city.

I'd heard that you can't leave Hanoi without seeing a traditional water-puppet show. It's supposed to be a charming, picaresque entertainment accompanied by a traditional Vietnamese pit orchestra.
Well, apparently we chose the wrong theater.
Water puppetry was one of the most ridiculous pieces of live performance I've ever sat through.
And I've seen both Bret Michaels and Michael Bolton in concert, so that's saying something. 

 At first the show was promising, starting off strong with a touching scene between a dragon and phoenix.  The two puppets flopped around, fornicating in the water, until a giant egg rose out up amongst the mist of a fog machine then dramatically broke open to give birth to a bunch of little dancing Vietnamese men, symbolic of the beginning of Vietnamese civilization.  It was all down hill from there.

Poor little chipped puppets bopping around in the water without purpose.  I feel like the puppeteers were even bored.  But since we only paid about $5 for our tickets we didn't lose much, just an hour of our lives we'll never get back.

After the lack luster water puppets we went for a walk around the city.  It was New Year's Eve (called Tet) and the city was alive with people out celebrating.  We stumbled upon this outdoor stage where a free performance was happening.  We stood there for at least an hour watching one fantastic song and dance act after another!  The most that we could figure out was that it was some kind of fine arts school bringing their best stuff.  I was totally enthralled.  

The greatest thing ever were these three little boys in white tux and tails that sang in Vietnamese (they were amazing!) and mixing their performance with intermittent pop and lock dancing.  I was instantly in love with them.   

Beautiful decorations and lights everywhere for Tet!

We saw these Tet trees everywhere!  People had them strapped to the backs of their motorbikes and were taking them home to decorate and bring good fortune for the New Year.

So I've tried and tried to flip these pics vertically and they just won't post that way to my blog.  So tilt your head a bit and enjoy them!

The best dinner that we had in Vietnam was at this restaurant in Hanoi where we sat in a dug out in the floor and were served ostrich, flaming beef, and pigeon with prawn flavored crackers.  The pigeon was the fantastic, I actually loved it!

We ate and went for some drinks at a Vietnamese bar that plays an endless cycle of Cher songs and of course plays a lot of "Happy New Year" by ABBA (which we heard absolutely everywhere in Vietnam) and then walked down to the lake to get a good spot for the fireworks. We were packed inside a crowd of people and just as the show started we realized that we couldn't see a thing, the spot we were in had too many trees.  Immediately, everyone started running.  We found ourselves sprinting down the side of the lake with a 100 Vietnamese, trying to catch the fireworks before they were over.  They ended up being partially obscured but still pretty.    

   
Walking home we say people everywhere with tiny fires on the sidewalk.  They were ceremonially burning paper to honor their dead ancestors. 

After midnight at our hostel they'd roll down this garage door leaving only a few feet open. So every night we had to get down on our hands and knees and crawl under to get into the front door.  SUPER secure.

Welcome indeed. ;)