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We spent a few more days back in Hanoi before leaving Vietnam. We went to the Water Puppet Theatre, this is a Vietnamese tradition. The puppeteers stand in the water and control the puppets from behind a screen. The tickets cost nearly nothing and it was really good, and some of the scenes were even quite funny. We visited the Women’s museum about women’s involvement in the war, which included fighting for the Viet cong and hiding Viet Cong soldiers and passing messages. It also included a section on women across the world who protested against America’s involvement in the war in America and New Zealand.
We decided to go to the cinema, Lonely Planet listed a few cinemas and led us to believe there would be some western films on, in English or with subtitles (as there was in Thailand). We went to 2 and neither showing any films with any English, our third and final one, turned out to be a kind of art cinema only open to members. We asked about tickets and the girl behind the desk asked if we were tourists, we replied “yes” and she then asked us how long we had been here, we said “a week” this seemed to be the right answer as she said we could have some tickets, but reluctantly. It seems to be members only, you don’t have to buy the tickets just give a donation, and it was quite posh. We saw a film called Ali Zaurou set in Casablanca about street kids, really good film.
In Vietnam they have locally brewed beer with no preservatives in it called Bia Hoi. It’s very very cheap, all the locals drink it, sitting on little plastic chairs watching the world go by. So Chris and I went in search of some Bia Hoi. There are loads in Hanoi, we sat on the little plastic chairs that they have everywhere in Vietnam which are like children’s chairs, we got ourselves a few glasses of Beer Hoi at 6p a glass!!! It tasted a bit odd at first but you get used to it, I really enjoyed it. Hanoi is great place to get good food cheaply, there are loads of good restaurants and cafes, I’m really going to miss that. The northwest of Vietnam looked fantastic, the mountainous areas of Sapa would have been great to go to if we’d had more time. We have had a great time in Vietnam, we have loved being able to learn a bit more about the history and the scenery here is beautiful.
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