We woke up to sweltering heat and complete darkness. A black out meant our fan and aircon ahd stopped working. We showered in teh dark adn quickly left the hot room. We went to a grimey little place for breakfast adn teh family who ran it were having a domestic. They all shouted at each other and stormed off, forgetting to bring our tea and coffee - not the best start to the day.
We started walking to teh history museum where we heard they had water puppet shows on. Tim had wanted to see one since Hanoi when all the tickets sold out there. We got too hot walking and decided to take a taxi. We got it to drop us off at teh Jade Emporer Pagoda - the furthest north we wanted to go that day. We think he triple metered the taxi (cheeky sod).
The Pagoda had a Chinese feel to it with chinese text daubed on the walls and pillars. There were incredible wood carvings with scenes of people, birds and trees on them. There were huge statues of Mongolian looking emporers with massive moustaches adn swords! The locals lit incense sticks and waved them around (some even lit candles on plates and put them on their heads as they prayed). Little open shutters in the roof let in streams of light and the air looked thick with smoke from the incense.
We then walked to the history museum to try adn buy tickets to the puppet show. Unfortunately it had closed for the morning so we had 2 hours to kill. Lucckily there was a zoo and botanical gardens on teh same spot so for less than 50p each we went to have a look.
It was a little sad to see the animals in such small cages. The elephants were shackled by their feet adn seemed to rock back and forth with the boredom. Plenty of cages were empty adn we wondered if the animals had died. Still, it was nice to have a picnic lunch in the grounds on the grass, shaded by the trees. There are very few parks out here, mainly because it is very ahrd to keep things green and lush. We realise how spoilt we have been in London with parks everywhere.
At 1.30pm we went back to the museum (to try and get into the puppet show) We ahd to buy an entrance ticket despite not wanting to look around. Then we waited for the water puppet show to start, however there wasn only eight of us and they wanted ten to run teh show. Tim was really sad. He wanted to see it but it was not meant to be!!!!!! Lisa was mad about it too so she went up to teh front desk and complained that they'd had to buy admission tickets for the museum when the show didn't run. Then something miraculous happened. We got a refund!!!!!! Everybody is very greedy here, trying to get a piece of the pie and tourists are always putting their hands in their pockets. It was a miracle we got our money back and it lifted our spirits about not seeing the show!
Then we went to the war museum. It was really well done. Inside were dozens of photos of people deformed by the use of Agent Orange - the Americans spreyed this in Vietnam during teh war. It is the most harmful substance to humans ever. One teaspoon can kill and entire city adn anyone who survives will bare deformed children, many dying very young. People lost limbs, had giant growths or mental illness. They were blind or had mishapen, bendy limbs. We realised we had seen people like this in Vietnam and they could have been victims of Agent Orange.
We also learnt about napalm and saw teh famous image of Kim Phuc, the littel girl who famously ran naked down a road after she had been burnt by napalm. We bought her autobiography to read more about her. In teh museum there were also disgusting photos of GIs playing with the corpses they had killed. There was also part of a prison showing the terrible conditions Americans forced teh captured Vietnamese to live by, often being tortured including teh use of a tigar cage (a small cage made out of bared wire) to cram in 7 prisoners. The cage was only big enough for them to kneel in.
It was while we were at the museum we were given a leaflet for a water puppet show. This one was happening that evening and had not been mentioned in our guidebook. Tim's face lit up adn we headed there to get tickets. This time we were in luck and we loved the show. Puppeteers mimicked the movements of butterflies, ducks, dragons and people purfectly! Swimmers would propell their arms around. It was all in Vietnamese but very easy to follow and very funny.
It was a great end to a long day even if Lisa had forgotten her glasses in the rush to get out of the dark and hot hotel room that morning!!!!
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