Cây Bàng Một

Today we had some time on the ship to relax and finalize our African Safari plans.
Got news when we woke up that My Great Nephew arrived......Happy Birthday Archer James Kimpland!
We left late afternoon for our excursion with a stop at a really nice restaurant for dinner and then one of the BEST things to see in Vietnam. It is the Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theater. A long time ago when the rural agricultural people were finished with harvesting their rice crops, the rice fields were still full of water and unused. The farmers came up with the idea to use a back drop and puppets made of wood, coconut, bamboo and palm leaves to make puppets and sticks to control them. They would stay behind a bamboo curtain and use bamboo rods to control the 'puppets' to tell a story. They used songs they made up and these puppets to entertain the children and the other farmers in the village. Over the decades this became a tradition in the rural areas. The local Vietnamese people take great pride in this ritual of water puppets and story telling. When the communist government took over Vietnam, they were unable to stop these water puppet shows in the rural areas and they are a great sense of pride and history with the local Vietnamese.
Luckily we were able to get front row seats with a great view and just a little bit of water...Lue lisää