I was feeling a little better but I opted not to go on the morning activity. They went to Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, his house, the one pillar pagoda and the presidential palace.
According to Wikipedia, Ho Chi Minh was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 until his death in 1969, and as its first prime minister from 1945 to 1955. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist, he founded the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930 and its successor Workers’ Party of Vietnam (later the Communist Party of Vietnam) in 1951, serving as the party’s chairman until his death. I watched Ken Burn’s documentary about the Vietnam War and there he was portrayed as very focused on unifying Vietnam and getting rid of the foreigners, namely the Japanese, French and Americans.
Here’s a picture of the mausoleum and the pagoda
After lunch they went to the Hanoi Hilton which people told me was very moving. Here are some pictures from the Hanoi Hilton.
After the Hanoi Hilton the group came back to the hotel and had a little down time before going to see the water puppets. I had been resting all day to make sure I had energy for the water puppets. We went to Phan Thanh Liêm’s house to see the water puppets. Water puppets are in his genes and he represents the 7th generation of his family making water puppets and performing shows. It takes about 6 months to make a water puppet.
His house was full of puppets and puppet parts. They are made from ficus wood and have many layers of lacquer to protect them in the water. It seems that water puppetry may be a dying art because it is not lucrative enough to attract new puppeteers. The puppeteers sit behind a bamboo screen and the puppets are on sticks that extend under the water into the area where the puppets perform. Here are some pictures and videos from the visit.
The first video is two water buffalo fighting and you can hear us in the background cheering on our favorite buffalo. The second video is very short but shows phoenix (as I mentioned earlier in the blog there are 4 imaginary animals in Vietnamese culture, phoenix, unicorn, dragon, and turtle?)
That evening some of the group including Rick went to the restaurant that Anthony Boudain went with Obama. I decided to skip it because I thought I should rest up for tomorrow.
The food was delicious!!!