We spent today walking around the old quarter of Hanoi. We started at Hoan Kiem Lake where legend has it that when Emperor Le Thai To was boating on the lake a golden tortoise reared up out of the water with a magical sword to defeat the Chinese. It sounds like a Vietnamese version of King Arthur. I wonder if they have a Vietnamese version of Michael Palin in Monty Python's Holy Grail:
Dennis: You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
King Arthur: Shut up!
Dennis: I mean, if I went around saying I was an Emperor because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!
Somehow I can't see it being as funny in Vietnamese!
Apparently there still are tortoises in the lake but they are rarely seen. Brynley (the smart ass) couldn't help pointing out that they are in fact turtles and not tortoises.
The quarter is made up of many small streets that specialise in ancient trades.
Like shoes! Tia couldn't help herself and bought two pairs of Converse sneakers (red and black).
In one of the Temples along the way there was the "Red Horse With Smelly Bum". Tia had to test the legend to verify its accuracy.
We ended up at the Dong Xuan Market which is a large market used by the locals (i.e. not tourists).
We stopped for lunch there and had...
a hot dog.
(We didn't really - we ate in a cafe back close to the lake). Fido was safe today.
Only one way back to the Hotel - by Cyclo.
Tia enjoyed it again. She was whooping and hollering. The driver didn't need to use his horn - everybody could hear him coming!
To cap the night off we went to the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. Water puppetry is a traditional Vietnamese entertainment that was invented during the floods. This one was better than the one we saw in Saigon although we still didn't have much of a clue about the story line. However I think it follows a fairly universal theme that you have seen a million times before - boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy becomes overly friendly with water buffalo, boy gets girl back.
