Woolly says – We’d had a slightly later start to the day and having finally hit the streets I padded along the road, no where to walk on the pavements either because of people eating or motorcycles parked, Hanoi doesn’t make it easy for the pedestrian. As we passed the lake I had a quick look to see if any turtles were in residence at Turtle Tower but not being able to spy any I continued onwards. We had decided on two places for the day and the first one was the Vietnamese Women’s Museum which was opened to public in 1995, there mission statement was “to enhance public knowledge and understanding of history and cultural heritage of Vietnamese women… thus contributing to promoting gender equality”. I’m all for equality although there is little of it in our household when it comes to mammoths!
He doesn’t find it easy living with two women and does miss the male influence in his life, hopefully the museum would give him something to enjoy even if it was from a women’s perspective.
Woolly says – As long as make up and clothes aren’t involved it can’t be to bad. Having paid a couple of thousand dongs I bounced my way to the first floor and the start of the exhibition. The first section told us about marriages in Vietnam and how different states have different arrangements, all of them however had plenty of gifts for the families of both the bride and groom. As well as lots of written information there were quite a few videos which gave me a chance to sit down and rest my paws. A range of bridal clothes and other items dealing with marriage were on display and I rather enjoyed it, we moved through to childbirth which wasn’t so much fun although it did appear that Vietnamese women didn’t have to do much for the first month after giving birth which is very different to the stories I have heard in Europe. The floor above told us about the women who work in the country from growing rice, making pots or sewing, very little was made of office jobs and roles in the community which was interesting. The floor also gave us an insight in to ‘Mother Goddess’ who was worshipped by many in the coutnry, within the religion there are four different palaces each with a different colour, red (colour of heaven), white (the palace of water), yellow (the palace of earth) and green (the palace of mountains and forests). It also told us about the paper art that is used and burnt, votive paper making keeps whole villages in work as they sell their finished products to the city dwellers to burn in thanks to their ancestors, the finished products were beautiful and far too nice to burn.
It was fascinating and as well as the costumes of the different palaces it also told the stories of people who worship her and why they do.
Woolly says – The third floor gave us lots of information of the women heroes from those that for one reason or another have to support their whole families to those that fought for the country in one capacity or another. By the fourth floor I was flagging and having found that it related to fashion I left the women to it and went and found a place to sit and try and get the rest of my breakfast jam from behind my ears, before Jo started muttering about baths again.
The fashion floor showed us traditional costumes from around the country which were beautiful with incredible embroidery skills shown, I found my small companion watching a video about a young woman who although terminally ill spends her days translating English books into Vietnamese which was moving to say the least. Having seen everything possible we took the lift back to the ground floor and set off for our next stop.
Woolly says – This was the part of the day I was really looking forward to and that had been on my ‘to do’ list from the start. At the end of the lake stands the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre which was established in October 1969 under the investment and guidance of Hanoi City People’s Committee and Department of Culture Sport and Tourism. After nearly a half-century of formation and development, from an art troupe of 9 actors and actresses who graduated from Hanoi College of Art the theatre is now a thriving success and has two troupes putting on shows each day. Using recovered and renewed folk-tales and legends it combines traditional puppetry with water.
We arrived just as the performance was about to start and luck was defiantly on our side as we were handed front row tickets, I settled into my seat for the show to begin. The music was lovely and rather like Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf each of the characters had different music. As dragons spurted water and fire and families planted rice in the fields it was wonderful, a gent bobbed in who was trying to catch a duck with his girlfriend and ended up catching her instead, there was no end to the entertainment. I was delighted to see the tale of the golden turtle from the nearby lake as well as loving two swans courting, producing an egg which hatch in front of us, wonderful theatre indeed.
It was fabulous and kept the small one bolted to his seat for the whole of the forty five minute performance.
Woolly says – As the puppeteers came out at the end I could barely contain my disappointment that it had ended and slapped my paws together in appreciation. As we shuffled down the stairs hundreds of people were waiting to go in, I overhead someone ask the man in front if it was any good and his response, ‘well it passed some time’, I nearly bit his ankles at his cynicism of what we had just seen, maybe he had been asleep! I hopped back onto the pavement and suggested some food and an early night ready for our last day in Hanoi.