An Evening in the Old Quarter

Sunday night after our afternoon nap at the hotel, we set out to explore the Old Quarter. Our first stop was the Ngoc Son Pagoda and the Bridge of the Rising Sun in the center of Hoan Kiem Lake.

From there we walked north around the top of the lake to Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc Square, (the Tonkin Free School Movement Square) named for the early 20^th century communist movement, and stopped to buy pastries from a street vendor. They reminded me of donut holes although I suspect that they were made from rice flour rather than wheat flour.

Our tour of the Old Quarter didn’t go as far as I had hoped as many of the streets in the Old Quarter had lost power. When you look at the tangled mess of wires coming in and out of the transformer boxes on the electric poles, it’s amazing that the streets don’t lose power more often.

We stopped for dinner at the Garden Restaurant. Tonight’s selection – spring rolls, salad and the most delicious pork and eggplant prepared in a clay cooker.

 

After that, we made our way over to the water puppet theatre. This particular troop has performed all over the world. The center of the stage is a pool of water about three feet deep. At the back of the pool, there is a replica of the Temple of Literature behind which the puppeteers stand. I think that the puppets are mounted on bars under the water so it appears that they are dancing on top of the water. The musicians are located on a balcony to the left of the pool. They played traditional Vietnamese music while the puppets acted out different aspects of village life.

After the puppet show, it was back to the markets.  This time, we stumbled upon what we dubbed as “shoes street” – booths of shoes as far as the eye could see.  What really impressed me was that each store had men out front actually repairing shoes.  I don’t think that the quality of the shoes being repaired was any better than we would buy at Payless or Walmart.  When my Payless shoes wear out, I simply trash them and buy a new pair.  In Vietnam, I guess people can’t afford that “luxury.”