Hello Hanoi

We took a short flight to Hanoi this morning and then headed to the ethnic museum. On the way, Tony told us about different Vitnamese ceremonies and then he put on his wedding video and sang karaoke to the video. Quite touching and very fun! Hanoi is his hometown so we had excellent commentary about different buildings, housing prices, work conditions and family outings. He guided us through the Ethnic museum giving us a good overview of Vietnamese history. Outside the museum were a number of huts built in the traditional Vitnamese styles. There is one with a huge high roof, designed so that it could be seen from far away and help people find there way back to the village. 

We then did some mask painting. I did NOT enjoy this activity. Ours were all rubbish and we managed to get paint on three shirts and one pair of shorts. It was that school paint which does not come out once it dries. A lot of people had paint on them. I was a little unhappy about the wrecked clothing and suggested to Drew that we should have had aprons or paint smocks. When we reached the hotel, the boys wisely left me alone in one room for some cool down time and stayed in the other room to watch TV. 

 We are staying at the Sofitel Metrapole and it is just lovely. We did not get connecting rooms which is a bit of a pain, but apparently none were available, although the other families in our parties had them. The staff at the desk told me Disney did not request them for us on the manifest. In any event, since that is the first thing that has gone wrong on the trip, I was happy to run with the rooms as they were. 

We met in the lobby at 5pm for a short trip to see a water puppet show. The sticks for the puppets are under water and the puppeteers are standing waist deep in water behind a screen. All the songs were in Vietnamese but the stories were easy to understand. There were some dragons that spit water and one of them spit on a musician and her instrument. She was not happy and stomped off to get a cloth to wipe it down. The boys were giggling.  Some of the puppets were clever (loved the shiny fish) and it was worth seeing once. I appreciated the logistic service from our tour guides - dropped at the door, whisked through big crowds, guided to third row seats and then whisked out again. Nice!

For dinner we were invited to choose any restaurant in the hotel that we liked. We went to the Spices one (Vietnamese) and had a lovely three course meal chosen from the menu. Josh had frogs legs and squid steak and ate the biggest meal I have seen him eat yet on this trip. The service was very good and it was a nice change to have a "normal" dinner out, in a small group, ordering from the menu. 

We didn't take many photos today. I have included one showing Hanoi as we drove in from the airport. I think I need a good sleep tonight to take away my vague feeling of irritability.