The Museum of Ethnology was our next stop and it was interesting, even if there was not too much to it. It presented the many unique historical and present day differences that distinguish Vietnam’s 54 ethnicities…the Viet being one of the 54 but making up 80% + of the country’s 90 million population while the remaining 10 to 15 million are comprised of the other 53 minorities.

This is a presentation of the many ways the different ethnicities greet people…Xin Chao being the Viet greeting.

These baskets are once style of dozens and dozens of fish traps unique to each ethnic group.

They really do a nice job on their carvings in wood, this boat had little people on the oars, a hut in the middle of the boat and animals.

The courtyard at the museum

An inside view of the museum

They had a number of French Posters but no plaque to say why?

The museum continued outside, this little guy was enjoying the warm afternoon sun.

We got to see several of the traditional homes the way they used to be in Vietnam, again unique to each different ethnicity….. and how the families lived and worked in their homes. They are almost always built on stilts to provide safety from predatory wildlife…and to keep out the flood waters in the monsoons.

This long house was used for village functions, the old and the new.

We arrived back at the landmark lake in the central part of Hanoi to take in a few more experiences just before breaking up our little tor group and calling it a day.

Here at Hoan Kiem Lake we watched this woman pluck one hair at a time from her friend’s head, they sell the hair and the strands are made into false eyelashes.  You see false eyelashes but I never thought about where they came from!

The motley Hanoi tour group, left to right, Malaysia, Canada, France, and Australia.

Before going back to our hotel, our immediate priority was to buy tickets to take in the Water Puppet Show that evening….and so we did.

We asked a few people exiting the theater what they thought about the show, and got comments all over the map, so we really didn’t know what to expect…..but we knew we didn’t want to miss it.

The big screen had the English translation for whatever was being introduced, before each puppet presentation.

The lights went down and we saw a very red dragon move through the mist.

Next fishermen, spearing fish.

Pink fan dance, much better with live dancers, I must say.

The theatre

The finale, all of the puppeteers come out and they were holding lotus lights.

This gives a better perspective on the size of the puppets.  We enjoyed the Water Puppet show; they do a great job with the puppets.

I think the cricket puppets might have been fun to watch.

Back to the old quarter where they cook, eat, rest, park their bikes on the sidewalk.

We would be checking out of our first Hanoi hotel the next morning as we would set out on our Halong Bay excursion…and that tour was part of another hotel stay that we had booked…..its location is more on the edge of the old quarter, rather than in the heart of it.