Thanglong Water Puppet Show

What is a water puppet show? The show features puppets which are being played on the surface of the water with Vietnamese traditional music and the puppeteers behind the screen are dipped in water (up to waist height) while doing this. Water puppetry originated from Northern Vietnam in the 11th century. This show is not only confined to Vietnam, but it has been presented in different parts of the world in Art Festivals. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_puppetry and http://www.thanglongwaterpuppet.org)

The narrator and musicians of the water puppet show

Since we were interested in understanding Vietnamese culture more, we went for the famous water puppet show at Thanglong Water Puppet Threatre after our coffee break at Trung Nguyen coffee house. Before we went for the show, we had read of mixed reviews from TripAdvisor. Luckily, that did not stop us from going. 

The dancing puppets

We heard that tickets had to be bought at least a day before. However, luck was on our side. We managed to get two tickets just three hours before the show for the seats on the second row from the front. Therefore, we got good view of the show. We watched the last show which was scheduled at 9.15 p.m. and it lasted about 45 minutes. 

The puppeteers with their puppets (towards the end of the show)

The show tells of ten different short stories of Vietnam's origin, people, livelihood, culture and dance. It is interesting to know that Vietnamese people originated from the legend of the marriage between the King of the Dragon and a fairy. In addition, it also features different types of traditional dances such as the fan dance, pan-pipe dance, cham dance and so on. We also learnt that the Vietnamese are Buddhists from here.

Puppeteers with pink lotus

We enjoyed ourselves very much and we found it worth watching! 

Tips:

1. Buy the tickets for the seats at the front rows. It only costs 100,000 dong (RM 14.35). The reasons are you can see the puppet show better (and not people's heads) and read the English subtitle on the small white screen.

2. If you bring professional cameras, you need to pay extra at the counter.

3. Get the program outline in English or Chinese at the entrance of the theatre. Skim through the  programme outline before the show starts, so you can enjoy the show which is in Vietnamese.

Details:

Address: 57b Dinh Tien Hoang Street, Hanoi, Vietnam