After standing on the side of the road in the dark for quarter of an hour contemplating our next move, a man from "the company" came and organised a free taxi ride to the centre of the Old Town where we could check out his hotel! With very few other options available to us, and the fact that his hotel was nice and a good price, we accepted - although the hotel workers were not too happy to be woken from their precious sleep at this ungodly hour! After waiting for almost an hour for our room to be made up, we fell into bed for a few hours sleep.
The couple of hours sleep ( more than what we got all night on the bus) had rejuvenated us and motivated us to get out and see some of Hanoi. Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam, and is full of pretty lakes and parks, as well as many motorbikes (though not as many as Saigon as that would be impossible!). Although usually as hot as the rest of Vietnam, we have arrived here at its coldest and had to pile on the layers of clothes before embarking on our walking tour.
We first stopped in at the Ngoc Son Temple, situated in the middle of Hoan Kien lake, that's famous for housing the remains of a 250kg tortoise found in the lake, before briefly checking out the Martyrs' Monument. 
We then started on our way to getting to know the real Old Town of Hanoi, which meant stopping at shops and markets every hundred of metres or so - unfortunately for us, because we are here during the Tet holiday many (and most) were closed. We did get to see the street full of gravestones (complete with photos - why are these still in the shop windows?!), and the silk, clothing and shoe stores, and many art galleries, but missed out on the blacksmiths, mirror and tin-box shops. Near the end of our wandering, we stopped in at the beautiful St Joseph's Cathedral for a look around inside.Though many shops were closed, we managed to witness Hanoi in a different light to the other 51 weeks of the year: relatively quiet!
We stopped in at the Water Puppet Theatre, and despite the sign declaring tickets for today were sold out we were glad to score a couple for the 9pm show tonight.
We headed back to the hotel for a rest, and then out for dinner before attending the Water Puppet show - without a doubt the highlight of the day! Water Puppet (called Roi Nuoc)performances originate from rice farmers in the Red River Delta who used to perform on flooded rice paddies, over a thousand years ago.
All the puppets are modelled on farmers and their daily lives, and can weigh up to 15kg. Puppeteers stand in the water behind a bamboo screen and manouver the fig-tree puppets by bamboo poles to make them move and sometimes even appear life-like with moving arms and legs. Performances, including ours tonight, are accompanied by a live band with musicians playing flutes (sao), drums (trong com), and many other traditional instruments. 
Along with dancing lions, fishing families, and boat races, our show included at dragon dance complete with fireworks! These short puppet sequences demonstrate aspects of daily life, while others had a mythical touch.We walkd home buzzed after the show, and fell asleep dreaming of the past that the puppet stories were born from.
Adlibing the Old Town of Hanoi.
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