Traffic is generally very congested, this photo is just a hint. There is not strict observance of lanes--the white car in the photo was doing a u-turn and took the entire street to do it while motorbikes zoomed around. Crossing the street is an experience. You can't wait for lights to change or vehicles to stop--you just have to step out in the road and wade into the traffic. And you have to keep going because they don't expect you to stop of flinch--they all weave around you.
Directly across Pham Ngu Lao is a large park that runs the length of several blocks and is one block wide. The end near us is rather tranquil with this large pond.
The other end of the park is busier. It is nearer to the market and more hotels. There were lots of people playing and exercising in the park today. The group in the blue shirts are school children. They were doing some kind of running practice accompanied by men who spoke on loud speakers to them. Later in the evening the entire area had people doing calisthenics, power running, jogging, playing various games, and sitting on benches talking. There was even a jazzercize class with around two hundred women dancing around to pop music.
Motorbikes are not allowed in the park, which makes it a nice place to walk. But there are some areas given over to parking lots. Everywhere you look there are motorbikes. It is hard to walk on the sidewalk because they are parked everywhere. Even on the edge of the park people stop their motorbikes and just sit on them while they chat with each other or eat a meal.
Just east of the park on Pham Ngu Lao is what I think is a Hindu temple.
Further east is another park--this one has a playground, tennis courts, and a sculpture garden.
I noticed a couple of sculpture gardens in the Mekong delta when I was there. They seem to be government sponsored.
I have been waiting to go to a Vietnamese water puppet show since I studied about the art form at University of Hawaii. It is from the north part of the country and the best troupes are in Hanoi--but I'll have Henry with me when I get there so this may be my only chance to see a show.
There were three orchestra players on either side of the stage. Some of them not only played instruments but also narrated, sang, and spoke lines for the puppets.
The stage is a basin of water four meters square with a backdrop that looks like a temple. Eight puppeteers are behind a split bamboo screen, standing in the waist deep water. The puppts are controlled by rods and strings under the water. I suppose the water was made muddy in order to look like the original outdoor performances and also to mask the rods.
Two dragons chased each other in this scene.
These scenes involved a fisherman and other villagers.
This was the funniest scene--a fisherman and his wife chased a dozen or so ducks and five or six fish around the pond. In the photo below note the orange cat that has climbed up the palm tree--it had a duck in its mouth. The fisherman tricked it into coming down and then it appeared as if he beat it to death to get the duck back. But the cat was just pretending to be dead and everytime the man turned his back it would snap at him. The scene ended with the wife trying to catch some fish in her basket--one at a time four fish all jumped in her basket and she could barely keep her head above water as she left the stage.
Several times they used dry ice to give an eerie mood. This scene was one of the final ones in the fifty minute performance. Eventually nine small women and two large women were dancing around.
Of course since I can't understand Vietnamese I didn't follow the story very well. But it was very interesting to watch and well worth the 65,000 dong admission.
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