One of the obligatory stops on a Vietnam tour seems to be a water puppet show. We went to one in Hanoi on our last trip and didn't love it, but I rather enjoyed this one. The puppets are sort of like marionettes, but instead of hanging from strings, they are operated from underwater poles while the puppetmasters stand in the water up to their waists behind a screen. The craft dates from the 1100s and is accompanied by traditional instruments. The last one we saw seemed to be a military version of Punch and Judy with a lot of bashing each other. This one seemed to be more allegorical ( a guess since we couldn't understand the words). The colors were brilliant. Some of the others didn't care for the music, but I found it fascinating. The musicians also provided all the voices for the puppets.