#music

#abouttoday...

"The people here are both mean and nice to me. I am getting frustrated at the amount of people trying to sell me things and rip me off. Being constantly approached by taxi drivers; the pounce on the foreigner, the fake friendliness, the dollar signs in the eyes. Trying to grab my bag out from under the bus... "Is this your lauggages?? Which which?" i've gotten good at saying "no, thank you, no" in Vietnamese. which is exactly what I said just before removing me own bag and hitting my head on the luggage gate of the sleeping bus. Yes, it was hard not to dwell on this small yet still bad start to the day at 5:30am...

I walked around the lake in Hanoi, I was wearing the red and navy stripped shirt that my mum had made for my dad; it made me think that maybe I have become sentimental again...and I like that. I was stopped twice and asked to have my photo taken with strangers and its a pretty small lake...
I don't feel so good today... Slightly unwell, maybe a head cold, maybe not...#idontknow

Later Danny and I went to the night markets and I was reminded that nothing bores me more than shopping... It was colourful and long and the same over and over and over again. People had no problems just bumping into each other, there was no attempt made to move out of the way of others, I found it strange and felt like I was getting touched too much...

I decided I would spoil myself on my last night in Hanoi by going to the "Lotus Water Puppet." Once I saw the set design, I was convinced it would be the best 100.000VND [$5] ive spent here, and I was right. I really like that word- convinced; its a solid word... 
The puppety was amazing yet I found myself distracted by three things: the first- the smell of mold that floated through the theatre, the second- the disrespectful and excitable audience that were both loud and trippy happy [with flash] and the third [and favorite distraction] being the 3 musicians on either side of the stage. They were incredible maniulapuaters of the traditional Vietnamese instruments. The sáo man [sao- transverse flute made of bamboo or hardwood] was a master and I can see why the kids and the mice, in that story, ran after that guy with the flute...but I think it ended badly?? #dontremember #piedpiper. This didn't end badly, the whole show was performed in water, portraying workers in the rice fields and other daily activities through this art form and I felt I now had a greater understanding of the people and their culture here in the north..."