Woke to the egg in my hand having gone from a hard boiled egg to an egg over easy, but still so swollen I couldn’t bend my hand at all. I coordinated with the hotel to see a local clinic where I could have my hand looked at and xrayed. Smile, a suited name for the very friendly and smiley woman she was, accompanied me to the Dr. which was good since I couldn’t write at all to fill out the forms required. The clinic was so nice, clean and very efficient. After a couple hours and 2 X-rays they assessed that my hand wasn’t broken just a hematoma which if I didn’t overdoit with my hand would recede in a couple days and hopefully reabsorb within a week. I also picked up some cough medicine, since I picked up a cold along the way a couple of days ago at Inle Lake. The whole expense was only $165 for dr visit, medicine, and xrays. That seems like a deal, considering just the emergency visit would have been $500 in the USA.
I spent the rest of the morning getting caught up on our blog and photos since we hadn’t had any real interent in Burma for the week and just relaxed. The boys, Nate, Ben and Sam all went to tour Hanoi and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. I caught up with them at the Water Puppet Show in town. The water puppet shows are unique to Vietnam. They began along the Red River and have been performed for decades. You enter a theater and there is a large rectangular pool with a set above it and a curtain like backdrop. Musicians playing traditional instruments along the side of the water puppet theater. One of the most interesting instruments was the one string harp that has a long stick that stands perpendicular to the instrument and which they shake and bend which adjusts the sound of the string and can make all kinds of sounds. The show is controlled by puppeteers which are behind the curtains but standing in the water up to their waists and the puppets must be on long sticks but it is really almost like a magic show not totally understanding from where they are being controlled. The show was made up of a lot of little skits and lasted about an hour. Sam and I thought it was really entertaining and it was so unusual. I really enjoyed the production. Following we walked around the lake and visited an island that housed a temple that seemed to be for all those that worshiped Tao, Buddhism, Ancestors, Confuscious. There they had lots of offerings displayed on alters- fruits and flowers, and food, and was really beautiful the whole display. It was difficult to understand our guide so I will need to do a little reattach and find out more about what they believe. We enjoyed our walk around the lake just as they were lighting up the bridge and the “Turtle Tower” They have had and still have one massive ancient turtle that is supposed to be well over 100 years old and hundreds of pounds. At the temple they had photos and one of the turtles which looked like they had taken the shell and then made a bronze scultpure around it.
Back at the hotel we relaxed and enjoyed a great meal. The food and hotel is so beautiful and it was quite busy because it was International Women’s Day. As we had been driving around the streets there were tons fo flower shops selling huge baskets of flowers everywhere. The boys swam in the pool and hot tubbed and I met up with Brian and Rachel Bertha and visited for a couple hours. Fun to run into more friends and visit.
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