To the right, a library and a room listing the names of the doctoral laureates across ten centuries. To the left, the names of the doctoral laureate, again, this time on stelas on the backs of turtles, and a pricey souvenir shop. I bought a jade pendant and got a lacquer box thrown in free, but started the haggling too high to get a good price-an embarrassing mistake for someone Who writes books on negotiation. Opposite the gate is a small room where traditional music is performed, and the sanctuary. Westerners who think God the only possible source of higher morals would do well to contemplate Confucian societies.
Water puppetry is a Vietnamese art dating back to about the twelfth century.
Originally it must have been staged in paddy fields, although I saw it in an air-conditioned theatre full of westerners, indicative of just how tourism has become in Vietnam. The surface of a pool serves as the stage on which the brightly painted puppets are manoeuvred and under which the manoeuvring apparatus is hidden. A curtain hides the puppeteers, who waded into the pool at the end for curtain calls, proving it about two feet deep. Much like a silent movie, there is music but no words. A large park contains the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, the stilt house where Ho Chi Minh lived for about a decade, the old French colonial headquarters, and the Ho Chi Minh museum, The museum is cleverly laid out, basically a circle with the life of Ho Chi Minh unfolding to the left and contemporary world events to the right.