Wasserpuppen-Show mit Abendbuffet ab Hanoi

DO NOT BOOK THIS TOUR The Tour Itself: We were picked up at 4:30 by our guide who immediately hurried us into a van for a 5pm showing of the Water Puppet theatre. Upon getting into the van we were told in broken English 'You're going to the the Water Puppet Theatre now', the guide then proceeded to talk to the driver in Vietnamese for the next twenty minutes. We were then dropped at the theatre without any explanation whatsoever of the show and told to come and find the driver and guide when the show was over. The guide was unable to answer any questions whatsoever relating to Water Puppets or their history at one point my partner asked 'How long has the theatre been in Hanoi?' to which the guide stated 'I don't know'. We also asked how old Water Puppet shows were to which he said '900 years I think?'. Other than that there was no conversation from the guide. Following the show the guide escorted us back to the van and we were deposited at a buffet dinner that was not at Westlake but around the corner from the show which had almost no Vietnamese dishes but entirely French cuisine which was appallingly low quality and honestly the only bad food we had throughout our entire trip in Vietnam before immediately being taken back to the van and dumped back at our hotel at 7pm whilst our 'guide' and the van driver talked the entire time without saying a word to us. The '4 hour' tour lasted less than 2 hours with no historical context given and no interaction from our guide, including skipping the trip promised in the description to the market. When our complaints were expressed to the tour provider we were told that the guide had given us 'lots' of context with less than two sentences said and that as it was a weekend and certain streets were closed in the Old Quarter they had to skip two hours of the tour Keep in mind we could've gone on foot with the guide and the Old Quarter has these streets closed literally every weekend and no refunds would be provided. This is the only bad experience we've had in over a month in Vietnam and I feel genuinely bad for having to write it. I repeat: DO NOT BOOK THIS TOUR

Wir wurden pünktlich im Hotel von einem sehr sauberen SUV abgeholt und zum Wasserpuppentheater gebracht. Der Guide erzählte uns auf em Weg dorthin bereits einiges Interessantes. Die Show selbst war sehr schön, eben typisch für Vietnam. Sie dauerte ca. 50 Min. Danach holte uns der Guide wieder ab und es ging wieder mit dem Auto in etwas Entfernung in ein Restaurant. So ein großes Restaurant hatten wir nicht erwartet. Es war mehr als nur ein Buffet, sondern gleich eine ganze Foodmeile. Aus allen Ländern konnte man Essen auswählen, egal ob Japanisch, Italienisch, Vietnamesisch etc. Wir hatten ca. 2 Stdunden Zeit zum essen, was auch ausreichte. Im Restaurant war auch gut Unterhaltung, neben einer Show für Kinder waren auch noch andere Veranstaltungen zu finden. Absolut empfehlenswert für Leute die gerne mal neues Essen probieren und sich so richtig vollstopfen wollen :D

The show is ok if you have not seen a water puppet show. Can do without the dinner though. Have to travel about half an hour to a restaurant in the outskirts. Place is big with many buffet stations but so are the number of people rushing for the food.Standard of food - average.