On walking

Walking is my favorite way to explore a city. It is also my way to clear my head. Off late I have been feeling sick. It keeps coming and going and I can't figure what is going on. Earlier in the week, I eventually was very upset and annoyed with myself. For not feeling better, for not being able to work, for having no energy, for sleeping so much, for being so weak. I figured a walk would do me a world of good. In my head I had meant to explore the city on foot more and not being able to do that made me even antsier. My time in Hue and Vietnam is almost over and I feel sad about that. Being here has been good for me in so many ways. Coming back to topic, I went for a two hour walk-a-about in the city and it was lovely. I started by walking to reach the ATM that has the maximum withdrawal limit. To get there I walked close to the Imperial citadel and then turned into a busy shopping street, choc-a-bloc with boutiques, shoe shops, restaurants, groceries stores and more. I am usually very good at getting lost but in my head I mapped a parallel road to reach an end of the citadel, where these is a large courtyard space. Children roller blade here, people fly kites, there are coffee and snack vendors. It is full of people and yet not crowded. Imagine if you will, an old building, its majestic walls, crumbling ever so slightly, rising against the evening sky, sometimes lit by the moon as well as the orange streetlights. Enterprising vendors rent out roller blades, it is a popular evening sport here. It is one of the many things that has caught me by surprise, it is new. I wave at every toddler I spot on the way and it is a testimony to the general kindness of people that all their keepers smile at me and encourage them to say hello. The kite sellers have all left by the time I get there and this makes me sad. I thought they stayed out for longer. A few people are flying kites but the sky is more subdued than the last time I was here. Still nothing will ever beat the first time I saw those vibrant life-like kites of butterflies and dragons and airplanes soaring in the skies.

Even though I have walked a fair bit, I am not done. So many thoughts are running in my head but above all, I am annoyed with myself, and at times like these I am annoyed with the world as well and it is hard to shake it off. I know it is irrational, what is done is done, and one must go on. I decide to exit from the citadel area, always quite the adventure on foot. I walk across a narrow bridge, that goes across the moat surrounding the citadel, with the traffic rushing behind me. Hue is a smaller city and its traffic does not feel impossible like that of Saigon. Yet it is not without its own character and presence. I squeeze myself into the edge of the little tunnel and walk. At the end I hop on to the sidewalk, familiar with its almost always empty entrance of a shiny hotel, clogged with cars and bikes. Street life has its own character here, one that I am learning to love slowly. I walk towards the crossing and decide to turn left because in the past I went right. My time here is limited and how I explore is driven by a slight sense of urgency countered by the reminder to savor the moment. For the longest time I had not figured out how the exit routes mapped themselves. Even now I only know the exit route from one side of the citadel. But it is one side more than two months ago. I walk across a busy street, crossing young mothers, a shop full of aquariums full of fish, to the point of excess, a Charles and Keith shop that surprises me a little. For a town or smaller city Hue has a lot of branded shops: Adidas, Converse, Shiseido. This is not to say that it can't or ought not to. It is just that my idea of a town so far has not involved fancy, expensive stores. I stop at the road across the CoopMark - it is where we go to buy groceries. I spot the bridge I have been meaning to walk across all this while. The bridge that has metal bars on the top, zigzagging interestingly, the bridge that changes colors (less glamorously than the one in Danang I think unkindly and then try to quell the thought), the bridge that is so narrow that I have judged it suitable for one way traffic only but who am I to make these decisions. It is also the bridge that has a completely blocked off path for pedestrians, which I find wonderful and surprising. I think to myself they don't need to block the pedestrian path off, I have not seen many people trying to drive on them, unlike Delhi where the pedestrian path and bike lanes are usurped at the sight of the first empty space.

I cross the road, rather poorly, having managed to place myself between opposite flows of traffic for a few minutes. I cling steadily to the metal fence, convinced it will save me if a vehicle comes swerving but not quite sure how. But traffic here is fluid; it weaves around you. I finally reach the path on the bridge and start walking steadily. This path was mostly empty except one set of slow people, who I managed to overtake calmly. I did stop to get a picture of the other bridge (imagine this, the Perfume River runs below both these bridges, there are colorfully lit up boats taking people on rides, bright buildings dot the city landscape and all of this fits into one view, one frame if I must reduce it to that). The lights from the oncoming vehicles are bright and I shield my eyes occasionally. I am almost at the end of the path and decide I should go to the night market. Perhaps the night market has another name, I am not sure. I only know it as the night market because that is the only time I have been there. It is by the bridge and is full of all kinds of bric-a-brac. To my eye it seems most of the people are locals but I spot tourists at regular intervals. Unlike the last time we were here, the market seems to be closing. Vendors are pulling in the plastic sheets that form their shops, neatly packing away gaudy souvenirs. It is only 7:30 pm and I am not sure why. I feel like we were here much later last time. I want to find out but I don't know who to ask. I go right till the end of the market, crossing a place called Black and White, which looks fancy. There are several vendors selling food. In fact on the other side, right below the bridge, there is an entire food market. If I were a better traveler or a foodie, that is where I would explore. But since I am neither, that side does not hold much charm for me. I look for the pebble paintings that caught my eye the last time but even they seem mostly sold out, only a few sorrowful pieces in the middle of the road. I decide today is not the day to buy anything. I walk back to the bridge entrance, deciding to walk back on the same side. The walk back is uneventful but it is the lights on the bridge that glare into my eyes now. As I exit the path, a bunch of children are all standing taking pictures with their camera. I am not sure what is happening but I think it was a photography group of sorts. They were accompanied by very nice adults, who smiled as I edged past them and reminded the children to make space for people. I am grateful that not once I have had to worry about my bag being snatched or any other bad thing happen to me. There is a sort of carefree attitude, a lack of worry about things that I will miss tremendously. Not having to fight the hundreds of small daily battles is wonderful in many ways. Now that I am at CoopMark, I decide to do the grocery shopping that has been pending a while. Even the store is emptier than usual (not of people but groceries). I buy water and guavas and decide to call it a day. On the way back, the taxi driver is impressed by my saying the hotel name in Vietnamese. He begins a rapid volley of sentences that I can't understand and I smile and apologize to him. He speaks a little English and we chat and then he tries to teach me a few phrases. It is nice that our ineptness at the language gets people to help us and not mock us. I get down, it is a serendipitous moment, with people who need a taxi waiting right there. It was a long walk but one that I needed. For the moment at least things start making more sense, as much within as without.