Bye Bye Hue

"
Dear Hue,

I leave early tomorrow morning. I have a few days in Saigon and then I go home and then I go back to graduate school. I want to say goodbye to you. You were exceedingly kind to me. You welcomed me with open arms and warmth. As we arrived at the airport and drove through, I remember worrying about where I had come. I wasn't sure how I would survive my time here. But I did well. All because you are one of the best places I have lived in in my life (grad school dramas notwithstanding).

I felt more at home than I have for a while. You kept me safe and allowed me to explore without having to worry about crimes and harassment. I never worried about what I wore. I shouldn't have to but we all now how that goes down. It is one of the few times in my life, I have not worried and just been. It was wonderful. You helped me meet people who are wonderful and kind and warm and funny and who became friends. You allowed me to be a student, a tourist, a researcher and most importantly myself. You reminded me of how Indian I am (by virtue of my chocolate brown skin, my Indian eyes as I was often told) and yet I never felt like I was defined or judged by my color. I never felt the implication of being 'second-rate' that other parts of the world sometimes have managed to communicate. Khach San Duong Sat (the Railway hotel) was my home for 2.5 months and it became one with the kindness shown by everyone who works there. We shared food and chatted at the porch even when all we shared were fragments of different languages.

Dong Ba market

All the tourist reviews promise you that Dong Ba market will be overwhelming. That it is 'too touristy'. That you should miss it. I disagree. For me the Dong Ba market was a riot of color and things. I am glad I went and did not miss it as it originally looked like it would happen. Visiting during siesta time made it very clam and manageable. I think this may be the Indian in me but it actually felt calmer compared to the markets I frequent in Delhi (I will give some of that to the timing of the visit). It is a a giant beast of a market with everything from weasel poop coffee to paintings to clothes to shoes to detergent to dried fish to fresh meat to juice. The list is endless. Of course you have to bargain. I will say I have bargained a lot in Vietnam (all very politely and calmly) and am happy that I haven't lost that skill. I got some souvenirs and returned from the trip rather pleased with myself (and grateful to the friend who took me and was amazing). I have been on several motos in the past few weeks and I have to say it is exhilarating and tempered by the fact that traffic in Hue is busy but not insane. Maybe these pictures will give you a glimpse of the Dong Ba market I saw!

:-) 

A feast for the eyes and stomach

The famous hats

Pottery in various stages

Some cheer in the last days!

A rainbow to cheer me up

Even lovelier flanked by the citadel

Exit from the citadel

Citadel exit lit up

Snippets

This last week is full of infinite things to do, of impossible deadlines, of chaos, of the sense of loss settling in slowly. It means realizing that I have friends here, a life that I will be leaving. Just as I had started to settle in, feel at home (and this hotel has become home in many ways), I must leave. On every walk, every trip someplace, I am mentally making lists of everything that I want to remember, that I want in etched in my memory. As the number of days reduces, the list of goodbyes grows longer. There are so many daily mysteries that are still unsolved (for example the four sets of traffic light of different sizes and at different heights at each crossing). I haven't taken all the walks I wanted to, I haven't explored as much as I wanted to, I haven't done all the things I now know I would have liked too. This too, I know is part of the experience, making peace with the discontent at all that is left unexplored, accepting my own limits. But what I have from this experience is so much, it parallels nothing in my life. It hasn't only been an academic or professional experience, it has been much more. I am not wont to romanticize places; every place has something going for it (and not). But Hue city, Vietnam has been incredibly kind. 

The last lap

One week left for us to finish our project work here and it feels nothing short of absolutely absurd and strange that time has flown by so quickly. I am ready to be done with work but I am definitely not ready to leave and yet, leave I must. Work-wise it is strangely busy and yet slow. For now I am start to build a list of all the people, places and things I am going to miss and feel a wave of sadness at going. Here are some of my favorite photos:

At Ushi restaurant in Pham Ngu Lao. 
Perhaps an elephant, perhaps a monkey. 
Some of those toys squeak.

An illuminated prayer wheel lamp I spotted during my evening walk.

A canopy of umbrellas at a quaint quiet coffee shop

Announcement! Announcement!

The New Yorker has its entire archive since 2007 available for free online. I think this is fantastic. This also includes fiction and I am enjoying being able to read all these stories that I could not afford to access until now. Go have a look:

www.newyorker.com/magazine/fiction 

Paradise Cave

After a week that I will say was intense in many ways, we headed out to the Paradise Cave (Thien Duong Cave to be exact) on Saturday. I have never seen a cave in my life and I think this was one of the best and worst ways to start.  Best because it was so awesome, worst because I am not sure how many caves can live up to this. This is a recently discovered cave and is gigantic. I have say, I was awed in a way I haven't been for a while. In a way that made me forget the really long journey in a really small (and in many ways poorly-designed) bus. Even I was too tall for the seats and I am not too tall for anything. The day went off as travel days are bound to: grumbling about the bus and potholes, making friends with a pair of girls traveling across Asia, eating (or not) lunch and being pleasantly surprised by the addition of french fries to the usual fare.

We had booked a tour via a tour company and some folks got off en route, most people went to Phong Nha caves and six of us to Paradise Cave, which was a 40 minute ride away from the Phong Nha stop. We got to the entrance, sat in what is charmingly called a buggy and sped to staircase to the cave entrance. This was only 570 steps and I will say I am very out of shape. I console myself by thinking that at least I did it. We went inside and I promptly fell down the steps even before we reached the first warning sign. It hurt. But it was no surprise to me. I am the person that will fall.