Quang Phung walks slow

The day I met Quang Phung I was in Hanoi chatting on the phone sitting on a bench looking at Hoan Kiem Lake. It was September 2, Vietnam's Independence Day.

Quang Phung caught my attention from afar; It resembles these masters wises of oriental films (and so it is in real life). He came walking very slowly and sat next to me on the bench. There were several empty benches near us but he chose to sit with me. I kept talking and I simply told my friend that we had company.

While chatting, I felt that Quan Phung was looking at me but I didn't pay much attention. Little by little he started to stand up and by the time I realized he was in front of me taking pictures with his camera, and with his forearm he was holding his cane.

I started laughing and he too. He took a couple of photos with his little Leica camera and went on his way. I cut the conversation because, clearly, something in me told me that I should follow it. I walked behind him a few meters and asked him his name. He told me his name was Quang Phung and that he took pictures because he wanted to write about ‘’communications’’. And then he began to share a little of all his wisdom: ‘’ today communications are easy’’, he said, ‘’but be careful, when things are easy, you have to think deeper and walk slower’.

Our friend Quang told me that he gets up every day at dawn and with his 90 years old he walks slowly towards the lake (his house is far away; his legs walk tired and he limps). He told me that walking slowly is giving him many teachings because ‘’when you go slow you can enjoy yourself, the landscape and all parts of your body’’.

Qung Phung shared that he was a guide for the delegation of journalists during 4 wars and a Vietnamese teacher of the Japanese ambassador. That his wife was the first woman in Vietnam to study violin. And that he is a famous photographer and writer in Hanoi. And it's true! While we were walking and chatting, I could see a photographer hiding behind a tree taking pictures of us and Vietnamese people who stopped to look at him. I Googled him later and found that he won many awards and a book was written about his life.

#Hanoi #Vietnam #Vietnamisephotographer #QuangPhung #VietnamHistory #QPWalkSlow