Tu Duy

Some time on the day of my arrival "in country" my dear friend Duy passed away. Duy was a well respected artist in the Da Nang/Hoi An community. He managed one of the larger galleries in old town Hoi An.

I first met Duy when I entered his newly restored art gallery about 5 years ago. What drew me in initially was that I had photographed the house several years back during its restoration and wanted to see how it turned out, but it was his photography book on display that really caught my eye. (Several of you received these as gifts from that trip.) It was full of abstract pictures of the city-my favorite kinds of photos.

In the last several years we've become really good friends, often taking walks around the city and countryside with our cameras and pontificating about ideas to get me back to Vietnam more frequently. He was a champion of the hotel project too and helped me reach the right people with my business plan. I in return wrote out, in english, several of his ideas for submission to the local tourism board.

Those of you may remember from last year's trip how Duy took me all over the countryside searching for that perfect piece of land for the hotel. We had great fun!

I am missing him already. Hoi An will not be same for me without Duy.