Our host Dao Anh Khanh

The home we stayed in for two nights in Hanoi belongs to Dao Anh Khanh. Khanh is a world-renowned Vietnamese artist specializing in contemporary art. He has had many international exhibitions of his art and his home is also his studio. We had the priveledge of staying in his house which was filled with his paintings which he sells from his home. The Vietnamese government does not support contemporary art, only traditional , so Mr. Khanh has started supplementing his income by offering his home for tourists coming to visit Vietnam. 

He was a gentle, kind, hospitable man and to our surprise he told us that he actually worked for the Vietnamese secret police several decades ago. He realised very quickly that he was in the wrong profession and decided to quit in 1993 and take up his true passion which was art. Ironically he now does the very thing that he used to spy on and report for the police. He is essentially now the leader of the contemporary art community in Vietnam and receives a lot of support from the international community. 

He owns a valley in Hoa Binh province which we are visiting today. He travels there ever day because he is turning it into a giant sculpture garden where he hopes to have the opening for a major international festival for art in 2019. When we left his house he extracted promises from us to return to Vietnam for the festival!