Day 19: Wrap up Saigon and travel to Siem Reap, Cambodia

Joanna surrounded by Vietnamese fine art

Today was sort of a shortened day because we are traveling. We start off at the “Fine Arts Museum.” The building was a very classic french colonial building, that had seen better days. But, that added to the charm. While the art was so-so (I know I am not an art critic, but I think it was objectively so-so), it was good to see what they call fine art. Unfortunately, communism hasn't helped the creative arts. Much of the art was similar to the pictures, paintings, drawings and portraits seen in the museums. One pretty cool aspect was an exhibit from a Japanese photographer that tried to capture the essence of cites across the world in a creative fashion. For instance, for NYC, it was a photograph of a reflection of buildings off a pond in Central Park. We wrapped up with a tour through the art galleries on the basement floor, where we had the opportunity to purchase paintings if we felt inclined. It was all nice, but no purchases, although you felt bad leaving without a purchase. Next stop was a quick trip to the market. It was mostly cheap stuff, but we picked up a Conoco hat and some purses.

For lunch , we ate at the continental hotel (where A Quiet American takes place). We finished up our time in Saigon with more shopping. I was looking for more furniture, but didn’t find anything that I was ready to purchase. We had some interesting conversations with folks about trying to view their inventory online through a website. They said that I could email them, but they didn’t have a way to send me pictures. It was sort of funny, because that conversation took about 20 minutes. Me asking how I’d view the pieces and the girl going to various people to try to interpret what I was saying. Good times.

We arrived in Siem Reap and zip through passport control. There is a nice girl waiting for us at the airport to take us to our nice hotel: The Angkor Village. She tried to teach us Cambodian on the way to the hotel. We didn’t do well. But, we taught her: awesome and cool. She seemed pretty excited about it. The hotel is fantastic. All teek wood. The room is small and the toilet and shower are the same room (ala Halong Bay). Overall, it seems pretty classy. We have a quick dinner and hang out in the bar area. We see lisa, bob and ryan and hang out with them for their dinner. Have to go to bed early, b/c we're supposed to get up early.