January 14th, 2010

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Thursday Jan 14 A visit to the Saigon Art Museum

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

I moved to a different hotel. A few doors down. My room was never cleaned in the 4 days I stayed at the Lien Ha hotel. In 2006 I tried to find the spot back  where I had a picture taken on a bridge leading into Cholon in 1961. Today I made an other attempt with a new lead, but did not find it. The bridge is gone. Cholon is now just another part of Saigon. Gone is the special atmosphere, smells and hustle and bustle of a China Town.

I spent a couple hours at the Saigon Art Museum. It is in an interesting 3 story building of the early 20th century combining French Mediterranean style and Asian architecture. The majority of the paintings were done right after and during the reunification war, a few of the liberation from the French. Thus a very similar experience as last Tuesday in the War Remnants Museum. Paintings instead of photographs.  I was not allowed to photograph the paintings but just the building, which had a special atmosphere to it. There were just a handful of visitors. It is Friday morning in the meantime, because I could not get an internet connection last night. The dentist will make an other attempt to install the new crown this afternoon. She was having problems last Wednesday getting it to fit and in the end the crown developed a crack in it. And then Iris will arrive at Tan Son Nhut this evening.