Day 13: Farewell to the Motherland
…and off to my father’s land
8:20am
Rise and shine! Today we are departing Siem Reap, Cambodia (my mom’s home country) for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (my dad’s). We take a short walk across the Siem Reap River to go to Vibe Café. I read somewhere that it was the first all-vegan restaurant in Cambodia, and there’s another one in Phnom Penh. As it seems with most plant-based establishments we’ve been to, the interior is chic! bæ (aka yesterday’s guest writer) orders the most fragrant delicious pancakes, which my mom takes several bites of. Meanwhile my mom gets the quinoa porridge and I, the avocado toast; both are fairly standard and nothing special. I get a salted caramel frappé which is just the right amount of sweet and savory for the morning.
On our way out, I check out their products and get a locally-made lemongrass and ginger kombucha for my sister. It’s, like, her thing. $32.50 (for three, including tip)
We cross the street to a fruit market where my parents excitedly purchase longans for us. They make sure the produce is from Thailand, not Vietnam, as it seems there is a hierarchy in terms of flavor, cost, and reputation.
11:45am
I'm a fairly risk-averse person, but I am also a gal on a mission. In an attempt to spruce up my morning schedule, I plan a short itinerary. Everyone I ask is too busy with their own plans, but I somehow enlist my mom who both pities me and feels overprotective of me.
We take a tuk-tuk to Artisan Angkor, a complex of workshops where people are handcrafting sculptures of all medium. Tour guides are on deck, provided gratis, but we want to rush through on our own time. Their work is pretty amazing, as it is used for restoration efforts at Angkor Thom and other temples. The gift shop is expansive; at the far end, there is a museum-worthy room boasting of gold-plated Buddha statues and massive stone engravings. It is all quite impressive.
After, we walk less than ten minutes to Green-Go Garden, another all-vegan restaurant I want to check out and support. Mom and I get smoothies and they’re okay—a bit icy, not too flavorful, with incidental fruit chunks. I manage to down half of the dish (tofu and mushroom lok lak), which is underwhelming and over-peppered by yours truly. Banlle’s was better. $11.03
From the time of the food’s arrival, we have less than 15 minutes for check-out and the car taking us to the airport should have arrived. The restaurant workers seem to be moving slowly and the tuk-tuk drivers are interested in haggling. Once we box our food to go and book it out of the restaurant, we manage to jump on a tuk-tuk and speed away. The adrenaline of cutting it close is addicting. (Full disclosure: we make it to the airport in time and intact).
5:05pm
We arrive in Vietnam, and the queue for processing visas is extremely long and seemingly indefinite. Outside the airport, my aunt and cousin pick us up and it’s a nice little reunion. We drop off all of our things at the hotel and take a short walk to Au Lac, a four-story vegan department store with a restaurant at the ground level. Holy smokes, there’s even a buffet! 😍 The sheer amount of options is overwhelming, but somehow I manage to make a decision. I get a spring roll (turned out it was literally just one lol) as an appetizer and vermicelli bowl at the cashier’s recommendation. I also get a durian and sticky rice shake (soooooo good). My meal was bitchin’. 324,000 VND (we treated my relatives )
~$57.53
