First of all, Ho Chi Minh City rocks. Compared to that cesspit of sin called Bangkok, this is a terrifically beautiful and livable city. Apart from the insanity of the scooters, that is. The weather, though hot, is not nearly as unbearable as all the other places I've visited on this trip. The architecture is wonderful, there are parks everywhere, and the people are generally nice and mind their own business (except for the taxi touts who, I am told, harass everyone, not just the whities).

I set out early this morning and found myself at the national gallery of contemporary art. Impressive. I take back all my comments yesterday about the Vietnamese not having original ideas. Clearly I was looking in the wrong places. The museum was wonderful and I saw some amazing paintings. Lucky for me, there were four contemporary art galleries attached to the museum and I absolutely loved what I saw. Though a bit commercial for my tastes, I saw wonderful paintings by many of the best new crop of Vietnamese painters. In fact, I wound up having spontaneous meetings with the directors of three of the galleries and expressed interest in curating a show in Toronto of contemporary Vietnamese painting. I didn't promise anything, but I do definitely think a show could be viable given the quality of the work, the large size of the Vietnamese community in Toronto, my new connections, and the relatively cheap retail price of the excellent works. Many of these artists have shown in Europe and all over Asia, plus numerous artist monographs have been published, but most (or all) have never shown in North America. Hmmm... My mind was racing and we'll see if I can make anything of it.

Then I wandered over to the War Remnants Museum. I'm not going to get into this very much right now because it is late and I cannot do justice to my experience there. Suffice it to say that I have never been so happy NOT to be American. What a shame, what a smear on their history. The most remarkable part of the entire exhibition of American atrocities wrought on the Vietnamese is the fact that ALL of the evidence they use to present American aggression is taken directly from sourced American press. Though there is clearly some sort of propagandistic angle to the museum, it is hard to deny the evilness the Americans caused in this country. Very sad. For the first time on my entire trip, I was upset and depressed. I had to come straight home and lie down.

Of course, that passed. Around 7:15 I met up with Demetri, a great friend from Rotman, and his wife, Mary Beth (MB). They are staying with Marc, the brother of another friend of ours from Rotman. Marc works in HCMC and is engaged to a very nice Vietnamese girl. They took us out for dinner to a fun outdoor restaurant where we cooked our own food on mini BBQ's placed on the table. I am proud to admit that I ate scorpion tonight. Yup, scorpion. It was Demetri's call and I couldn't chicken out. The waiter took us to the back of the restaurant to show us the live scorpions in a tank. They were all black, 3 inches long, and ugly as the worst nightmare you have ever had. Ten minutes later, the waiter brought a plate of 5 cooked scorpions to the table. Lest you doubt my truthfulness, I have video to prove it. Very crispy/crunchy, the scorpions actually tasted kinda good. A little like crispy pork. I didn't even retch, though I admit I did not eat a whole one. Demetri, on the other hand, ate one and a half. His wife refused to even touch it. The strangest part was having 2 and a half uneaten scorpions on the table while we ate the rest of the meal. Demetri and I sang The Scorpions "Rock You Like a Hurricane!" and "Wind of Change", a song he credits with single-handedly bringing down the wall in Germany.

We walked around for a while then wound up at a very cool nightclub, packed with Vietcong hipsters. Sitting outside on the patio, Marc told us the story of how he visited SE Asia 3 years ago on a 3 month backpacker trip, then wound up staying in Ho Chi Minh where he works in finance for a startup investment bank. Totally fascinating. He loves it here, speaks more or less fluent Vietnamese now, and faces very exciting opportunities daily. I was very impressed, liked him a lot, and looking forward to hearing more of his tales tomorrow night.

Tomorrow off to see the Cu Chi tunnels the Vietcong used to evade the Americans. Demetri and MB are joining me. Should be claustrophobic fun.

R*