Ho Chi Minh City

Staying across from the National Archives 2 on Le Duan Street. Its been mostly cloudy and rains each afternoon in terrific monsoon downpours. The city continues to evolve slowly with each new building project and sleek new storefront, but I'm still meeting the same doormen and concierges in the same downtown hotels that I met five years ago. On Friday at the Archives, I was told that the Public Works records from 1954-75 that were unavailable last summer are still unavailable and will be so for another two to three years because the archives is moving locations across the street and preparing new guides - more obscure collections like Public Works sit at the bottom of their to-do lists. When I suggested I might look at records using the old finding aid before they are moved, the staff looked at me with the same look archival staff use everywhere in the world to suggest such a request was not even remotely in the ballpark of possibility.

Team Scuppy, however, has been having a blast! The pool on the 18th floor at Sofitel gives us a great view of downtown Saigon, too. The pic here was taken just after one of the terrific downpours this morning. In the distance I've noted some of the sites of downtown Saigon.