Day 6

Today we went to the Mekong delta and it was a great trip especially after having that speaker come in and talk to us about the Mekong and what to expect when we get there. We saw the new bridge they built recently. Our purpose for going to the Mekong was to visit a cocoa plantation and to see how ACDI/VOCA is helping the local people make money by raising cocoa crops.

To see how this works we visited Vinacocoa a company who buys local farmers crops and processes them to be used in the making of chocolate and other products. Their facility was really just a small warehouse with a small section for distillation of the cocoa plants. While we were there we got to try some of the raw cocoa and it is really not what I expected. Its actually a little slimy white kind of fruit thing. The actual cocoa nut once it is dried is really biter and I got to try some of that as well. While we were there we also go to go to their taste testing building and try a lot of different cocoa substances that would be considered finished products and they were all really bitter and some were pretty sour as well. The whole experience was pretty cool and educational because before visiting I really had no idea how the cocoa business worked or how much work goes into making a finished chocolate bar.

After Vinacocoa we went to a cocoa farm and took a tour through their property. Most cocoa farms don’t only grow cocoa because cocoa is typically grown with other crops. The farm we visited grew coconuts with cocoa plants under the coconut trees. The farm was a lot bigger than I thought and it had a really dirty water trench running throughout the property. After our tour of the farm the owners came out with fresh fruit for all of us which was really good. I think it is the best fruit I’ve ever had actually.

After the farm visit we had lunch at this really beautiful restaurant outside which was right next to a bunch of connected ponds with catfish in them I believe. The view was amazing and the food was also very good. After lunch we had the chance to walk around the grounds of the restaurant and take a look at everything. Tin showed us fresh lemons and other fruits growing all around and we saw a little lizard guy. The girls immediately found the hammocks and lounged around for the remainder of our stay. I ended up taking a lot of pictures with the guys and just of the property in general because it was so beautiful.

After the amazing lunch we headed home and showered after a long day in the sun. After we got cleaned up Tony called us and Andrew, Matt, Kyle, Mike, and I headed out to meet Tony, Lee, and some of their friends at a rock club. The club was really small but had an amazing atmosphere. The singer was really good and they sang all kinds of great songs from linkin park to aerosmith. It was a great time. I think the highlight of the night though was when Lee asked all of us if we knew how to play drums and Andrew said he did. Turns out they were in need of a drummer and Andrew just volunteered to play for the rest of the night. It was amazing to see him up there and playing so well with the rest of the band. We were all so pumped from watching and just being with all of our new friends that I think this may well be the best night of the trip so far.

As the night drew to a close and we all started getting tired we said goodbye to everyone and headed home for bed. Today was even better than yesterday and I can only continue to hope that the rest of the trip will live up to the parts I have already experienced.

Day 5

Friday morning I woke up like every other day and headed down to eat some breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast we headed to our site visit at Intel. After a 45 minute car ride through the crowded and hectic streets of Saigon we arrived at the high tech industrial park where Intel Vietnam is located. This facility they are currently building in Saigon will be the largest assembly and test factory that Intel has and will cost $1 billion USD. That being said I feel I should mention that this facility’s factory space is 500,000 square feet and this does not even include their office space next door. This office space is very spacious and is a visually pleasing work environment. The facility has a relaxation room with a tv and fun furniture and gaming systems as well as a game room with billiards tables and darts. The building also has an on site gym so employees can get their workout in.

While at Intel we got to speak with Rick Howarth an executive who has previously worked in Shanghai China as well as sites in the US. He gave us some background on what the Vietnamese Intel plant does which is assemble the final products and test them before shipping. He also shared some general company facts like Intel’s average yearly revenue is about 40 million USD and they hope to grow to 80 million by expanding its range of products and moving into new markets like the netbook and portable electronic devices markets. They also have an interest in cell phones and graphics. Utilizing these new markets and putting billions towards R&D I believe they may accomplish this goal within the next 15 years.

Rick also talked about internships at Intel and how Intel gives really great benefits and I think he may have hooked some people in our class with this topic. He told us he has headhunters calling him daily with job offers at start up companies. Apparently Intel employees are highly sought after, a commodity if you will. After Rick finished up his presentation and we asked some questions we headed back to the Victory for lunch with Dr. Berman and Sarah.

After lunch we headed for our site visit with ACDI/VOCA and to hear about their NGO work with the people of the Mekong Delta. They are helping farmers to learn to grow cocao because it is a major cash crop and the price of rice and other crops are dropping. This was a great visit because we will be going to the Mekong Delta tomorrow to see these cocao farms and talk with Vina Cocao about their work with these farmers. I really feel like what ACDI/VOCA is doing in the Mekong is of great help to the farmers there. I believe they are really making a positive impact and changing people’s lives for the better.

Later on at night Kyle, Matt, Mike and I all went out with Tony and some of his friends for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant and had a great time. I tried some crazy things like rice with chicken and chicken liver. Some soup with shrimp and other crazy things in it. The soup actually had some dried chicken blood in it and they told us to eat it so I did. It actually wasn’t so bad. I would say there was about 11 of us there and I believe our check was only about 350,000 VMD (roughly $17).

After dinner they took us to a place for coffee and ice cream. I swear this place is the Vietnamese version of Coldstone Creamery. We ordered 5 really good ice cream dishes and passed them around the table so we could all try them. We talked for a couple hours and had a really great time meeting more of tony’s friends. His one friend Lee told us he would take us to a rock bar so I’m really looking forward to that. Around 11 we all left for the hotel and said goodbye to everyone.

We decided we still wanted to do something so Mike, Kyle the girls and I all went to a place Tony recommended called the Beer Factory. This place was kind of small but really cool. While we were there kyle and I met an American guy who moved to Saigon to be in a hiphop group or something of the sort. It was actually really cool was we were all just dancing and having fun and all the sudden the guy we met and his friends got up on stage and had like this crazy dance battle type thing. It was really cool to watch that close. The bar factory was a really good find and the women there were amazing. The waitresses were all wearing these short tight dresses that were red and black and they all looked really cute.

Around 1 we all called it quits and headed home to sleep and get ready for the next day. I think today will be one of my most memorable nights here in Saigon.

Day 4

Today I got up and went to the gym because I’m feeling like if I don’t im gannna gain some serious weight because of all the great food weve been eating here. After the gym and a shower I went down and had breakfast before we left for UEF in the morning. When we got to UEF we had a presentation on the Mekong Delta which started a little late because the presenter got stuck in traffic. The presentation was pretty good and I learned some good information about the Delta and the peeople who live and work there. Aparently the food there is amazing which I believe because most of Vietnam’s fruit, rice, and aquaculture come from the mekong region. The presenter also said that the food is very fresh and they do not fry everything like they do in Saigon. Im really glad we got a chance to learn more about the Mekong Delta since we’re going there on Saturday.
After the presentation on the Mekong we had our first vietnamese culture class. I learned a lot about what to do and what not to do in social situations. The vietnamese as a whole are very friendly people who will go to any measure to make sure their guets are satisfied even if it means not participating in certain activites themselves. Our teacher gave the example of a dinner where they will go out and buy the best foods and maybe they don’t have enough money to get enough for everyone at the dinner so they will serve the best foods to the guests and eat the lesser foods themselves. I also learned that you shouldn’t touch people on the head because it is bad luck and its also very bad to say that children are good looking or compliment them too much because it will invite bad spirits or ghosts to follow the child. I think this might be why when we go to say goodbye to the girls we meet and try to hug them it gets a little awkward but at least now we know.
After our culture class we had some time to kill so we took a lot of pictures with the UEF students and got to know them all better. They are all so nice and just seem genuinely glad we are here with them. I really hope to keep these relationships going because this place is amazing and I know I will be back someday and it would be awesome to have people here to contact once I get back here. After our little social hour we went to the schools cantine and had lunch. Today was pretty good for food with some soup with beef and potatoes and green beans with beef in it. There were also some seafood spring rolls that were pretty decent. After lunch we went back to the hotel to change into more business appropriate clothes before we went to the consoulate annex in the saigon tower.
We got to the tower a little early so we all got some baked goods at the coffee shop on the ground floor. The coolest thing though, was the exhibit they had in the lobby with 3-d TV’s. I think it is possibly the coolest thing I’ve ever seen TV wise and dad if you’re reading this we need to get one. When we went up to the annex I somehome managed to slip in without them taking my phone and camera, but I never got a visitor tag so I was a little afraid of getting into some trouble but not enough to say anything. The metting with Jennifer and Dave was really informational and I learned a lot about the foreign service and what their office does. They basically are here to protect and help American businesses move into Vietnam to sell their product as well as provide help for the companies once they get here. They also do a lot of market research to help track the growth of vietnam’s economic growth. They talked a little about internship opportunities that sounded a little interesting but I don’t think I could do what they do over here. The international aspect of it is very appealing though. When we finished our Q and A session it was my turn to present them with the gifts we brought for all the presenters and they seemed to like the Pitt pennant and thought the terrible towel was a pretty unique gift.
After the meeting with Jennifer and Dave we all walked to the market, and lucky for us it decided to downpour while we were walking and by the time we got to the market we were beyond soaking wet. It did help the temperature to drop and releaved some of the humidity so that’s a plus. While we were in the market Kyle, Matt, and I ended up roaming around to find kyle a new suitcase since the airline broke his. Watching him barter with the sellers was possibly the most entertaining thing I have ever witnessed. I ended up using my flip to take a video of the transaction. After kyle got his suitcase we all walked around some more and ended up at the dvd section. I ended up buying seasons 1-5 of weeds for about $7 so I was pretty excited with that purchase. I was really looking to find planet earth but they only had this rediculous 42 disk collection of every BBC production and while im sure it was cheap I couldn’t figure out what I would do with the other 40 disks. After buying some movies we went looking for t shirts and I think I spent 270,000 dong on two shirts. The original price was 420,000 dong but I got her down to 270,000. Kyle and Matt got it down to 200,000 for the same two shirts so I guess my bartering skills are a little lax but luckily I have another week to get them up to par.
While we were walking back Sarah said she would treat us all to dinner at some place near our hotel. What we didn’t know at the time is that the place was a very nice upscale restaurant and we all ended up paying for ourselves because it was a little pricy (by vietnam standarads). The food was really good but also very small. I got chicken stirfry with lemongrass. The most interesting thing though was Elizabeth’s meal which was some crazy looking lobster which they said was very good as well. When we got back to the hotel we all hung out for a while before we went to the nightclub Lush.

When we got to lush Everyone got in except Kyle and Matt and Andrew becauses they had shorts and flip flops on. So mike went in with everyone else[ because he was basically one of the girls at this point. Mister benedict arnold and all that.] and I went in real quick to tell them that we had to go back and get changed. When we got back to the hotel Kyle Matt got changed and we all got in the cab and went back to Lush.
Lush was a pretty cool place but it was really dark and really loud and pretty pricy (about $5 for a heiniken). We did some pretty crazy dancing that night and Mike did some pretty hilarious booty drops. Im pretty sure the vietnamese girls we were dancing with had no idea how to react to us but they seemed very excited and happy. I blew some kisses at them and they turned the brightest shade of red I have ever seen. I danced with one girl for a pretty long time and we started talking outside because it was so loud in there. She said she was trying to study in the US and was a econ major. While we were talking there was this incredible drunk vietnamese girl stumbling around. She actually walked up to the outdoor bar and tried to order a drink and got rejected and stumbled past us again. I asked her if she was okay and she said no and just disappeared. At this point everyone was pretty tired and we left for the hotel and day 4 was pretty much over.

Day 3

Today I woke up feeling a little sick but I managed to get it together and get up and go down to breakfast. Unfortunately I really couldn’t stomach anything so I was fairly hungry we left. Today we did not go to UEF because we had three site visits instead and the only time some of the companys could schedule us was in the morning.
First off we headed to VSIP or the Vietnamese—Sinapore Industrial Park. The ride there was a little lengthy and really bumpy, I remember it not really helping my already iffy stomach situation but I somehome managed to keep it together and make it to VSIP in one piece. Once we got to VSIP we headed to a conference room to be briefed on what exactly goes on inside the industrial park. Basically I leanred that it is a place for companies to come, mostly foreign, and do business in the vietnamese economy with the added benefit of not having to deal with land use rights here in vietnam and being able to utilize many of the other aspects that an industrial park includes.
The presentation was really good and we were spoken to by a guy who’s daughter is currently attending the university of Pittsburgh just like us. After listening to the marketing manager talk about the industrial park for a while the Director of Marlow Industries, Vietnam operations, spoke to us from the pittsburgh company II VI.
The presentation from II VI was really cool and the speaker was really helpful and insightful w hen answering our questions. After the presentation on II VI the people at the VSIP were very thoughtful and had prepared us a breakfast/lunch kind of deal with fresh fruit, pizza, flan, and all sorts of great desserts and foods. One thing I have noticed about buisinesses here in Vietnam is that they are very polite and do a lot for us when we come to visit. They answer all our questions and take time out of their very busy day to speak with us about what they do and help us to understand how engineers and business professionals impact their company.
After our refreshments we were lucky enough to get a tour of II VI’s facility at VSIP and it was a really cool experience. II VI makes cooling elements for electronics and we got to see how they make their medical grade cooling elements as well as their smaller micro counterparts used in computers. The process they go through to make these cooling devices is very interesting. The basically take the element, cut it down to size and put a bunch of chemical coatings on it and that allow it to heat up or cool down when a voltage is sent through it. II VI can control which side gets cool and which gets hot and even convert both sides to cool for optimum cooling potential. The other product II VI makes here at VSIP in Vietnam is an optical lense used with lasers in processes like eye surgery and industrial torches. This is what I thought to be the most interesting aspect of what II VI does in VSIP. I found it very interesting how much work goes into making just one tiny lense for a laser to pass through. II VI has done a lot of work to make the laser surgery much more efficient as well. Usually 8% of light from the laser is deflected, II VI however has come up with special coatings to minimize the light deflected to about 1.4% if I do recall correctly. I really found the II VI visit enjoyable and fascinating. It was also cool to learn more about a company right in our backyard in Pittsburgh.
After visiting II VI we drove back into District 1 of Saigon and had lunch. Sarah and Doctor Berman were nice enough to buy us all a lunch buffett. The food was pretty diverse and a lot of us werent feeling to adventerous but we did find some chicken kabobs that were really good. I also really liked the pasta type deal with clams and the rice concauction they had with vegetables.
After lunch we all walked across the street to Glass Egg Digital Media which is one of the site visits I’ve been really excited to go to. When we got there we were informed that Phil Tran and Steve Reid were still in a very important meeting downtown but they would try to make it back in time to catch us and do a Q and A session. In the mean time we were given a tour of their office which I thought would be a lot bigger. I really didn’t realize how small their company is. I think they have less than 1000 workers. I also didn’t know that they were involved with the development of so many games like “The Club”, “Project Gothem Racing 4”, and “Battelfield 2: Modern Combat”. After the tour we sat in their conference room for a presentation on their company that was really informative but it felt like the presentors really weren’t into it. A highier executive joined us and was there for our Q and A session but he seemed almost annoyed that we were there taking time out of his schedule. I believe he was a technical officer and while he does have a very cool job which requires him to play video games at home as homework and market research he really seemed stuck up.
While the visit was a little dissapointing in ambiance, it was still very informative and interesting. I did learn that as an engineer I am not really what they are looking for in a graphic designer because “you can’t teach a coder how to be an artist”. After leaving glass egg we came back to the hotel and just hung out for a while. Many of us were really tired so we all took naps. By the time I woke up it was 7:30 and Tony had called Kyle with plans for the night. So Matt, Kyle, and I went down to meet Tony and one of his friends, Tua (spelling?). Tua, Matt and I got a taxi to the restaurant where we were going for dinner while kyle was lucky enough to be the first of all of us to ride on the back of a motorbike in the crazy streets of Saigon. Along the way we met up with two more of Tony’s friends and I feel like I am awful with names here which is true but I can only remember the girls name, Minh(Spelling?). Tony’s male friend was really cool as well and Tony told me while I was riding on the back of his bike that he used to race motorbikes and was a really good driver. Apparently he used to drive at speeds in excess of 180 Km/h in Saigon which is very hard to fathom as the streets are so crowded.
When we got the restaurant we were seated on the third floor and the place was really cool inside. I think we were in and out in less than 20 minutes and it a really cool experience just talking with our Vietnamese friends and utilizing them to help us order iced tea and our meals. I had pasta with veal and it came out looking questionable but when I tried it it was extremely good. The portions here are much smaller than at home though but it was a good meal. When talking with our new friends we found out that Minh is a dancer for some music star here in saigon and she really does look the part. [I also found out later that by dancer she meant lap dancer and she also has posed nude with some of her friends just for kicks and giggles. Her and tony’s male friend are also pretty hard partyers or so ive been told so hopefully we will get a chance to go out with them while we are here.]When we asked for the check we almost died because for the 7 of us it was 250,000 dong which is roughly $17. So we decided to pay for everyones dinner. I only had 500,000 dong bills so when I pulled it out they all looked at me like I was crazy. I also found out that in Vietnam the tip is already calculated so you don’t have to leave a tip like in the US, which means I got scammed last night haha.
After dinner we rock paper scissored for who got to ride on the back of Tony and his friend’s motorbikes and Matt and I won because we are just dominant. We went to this street where they just put out tables and chairs for you to site on in the middle of the sidewalk and they serve you coffee or whatever you want out there. It was a really cool experience. When we got there we met up with some more of Tony’s friends from UEF and they were all very nice. Unfortunately Tua had to leave but she ended up calling while we were all having coffee and Kyle talked to her on the phone which was pretty hilarious, expecially when everyone was trying to tell him how to say things in Vietnamese to her. I think we were all a little loopy from the fumes we had all inhaled while riding on the motorbikes (Vietnam has no emissions laws) so we were all super talkative, especially Kyle. While we were there Tony asked us if we wanted to try dog and weirdly enough all of us said yes. I never thought I’d ever want to but Tony says its really good and when am I ever going to have another opportunity to try dog?
After talking for a while with everyone tony had to leave to go home and study for a math test so we took a taxi back to our hotel. I think today went really well and I had a lot of fun. It was really nice to hang out with all the Vietnamese kids and get to know them better. I just hope the rest of this trip is just as awesome as today was.

Day 2

Today we went to UEF and had a lecture about foreign investment in Vietnam from a government official in Saigon. He talked a lot about how foreign direct investment has been increasing in Vietnam and especially in Saigon because of its ever growing economy. Overall his presentation was somewhat boring but I did learn a lot and it did help prep me for the site visit to Phu My Hung. While we were at UEF I made a new friend, Tony. He seems really down to earth and very intelligent. He told me he would take me around the city when he has some free time this week. He even said he’d show me the good places to go to get fitted for a suit. I talked him into coming to hang out with us at our hotel for a little when he finished his Japanesse class at 7:15. Unfortunately he couldn’t come out with us because he had a family dinner he had to attend but he did come to see us and he gave kyle a phone so he could reach us later to hang out.

I really enjoyed our vietnamese language class today because Miss Tu was there and she’s pretty cute, she also helped me to learn more vietnamese. Its really humorous to see everyone struggle with the language but its also a really enjoyable class. Lunch at the Cantina was pretty interesting it seems like all we eat when theres nothing we really like is eat the french bread and just kinda pick at the other “adventurous” foods. They did serve us some pretty good food though, I really enjoyed this pasta kinda deal with some beef in it.

After lunch we had our site visit to Phu My Hung and the drive was a pretty long one but it was well worth it. When we first got in site of the compound it was like driving into a resort. The site was beautiful with tall white condiminiums and residence buildings, pristine villas for the wealthy, an expo center, and a mall. This part of south Saigon was much more manicured and clean than where we are staying in District 3. There was even a ferris wheel and a roller coaster. When we got to our meeting with the Manager of International Marketing of Phu My Hung I was really impressed with their building and the view from the balcony of our meeting room. The view of Saigon was amazing and I made sure to take a lot of pictures. It was also cool because the Vietnamese students from UEF came with us to the site visit so we got a couple pictures with them on the balcony.

Durring the presentation I learned a lot about the community that Phu My Hung is building in South Saigon, like how all the Villas have already been sold mostly to wealthy Japanese. Apparently about 40% of all the residents in Phu My Hung are foreign and the Vietnamese who live there are mostly there to work, but on an average day they expect around 300,000 people to be in Phu My Hung eithier living, working, shopping, or for tourism. Phu My Hung also worked with the government of Vietnam to build a new highway to better connect south Saigon to the rest of Saigon. The main goal of Phu My Hung is to move people out of the over populated Districts 1 and 5 and move them to the newly created complex in South Saigon. After the meeting we took a driving tour of the whole compound and it was really awesome. I got to see the villas and they were beautiful and I really wouldn’t mind owning one exce3pt for the fact thay they’ve all been sold and half of them haven’t even been completed yet.

After a long ride back from Phu My Hung we came back to the hotel and I got a quick shower because it’s so rediculously hot here. Later on we all went to apocalypse now. When we got there it was pretty empty but we had a pretty good time. Later on around 10 the club exploded and there was suddenly 100000 people there. I talked to a girl from Belgium for a while and I met her friend that was with her but I can’t recall his name at the moment. Her friend and I bough some drinks and took some pictures throughout the night. All in all they were pretty cool and my first club experience was a good one. Today was all together a great day.

Day 1

Today was perhaps one of the best days of my life. I got to meet some awesome Vietnamese kids my age and they were all great. They had a welcome ceromony for us and everything. I'm really glad I got to meet Harry who I've decided is my new best friend. He is a student at the University of Economics and Finance here in Vietnam and he has been a great friend this first day helping me to learn the Vietnamese language and just get aquainted to Vietnamese life in general. The language class was really fun and enjoyable because I got to learn some key phrases like "I am an American" and "My name is..." I also really enjoyed going to the US consulate in Ho Chi Minh which is the site of the original embassy in Southern Vietnam before the Unification. I got to learn a lot from the chief counselor about US, Vietnam political relations as well as the foreign affairs career scene in general. It seems like a very cool job but it does come with sacrifices like having to pick up and move every 2-4 years. We also had a traditional Vietnamese dinner a restaurant in down town Ho Chi Minhn which was very good. Everything about today leads me to believe that this trip is going to be a great one.