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.