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.