Final Thoughts - Trip 1

This summary & reflection is being written about a week before Christmas, 2011…roughly two months after returning from my first trip to Hanoi.  While the business of the past weeks gave me an excuse to delay writing this, the lapse has also allowed some thoughts to ferment and coalesce since my initial impressions.

It is difficult to comprehend where the project is going from here.  The tasks of two of the three short-term advisors are done (HR and IT), although their recommendations have yet to be formally accepted by the Bank and IFC despite having long exceeded the 10 days allowed each by the project contract.  Yesterday was also the final day on the project for the team leader, who has yet to be replaced.  His strategic plan, submitted two months ago, also has yet to be accepted.

For my part (the last survivor unless we rapidly find a replacement for the team leader), I am scheduled to submit a 3-year marketing plan for the Bank by February 15^th.  Leaving time for Bankworld and the IFC to review the plan, that gives me a completion date during the last week in January.  That will not be difficult in and of itself, except that the Bank and IFC was recent marketing research to be incorporated into the plan that I write.  That would be great, except that launching the research is now nearly three months overdue, and there is no way I can use it unless my report submission date is pushed back at least a month.  Were that to be done, it would be impossible to give the Bank time to translate and review the plan, schedule my second visit for implementation, and work some analysis of the initial marketing tactics into the mix.  The contractual end of the project will be here well before that.

So, once Christmas is over, I shall dive into finishing the plan, which will take more than the five at-home days I am allotted.  A good part of the exercise may be futile because a marketing plan is built to progress over time on the foundation of previously completed steps, and it is not obvious that any initial steps will actually be completed by the Bank. 

And, that is probably the biggest black cloud hanging over Vietnam as it attempts to jump into the “developed” world – an absolute lack of the basic concepts of business.  The bulk of people are solo or family earners or entrepreneurs, and they will continue to scrape by on hard work and ingenuity, as well as remaining invisible from the authorities, for the next generation.  But, those deemed to be the new generation of business and economy builders are primarily anointed because they have connections in the government, not because they have any special acumen.  Much like American businesspeople have become, the initial generation of Vietnamese entrepreneurs is ready to cry for government subsidies, restrictive laws against their competition, and exclusive licenses instead of identifying and meeting a market need at a fair price.  I see little evidence of initiative, accountability, or desire for increased responsibility among most large enterprise employees. Most are quite content to remain in the shadows of corporate hallways.

It would be interesting to launch my phase of the project and return in five years to see exactly what the end result looks like.  I would probably not recognize it.

Have a safe and relaxing Christmas and New Year (and Tet), everybody.  With luck, this series will resume in March with the saga of my second Hanoi trip.

Heading Home!

7:22 Friday evening (7:22 Friday morning for those of you on the East coast) and we have been airborne from Beijing for almost an hour.  I have this unexplainable need to watch the airline maps during flights, and see that we are heading east over southern China (thankfully keeping a good margin from the North Korean border) and, presumably, over Japan shortly.  So apparently we are going to cross the north Pacific.  Curious, since my main flight coming here took me over the Arctic Circle, Siberia, and Mongolia to get to Beijing.

Left my hotel at 7 this morning (8 p.m. Thursday in Columbus) and, with luck, will be home in the first hour of Saturday.  All stocked up with charged laptops and plenty of reading material for this 13 ½ hour flight.  Sleep is doubtful…almost all of the passengers are tourists from China and, by the way they are standing in the aisles and talking, they are all from the same family and this is their first reunion since 1920.

I definitely got a different idea of the Beijing Capitol airport today…perhaps it was because I had much more time to kill today than four weeks ago.  I was scheduled to have four hours of downtime, but the inefficiency of Customs workers there took a large chunk of that vacant time away.  The parts of the airport I was in today are much cleaner than I had seen previously.  And, it is incredibly underutilized…probably less than 10% of capacity.  If I recall, it was built as an entry showcase for the Olympics 3 (or 7?) years ago, and Beijing’s growth as an international commerce city has yet to catch up with that.  In fact, it is so sprawling that two of the three terminals are for international flights – one for local international (Vietnam, Taipei, Malaysia, Australia, etc.) and the other for long-haul international like this one.  Unfortunately, the two international terminals are 20 minutes apart via free shuttle bus.  Then, in the long-haul terminal, after clearing security one has to take an electric train perhaps 2 km. to the midpoint of the 60-gate terminal.  The view from the air is overwhelming.

Inside were many employees, both government and those of the retail shops.  One could tell the difference because government employees wore uniforms as they stood around and looked bored, while the others chose other outfits to be bored within.  The port is as overstaffed as it is over-capacitated (?????). No Starbucks yet, but there is a Burger King and all of the CPG brand names that newly-wealthy Chinese flock to.  I got some vastly-overpriced newspapers and magazines, including interesting Asian versions of Financial Times and the Economist.  Sidebar – there is NO reading material for purchase, in any language, in the Hanoi airport.  Glad I had 4 ebooks stored on my phone.  Also found a reasonably-priced restaurant for a dinner of Asian braised beef (too sweet, but the sticky rice was perfect).

This has been a most interesting week on the project.  Suffice it to say that the project presentation for the Chairman of the bank, now scheduled for next Wednesday morning, has taken twenty times more work time than anyone with a brain would have justified.  Apparently nobody has briefed the Chairman about the project, so IFC (International Finance Commission, part of the World Bank) is looking to us to sell him on the project.  This, when we have had all four consultants on site and are a third through the calendar for it.  Somebody, and somebody NOT on the immediate project team, really screwed this one up on the pre-project portion.

I suppose there is much behind the scenes that I don’t know, but the image of the IFC in my brain has taken a definite his in the past month.

Speaking of images taking hits, the Chairman of this bank had a heart attack a few years ago.  Since then, one of his two personal secretaries (he has two – both are male) always travels with him on business, and sleeps in the same room at night in case another heart attack starts.  I would kill to see the job description for that one.

I still have about 400,000 dong in my pocket, about $20 USD, that I was planning to spend on reading materials at the Hanoi airport.  With a delay in selecting a marketing research vendor on this trip, and the resulting delays in my deliverables, I do not expect to make my next trip until March.  By then, inflation in Vietnam will have shrunk my dong by about 10% (yes, I phrased it that way deliberately so all of the 2-year-old-brains reading this can giggle for the next half hour).

And, with that, it is just after 8 p.m. and dinner is being served three rows from here.  Good timing to shut the laptop down and bring out a magazine.     

Here are just a couple of photos from my last week:

https://picasaweb.google.com/110414898143254307072/FinalWeekOfMyFirstTrip

Rainy and Inactive Week

I am writing this post on Saturday evening, 8 October, after a rather dreary (rainy, thanks to the typhoon that drifted south) and boring (writing reports) week.

But, a few things did crop to make the week tenable.

For starters, I have noticed that few local adult men are bald or even gray.  But I am not smart enough to expound on the possible reasons.

Monday, four of us went to a backalley dive that serves duck for lunch.  No other meal.  No other base.  Just  duck.  You can get it grilled or boiled, but it will still be duck.  And, it was delicious and reasonably priced.  Wonder what the dessert would have been if we have ordered it.

Sticking to the aquatic theme, Tuesday the same group (plus three from our client bank) grabbed a cab to an Old Quarter restaurant that serves fish.  Only fish.  And, only sautéed at your table.  No menu needed.  As usual, it was delicious.  One can almost understand why locals have the rep of having two-hour lunches.  And, to quote our local Bank liason in her follow-up email:  “The fish we had at lunch today has the scientific name of Hemibagrus elongatus, which is a type of catfish.”

On Wednesday, 5 October, it was pretty much pouring all day as Nygene avoided us but pulled water in from the South China Sea.  Could have been a lot worse.  But, the local newspapers reported over 200 dead from flooding in the Mekong delta in Cambodia and Vietnam…fed from rains in VN and Laos from two tropical storms in 10 days.  The rice crop has been wiped out, leading to a 30% increase in the price of the staple in a month.  Fortunately, most of the region can produce 3 rice crops a year, but that doesn’t help in the short run.  Many Viets blame the flooding on massive dam projects in Cambodia which are the subject of ongoing international negotiations.  I am too dumb to understand the physics of the debate.
 
As a sidebar, I have noticed a propensity by local office workers to not use stairways.  I am met with surprise when I actually use them to descend…or to walk up 1 or 2 flights.  Americans are so strange…!

So, to this weekend’s activities.

The main theme this weekend is rain…interspersed with pouring.  Seems to be accurate so far.

Howard, the HR advisor on this project, ended his stint yesterday.  Very sorry to see him go…he is well traveled and a very likeable guy, so I learned a lot from him during my 3 weeks together.
 
Our main contacts at the Bank took the project team out to lunch at at Thai restaurant Friday in Howard’s honor.  Interesting, since Howard is the only one who speaks Thai, so we had him order everything: mango salad, squid, veggie noodles, shrimp, grilled pork, and you name it.  Finished with an interesting dessert of seaweed noodles and sweetened coconut milk…not something I would seek out, but it worked.

Then, in the evening, three of us went back to the local tourist trap named Delicious…me for the third time.  We decided to sit in the outside area…then a monsoon hit…and we watched the rain being channeled from the tarps into 5 galloon buckets that were just dumped on site when they filled.  No matter.  We three ordered tilapia, with trimmings, and the fish came whole (gutted) to be sautéed at the table by our server.  It is hard to imagine anyone could give better attention than he did, and we tipped him well for it by local standards…$2.50 on a $20 tab, on top of the standard 5% service charge.

Photos for various of this week’s activities can be viewed at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/110414898143254307072/ARainyAndInactiveWeek

Also bought a bunch of holiday gifts and souvenirs today…probably overpaid a bit, but bargained down from the posted price.  Hopefully, we are all happy.

Including the departure dinners and gift buying, and taxis, I am still spending less than $30 a day here on average.  Nice to be able to stay within a reasonable budget.

Final point of this post:  Walking back from today’s travels, I decided that three weeks of gastrointestinal happiness qualified me to stop in one of Hanoi’s many famed reaches:  a back-alley dive serving bai hoi.  Bai hoi means, literally, “beer today”, and essentially means home brew that is rolled out in the morning and served until the keg is empty.  No chilling, no pasteurization, and the mugs are washed with the same care as anything here in an alley restaurant.  It tasted great and was dirt cheap…about 50 cents a pint.  I shall reserve my full opinion until 24 hours have passed.  Kudos to Hep A shots.

More to come as it warrants.  Most of you are just starting your Saturdays…enjoy the crisp autumn weather.

Water Puppets and Away From the Tourists

Hey, everybody.

Another weekend of walking….about 17 miles…mainly alone, which can make things much easier.

The main event Saturday was a trip to see the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre, considered a national treasure.  I am not sure why.  The performance was…there…but not anything I would recommend.  The worst part is that the theatre is old, and the seats are built for people averaging about 4 ft. 6.  And in the seat next to me was a sumo-type from Thailand.  But the show is only about 45 minutes, consisting of 11 vignettes:

• festival drumming
• dragon dance
• prelude by the buffoon Teu
• buffalo fighting
• farm work
• village guardian god procession
• van singing
• horse race
• Quan ho singing
• Coconut picking
• Carp transformed into dragon

It would probably be fascinating to see backstage, as the puppets emerge from a bamboo curtain onto an indoor pool.  Once in a while one could see the rods by which people behind the curtain move the puppets.  Supposedly they require 3 years of training before being allowed to work a show.  But, for only $3, I cannot complain.

In the evening I joined the usual crew to hit a local restaurant a block away – fixed price menu at $20, $22, or $25.  We chose the midrange, which brought 11 courses to the table, including white asparagus & clam soup, fried squid, mango salad, poached fish, coconut ice cream, and green tea.  A nice sampling of local dishes.

After dinner we wandered to a jazz club about another block away.  Only stayed for one set…for some reason, the singers in bands here only do about 3 songs per set.  So, that one was not worth going back to, as the players were rather wooden in their efforts. 

Sunday dawned warm and brilliant, so it was time to avoid the damn tourists and explore a new section of Hanoi.  I headed northwest from here, seeking and walking across the Cau Long Bien (Long Bridge) crossing the Red River.  Those of you in my age bracket might remember that we millions trying to bomb this bridge out of existence in the 60s and early 70s, to no avail.  Apparently, though, no maintenance has been done on it since.

The bridge is just over a mile long, and constructed primarily of rust with a few cobwebs to hold everything together.  Crossing on foot is not for the faint-of-heart, especially since the guard railings were no higher than my knees in places.   It has seven “lanes”…a train track down the middle, two asphalt lanes in each direction for bikes and scooters (cars and trucks must use a more modern bridge 1 km. to the north), and a metre-wide cement pedestrian path on each side.  Scooter drivers were somewhat more polite on the bridge than on typical Hanoi streets, especially since many bike riders got off and pushed on the ascending sections.

But, crossing the bridge took me to the Song Hong district, a lower-income retail and residential district about 3 km. and 30 years from my hotel.  Very serene, save for the construction site of a new building.  It definitely gave me a look at a different aspect of Hanoi.  From the time I set foot on the bridge until I returned to the same spot, about 3 hours later, I did not see another non-Viet person.  I seemed to be quite a curiosity to the kiddies.

And that was it for this weekend.  I shall head out to lunch/dinner shortly, but seek and expect nothing spectacular.  More updates in a few days.  And I am more than halfway through this trip…leaving early on the 14th.

Photos of the weekend, and a video of me crossing the street while holding the camera at my chest, can be found at: https://picasaweb.google.com/110414898143254307072/October22011

The Typhoon That Wasn't

Good afternoon, all.

Early Friday afternoon.  Howard, Hang, and I all decided to work out of our hotel rooms/homes today because of the tropical store forecast.  So far, it has been a bust….winds under 30 and probably less than 2 inches of rain.  The strongest part is supposed to pass over us about 4:00, and the remnants continue to wet us through tomorrow, but it is nothing more than a heavy rainstorm.    I had one meeting outside this morning, and am leaving in a few minutes to visit with a Bank customer a few kilometers away.  That is all on my firm schedule until Monday.

But, retreating to earlier this week, Howard led us to a “genuine” Italian restaurant a couple of blocks away for lunch Tuesday.  These pizzas were actually good, although a shade expensive by local standards.  Definitely worth a re-visit when I tire of pho.

BTW, there is no coinage here…all money is currency.  The smallest bill is 1,000 VND (Vietnamese dong), about a nickel; and the largest is 500,000 dong, just short of $25 USD.  I have yet to see anything being sold for as little as 5,000 dong.  “Good” restaurants, however, do make a practice of automatically giving each diner a branded wet nap for handwashing before dining.  That courtesy winds up on the bill at either 10,000 or 15,000 dong.

On the way back to the office we passed an “authentic” western steakhouse, The Seventeen Cowboys.  We had Hai interrogate the employees lounging on the steps, and they insisted that there are 17 cowboys there during the dinner period.  I’m not sure if we should try it out but, being only 3 blocks away, curiosity may overcome me.

On Tuesday I also hit a boredom threshold…after a week packed with meetings, there was nothing scheduled for me these two days so I spent the time in the office catching up on digesting data and starting to write my recommendations.  The rest of this week is filled with meetings, generating data to yet lengthen my report.  Wonder if anybody ever truly reads the crap I generate?

But, the boredom left me edgy, so in the evening I wandered down to Tonkin Coffee, a locals hangout on this block.  I probably will not return.  Cheap Viet coffee is made with robusto beans which have an inherent sweetness to them in this climate.  Plus, the norm here is to drink coffee with a lot of sugar and cream (evaporated milk), and over ice.  I was finally able to convince them to bring no ice, no sugar, and no cream.  But I had left my phrasebook in the room, and couldn’t convey the message “and bring it hot!” (room temp is the default if ice is not desired).  At least the price didn’t hurt…about 47 cents a cup.

Slow forward to Wednesday.

Four associates from the Bank took us to lunch Wednesday…well, they picked the restaurant, and the three of us split the tab.  It was a five-level restaurant (we were on the top floor, of course, with no lift), and the servers communicated with walkie-talkies and a dumbwaiter (notice my restraint).  The choice menu items selected by the bankers were roast pigeon (greasy, and tasting like a tractor tire), frog legs (like chicken legs), spiced beef, and banana flower salad.  The latter may well replace my passion for mango salad.  If you want bad photos of a fun meal:
https://picasaweb.google.com/110414898143254307072/FoodPhotosMainly

Wednesday’s heat index was 101 just before noon, and peaked at 104 around 3:30.  The approaching storm will bring a most welcome 10 C drop in temps for the weekend.

Thursday

I spent the morning speaking with, and touring a factory of, a medium customer of the bank who has carved a niche manufacturing disposable food containers – carry out trays, plastic cups.  In most locals restaurants, drinks are served in glasses and rinsed in water that I try not to contemplate (glad I got my Hep A shots).  It was quite interesting to see his machines stamp the containers out of rolls of raw plastic film.  The contrast was also watching a half dozen female employees, all of whom looked 12 so they were probably in their mid-20s, manually pick newly-stamped cups from a large sheet of plastic on the floor, and stack them into plastic bags for delivery.  Must be a very exciting job.  All of the machines in the factory were Chinese, which one could easily tell by the shoddy housings compared to German engineering.  Anyway, the trip to that industrial zone about 30 km. from the city center was quite interesting.  A very few photos, and a couple of short traffic videos, can be found at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/110414898143254307072/September292011#5657804969928107410

One of the constant complaints I hear from businesspeople is the differential between interest rates:  VND rates run 14% on deposits (capped by the feds), and 22% on a typical business loan.  USD rates here, when available, run about 2% on deposits and 5% on loans.  Everybody, of course, wants USD loans but there is a lack of foreign currency so that the dong doesn’t collapse.

The economy is also rift with low productivity.  It is not uncommon for a loan officer at the bank to have 2 customers (albeit large ones by his standards), and I have only been in one bank branch that was arguably busy.  About 24 people in one department are kept employed analyzing an average of two loans requests each month.

Enough bitching.  I wimped out and ate in the hotel Thursday night, sampling a local delicacy called Bun Cha…grilled pork in a “special” sauce over vermicelli.  Quite good, although the sauce was (as expected) a shade too sweet for my tastes.

Friday it was pouring with the first wave of the tropical storm (downgraded from a typhoon), so Howard and I decided to work out of our hotel rooms after telling Hang to work out of her house.

Meeting with a marketing research company in the morning…a light rain on the 2-block walk.

Meeting at a customer site in the afternoon – totally soaked, despite using a taxi and company car on separate legs.  While the forecast was overblown, the day did turn out to be wet, and the winds were sufficiently high (maybe peaked at 40 MPH) to make umbrellas worthless.  The next storm due thru here, Nalgae, looks like it might be much nastier when it hits late Monday or so.  Again, no matter – my meetings are substantially done, so I can always hole up in the hotel.

When I got back to the hotel (soaked) about 3:30, the Hanoi fire dept. was conducting pre-scheduled drills here.  That was all well and good…the guests had been notified…but we didn’t expect them to be transporting staff from the 7th floor, on the fire ladders, as part of the test.  Nor did I expect the elevators to be shut down.  So, I climbed seven stories of stairs to my room, changed in gym clothes, descended 6 stories to the gym, worked out, and climbed six stories back to my room. 

But, I will not fear fire in this hotel – they are prepared.

A final observation on this society…the notion of “average” seems unknown.  It started with banks that only report period-ending balances, and stare blankly when you talk about average for the month.  It ends with this hotel, where the room rate includes two free pieces of clothing laundered each day.  But, unless you argue and agree, that is only each day – use it or lose it.  Fortunately, our team leader argued and won, so I have 54 pieces of laundry I can get done at any time (of my choosing!!!) during my 54 nights here.

Enough blathering.  Howard and Ed await me at a restaurant in the Old Quarter.

Weekend Tours of Hanoi

Hey, folks. It’s Monday evening now…time to recap the weekend.

Saturday, Sept. 24, was a day of solo wandering, putting in over 10 miles. I hit Hoam Kien Lake again, circling the lake and watching a number of older ladies doing their Tai Chi in the morning mist. There were probably another dozen newlyweds getting their pics taken even before noon.

I tried to get tickets to the water puppet show, but waited too long and the afternoon show sold out. Next weekend, perhaps. Their performances are considered a national treasure, and a must-see for any tourist. You now know as much as I do.

Lunch was a fabulous plate of local fruit, accented with strong coffee. The best local fruit, the name of which escapes me, resembles a large grapefruit than is eminently peelable and eaten in sections. It grows wild in several areas in the city. The fresh mangos are also delicious; the fresh apples acceptable. Interestingly, the fruit came with a saucer of spiced salt, a local requirement that must be an acquired taste.

I spent the afternoon again trying to learn the maze of streets in the Old Quarter. The street layouts finally made sense after getting lost on the Silversmith Street, Fabric Street, etc. I could have walked the Spice Street for hours. Found a silversmith to repair a pendant at an OK price.

Walked back to the hotel with lines of salt stains on my black polo shirt…while the heat was only in the mid-80s, so was the humidity. Plus, the traffic creates enough exhaust to make breathing laborious if there is no breeze blowing.

Finished the day with dinner at a nearby touristy VN restaurant with Howard, Matt, and Matt’s wife and daughter. It was the first time I had met Juliana (Matt’s wife, a native of Moldova), but I had met their daughter Victoria back in Baku. Sorry that my cell phone memory filled and crashed so you will miss pics of our mango salad, 6-inch shrimp (peeled at the table by the server), fresh spring rolls, steamed beef rolls, and several other dishes I can’t remember. Total tab for the five of us was under $30. Ya gotta love this cuisine!

Here is the link for the Saturday pictures:

https://picasaweb.google.com/110414898143254307072/September24201103

And, for those curious, here are the TV stations available in the hotel, although I haven’t had time to really explore them. I do, however, love the subtitles in Vietnamese.

1. In-house
2. ABC – Australia
3. CNN
4. BBC World
5. TV5 – French
6. France 24
7. National Geographic
8. Star Movie – English
9. HBO Asia – Movie – English
10. Star World (Entertainment crap)
11. China Entertainment TV
12. ESPN – English (soccer and rugby, mainly)
13. Star Sport – English
14. MTV
15. Channel V (close to VH-1)
16. Kids Go
17. DW – German
18. RAI – Italian
19. TVE – Spanish
20. Russia Today
21. New Asia Channel
22. 22-25: Viet channels, closely controlled by the gov’t.

Now on to Sunday, another 10-mile walking day.

Hai, one of our interpreters and project liasons, picked Howard and me up at the hotel at 9:00. The first stop was at Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, in a beautiful setting less than 2 km. from the hotel. The actual mausoleum was closed that day for refurbishing, disappointing literally thousands of tourists. But, the grounds were lovely, and we were able to stroll around and take in his house-on-stilts, as well as view buildings from the French colonial era. Normally, the mausoleum is only open from about 9 – 11:30 a.m. for visitors to view “uncle Ho’s” body, and tickets run out by 10:00. Cell phones and cameras are forbidden. Creepily, the body is returned to Moscow for two months every January for…er…refurbishing.

Near HCM’s grounds was also a tourist stop called the single tower pagoda. I have no idea why it is renowned.

Next, a stop in a back alley café to slake our collective thirsts with made-on-the-spot fresh mango drinks.

Now, on to the museum of fine art, in a semi-decrepit building again from the French era. There was relatively little from anytime pre-1800s, but quite a bit from the past two centuries. There were many depictions of various aspects of Buddhism, as you would expect; and quite an extensive collection of art from the war of independence in the ‘50s and ‘60s. The painting styles were so-so, but there were excellent wood and stone sculptures throughout.

A very worthwhile morning.

Since Hai had to leave at noon for family obligations, Howard and I headed again to the Old Quarter so I could show him the way around. Well, that didn’t work well at all. I got us lost at least five times, and we stopped in a large mall trying to find something cold to drink. Took us ten minutes to find the restaurant in the basement…we found it only because Howard had the bright idea of following a food delivery person carrying empty dishes. After lunch, we wandered to several shops in the Quarter, where Howard bargained the prices down on some souvenirs and I followed suit on some gifts. It appeared that even light bargaining would get prices down about 30%. It also helps a shade if you bargain using U.S. dollars but pay in Vietnamese dong. Most merchants use an exchange rate of 20,000 dong for ease of calculation, instead of the official rate of just over 20,800. And, that ends today’s lesson in international finance.

Howard had departed for the hotel by now, so I went to the jeweler to pick up my repaired pendant and bargained a neighboring t-shirt merchant below $3.00 for one for me. Then back to the hotel, which took 2 ½ hours because I got lost five times. It sucks when the street names are pretty similar, and none of them are straight. Anyway, help from a French tourist and German photographer finally got me back here just after 5:00….conveniently for the start of happy hour.

One interesting thing I found out that day. I had seen a number of female scooterists who were fully clothed, including gloves and mouth masks, and assumed they were Muslim covering up in modesty. Turns out that they are Vietnamese trying to avoid the sun, in the regional belief that the fairer one’s skin is the prettier she is. So, Jaye, if you visit me here in February, you will be a goddess. Just bring your friggin’ sun screen…you will need it.

Well, it is closing in on 11:00 and World Cup Rugby is on, so time to close. Much more to come soon.

Here is a link to the pictures from Sunday:
https://picasaweb.google.com/110414898143254307072/September252011

End of my first week

I’m in the final few minutes of my first week at VietinBank and several days removed from the last posting – time to catch up a bit from a frantic week and ease into a day of exploration tomorrow.

We have rapidly found that no meetings will be scheduled from noon – 2:00. While not everybody takes a lunch break of two hours, the opportunity seems to be there. Matt feels it is a vestige of more rural, pre-A/C days to allow people to nap in the middle of the day’s heat. The basic workday is 8 – 6 M-F, plus 8-noon on Saturdays, but it is usual to see people at their desks by 7:30 and staying until 7 or 7:30. The national government made a push several years ago to encourage businesses to only work M-F, but that endeavor has obviously failed since even this 51% government-owned bank doesn’t follow that dictate.

I am still getting used to the early nightfall…sunrise is about 5:30 and sunset about 5:45, so it is twilight by the time we typically leave the office for the 5-minute walk to the hotel. There aren’t a lot of streetlights, but lights from vehicles and open storefronts is perfectly sufficient.

We haven’t experienced much rain so far…two nights when it poured all night but relatively little during the day. If there is rain, it does seem to taper off as the day progresses. Just after Matt got here in late July, a typhoon hit and dumped over 20 inches of rain in one day. We are entering the drier part of the year, expecting maybe three inches of rain per month through November.

Traffic is all it was cracked up to be, and more. It can literally be wall to wall motor scooters during both rush hours, more so in the evening rush because it is more compacted. Once of these days I shall create a video and upload it to YouTube for your viewing pleasure. Even better, the next time we need to take a taxi around rush hour, I’ll try to get a video through the windshield so you can see how expert, or foolhardy, these drivers are. BTW, we met a fellow expat from our Baku project last night at his hotel (he’s in town on yet another project with a separate bank), and the taxi fare on each 3 km. leg was just under a dollar.

I encountered my first episode of overt government censorship earlier this week. I have been unable to post to this blog directly from Hanoi, but figured I was just forgetting some instruction. But, no, in a Skype call with Nancy she figured out that the resident censors are overriding the instruction buttons on my version of the blog, so I can read what is posted but do nothing else. Obviously we can get around the block or you wouldn’t be reading this right now, but the futility of censorship can be really annoying (and we’ll see if the censors take offense to those comments real soon, won’t we?).

Matt, Howard, and I were caught offguard in a meeting Wednesday afternoon when the Chairman, in a brief stop back here in between weeklong trips, decided to summon us (yes, that is the correct word to use) to meet the project team. A cordial but perfunctory individual. He was gracious, and left each of us with a small statue of a pair of carp as a gift. But, we have been summoned to a presentation for him on Sunday afternoon, October 2, to update him on the project…something we had not been planning until later in the month. We will, of course, bill the bank as a full work day for that presentation, but none of us had been planning to give up a weekend afternoon. The choice is not ours, as IFC is sending their Vietnam officer in from Ho Chi Minh City to also attend.

Food is a constant aspect of our non-work lives here. Monday, as we were going among branches to meet with calling officers, our interpreters took us to a popular German restaurant…the first time I had ever had an entire pig leg accompanied by a papaya salad. German beer also seemed to be flowing heavily among the locals. Wednesday night was a visit to an authentic Viet tourist trap restaurant just around the corner. Despite being overpriced, the full dinner was only $8 per person, and tomorrow night I’ll be returning with my team leader and his wife & daughter. Lunch today was the low point of eating – Highland Coffee, the local equivalent of Starbucks with tolerable sandwiches. OTOH, lunch Wednesday was at a native dive (one rapidly learns it’s OK to eat at the open air dives with benches, but not those bunched around a fire on the sidewalk and furnished with low plastic stools). This proprietor only makes two dishes a day…we got there too late for the pork pho, but there was plenty of chicken pho left. About a pint of broth, chicken, rice noodles, chives, and scallions for less than $1.50.

It’s closing in on midnight, and I’m trying to get the flight reservations for Armenia nailed before the weekend hits in D.C., so it’s a good time to close. Tomorrow I wander on my own, back to the Hoam Kiem Lake area to check out the merchants, sample some dive food, view Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, and hopefully catch a water puppet show. Sunday, our interpreters have promised more adventures.

Tour of Hanoi

5:30 Sunday evening now, and a lot to catch y’all up on. Darkness is descending as I write this from the hotel patio, grabbing a dinner/snack.

A couple of addenda to my first post. I got selected at the Beijing airport for extra screening going back in (had to change terminals between planes)…seems that every little piece of metal, and some plastics, set off the detectors. OTOH, when I entered both China (technically, while changing terminals) and Vietnam, Customs didn’t seem to care at all what one might be bringing into the country. There were two aisles to go through, one for declarations and one without, and both times the no-declaration aisle was staffed by a very bored person who looked like (s)he had 100 better things to do. I could have been bringing a howitzer in without a problem.

Fellow passengers on the Beijing-Hanoi flight took a lot of interest in me. Most were VN nationals returning from a quick hop to China, and I took a few pats on the shoulder as they seated themselves. That flight also had a rather extensive market research survey that they seemed to give only to the few obvious foreigners, but I’m glad to see they are at least asking opinions.

In bed at 10:30 and awoke at 7:15…as of this point, I don’t seem to have jet lag. We shall see how tomorrow’s 11-hour day full of meetings goes.

Now for today.

Started with a hot (unlike Baku) shower, and to the free breakfast buffet at the hotel. A good spread: seven kinds of pastry, eight local fruits, 4 cereals, omelettes, sausage, cold cuts, 4 juices, yogurt, and excellent coffee were among the offerings. Eating there daily will certainly reduce the impact on the daily food per diem.

Our host from the bank picked us up at 9:30 for her tour.

We grabbed a taxi ($2.00 for the 15 minute ride) to the Old Quarter of Hanoi, where the commerce is never ending. Name something, and it can be purchased at any of a dozen shops within 100 meters of any point. Of course, I am sure all of the designer labels are legit! :>) Bootleg DVDs were hawked for $1-2, t-shirts typically listed for $5., and every other storefront was a café of some nature. Eating at many cafes can be hazardous, as the seating is on plastic stools that are only about 15 inches tall. Definitely not built for elderly legs.

I didn’t buy anything today, but targeted several potential Christmas gifts for purchase before leaving. Will have to hone my bargaining skills before buying. While I am willing to leave some money on the table while bargaining (the locals need it more than we tourists do), I must at least play the game.

One very interesting item for purchase was a litre bottle of rice wine with a 6-inch scorpion and 1-foot cobra in the bottle amongst the liquid. It is supposedly a local delicacy, and certainly looks interesting. Just a step up from the old Mexican worm-in-the-tequila approach. Both fauna are common in the nearby jungles.

Totally dark now at 6:03.

We stopped at one sidewalk stand for drinks (hydration is definitely a concern here), and purchased iced concoctions of freshly-squeezed sugar cane and limes. Delicious! The squeezing machine was probably last cleaned in 1803, and the tourist warnings tell one to never use ice cubes, but what the hell. I’ll know by tomorrow afternoon if my immunity has built up.

Next was a taxi to the local lake (perhaps 10 acres) which is the popular strolling area in the Old Quarter. We took a tourist vehicle for a 30-minute tour of the lake and surrounding streets. Not all that exciting as lakes go, but it’s a nice bit of green in this bustling city. Speaking of bustling, my estimate is that there are roughly 3 motor scooters per resident on the roads at any given point in time.

Lunchtime. We went to an Old Quarter restaurant that is Raymond’s favorite. Raymond is working for Ernst and Young on a separate project at VietinBank, and is a Chinese Malaysian who is on his 20^th trip here. The restaurant was everything he claimed, and more. Old time Chinese décor (even darker atmosphere than Victorian). Hai (our bank/tour host) ordered communal dishes of papaya salad, squid, rice, and platters of pork, beef, and chicken. The spices, particularly those in the beef, cleared my nostrils of any clogging on the spot. The bill for the four of us, including five bottles of local beer, came to $17. That’s right – just over $4 each. Hai also taught me the best way to use chopsticks, a skill that had eluded me in my many years on this orb. I shall practice often over the next month.

BTW, tipping is unknown in this culture. That explains why the server at last night’s dinner was so happy when I paid the bill.

Next venture was a taxi to the Museum of Literature, a garden park that spreads over about 3 acres. This was the site of the first university in Vietnam, dating to 1076 A.D. The local emperor (this area was under Chinese rule at the time) set the grounds up as his primary educational institution for people desiring to be his top advisors. Stone monuments are set up for the few who attained top status (known as doctors, but in the Ph.D. sense), and only about 40 attained that status over several centuries. Aspiring advisors spent seven years enduring monthly quizzes and quarterly exams…the latter were administered verbally by the emperor himself. The grounds are also a popular venue for formal photos of newlyweds and high school students celebrating graduation – we got pictures of both groups, adorned in traditional VN garb.

Hydration loomed again, so we stopped at another small café for their iced concoction of strong coffee and freshly-squeezed coconut juice. Another winner! That was also our decision to end the tour, as Howard was running out of steam and I needed to do some prep for tomorrow (it sucks to actually have to earn one’s pay).

So, my initial impressions after a whole 23 hours in this country? A wonderful, friendly people with a tremendous work ethic and sense of national pride. There are many problems here, but most people go through their daily task of hawking enough product/service to be able to eat tonight, and do not get embroiled in the long term. Work is high energy, and relaxation only a small step down. Air pollution is even worse than Baku because there are no strong consistent breezes to waft the crap to another province. Construction is everywhere and the streets are incredibly confusing to navigate. So, it will be a fun-filled four weeks here and I will be much better off for the adventure. If my immune system so wills.

I have finished my chicken sandwich, and lightning is on the horizon. A good reason to pay the bill and retreat upstairs for the night. Until the next post.

Time to start Vietnam blogging!!!

It's just after 5:00 Saturday afternoon as we head south from Beijing to Hanoi.....5 a.m. Saturday back in Columbus. After getting up at 5:30 Friday to catch my first flight, I have yet to sleep. With luck, I'll be in my hotel room in 3-4 hours and nothing that has to be done until my first meeting at 7:45 Monday morning.

The day has been pretty uneventful. The first flight, to Newark, left and arrived early. My duffel bag, into which I cram my wires, backup hard drives, and the like, got security's attention and was flagged for extra screening' Fortunately, I look too old to be perceived as a danger to anybody.

Boarding for the 13 1/2 hour flight to Beijing started early, and it wasn't until I got to the head of the line that I was told my boarding pass needed to be stamped again at the gate. It DOES seem that security stations around the globe are competing to see which can add the most redundant procedures. I actually got to direct a middle-aged Chinese lady to her (my) gate. Surprisingly, the long flight was not as taxing as I had feared...plenty of reading material plus fully charged laptops and music player. There were 138 movies available (well, about 120 once you stripped out those available in multiple languages. A coupole even dated back a shade...as in Easy Rider and some early Brando. I wound up watching Hannah and Inglourious Basterds, neither of which is worth seeking out. About 2/3 of the (full) plane was Chinese nationals. We were fed three times, with none of the food being memorable in either direction. My seatmate was a 30-ish accountant who had spent 7 years in Columbus getting his B.S. and MBA from OSU. This was his first trip to China, and was heading straight from there to another business trip to Brazil. He's working for some international accounting firm in Houston. The flight attendants (12 in all) were amusing....two had the demeanor of drill seargents, and quickly put several running kids and self-absorbed passengers in their places.

Wish I had booked a window seat for that flight. Our route took us north through Maine, along the eastern side of Hudson Bay, traversing Greenland south to north, then over the arctic ice cap and through Russia and Mongolia to Beijing. We didn't get any really good views until the great wall of China, but that was because most people shut their window shades and slept.

We disembarked late in Beijing because the terminals are in China while the runways are near Santiago. The airport is very modern from the outside, but needing a good cleaning inside. There was relatively little traffic in the terminal or on the surrounding freeways...I suspect that was a function of this being the weekend. I got lost in the terminals twice, and barely made my plane. People were universally friendly, but their command of English was limited and my knowledge of Mandarin is limited to La Choy. Signs are in both Mandarin and English, but were rather sparse.

This Vietnam Airlines plane is spotless, and the attendants are impeccably groomed. Decided to jump right into food culture and have the tariyaki eel for lunch...it was OK, but I suspect there is much better to be had outside of this metal tube hurtling through thin air. The Vietnamese coffee to close the meal was superb, as was the Vietnam national beer (Halida).

That's about all of the excitement so far today. Time to shut this down and re-read the initial reports for the bank where I start Monday.