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.