Weekend in Mai Chau

Just before 1:00 on Saturday, April 7, and I am safely in the lodge at Mai Chau, a mountainous village about 4 hours (100 km.) SW of Hanoi, near the border with Laos.

It is steamy, with a lingering drizzle, but I cannot let that deter me because I have but one day.  Tentatively on my schedule, there is a group bike tour at 3:00, a Thai native dance troupe at dinner, and a walk thru the Sunday H'mong food market.  I leave just after lunch tomorrow.

Chilled bean sprout salad was just delivered to start lunch.  The menu is fixed, and comes with the room.

My driver picked me up right on time this morning at 8:00.  Surprisingly, I had the 9-person van all to myself.  It was pouring as I left Hanoi.  We stopped in a foothills village halfway where I bought bun cha and coffee for the driver, and sated myself with coffee and Pepsi. 

Steamed rice, steamed banana buds, and grilled beef were just delivered.  Far too much for one person.

The roads here were paved, but full of bumps and holes.  The driver was quite skilled.  Traffic rules were normal....if you have clearance, any lane will do.  If there is not enough room, beep your horn and the smaller vehicle  will get the hell out of the way.  Worked so far.  In the 20 or so villages through which we passed, I saw hordes of schoolkids heading home from Saturday morning classes.  The schools were often the best-kept buildings in the villages.  Too bad the state of public education here is so low.

The room is small, but fancy.  Two beds and a balcony on the second floor.  Internet is fairly robust, and I shall investigate TV late tonight.  Complimentary plate of fruit, bottled water, and rice wine awaited me.

Everything is so incredibly green here, a welcome change from the noise and concrete of Hanoi.  We saw rice paddies interwoven with banana plantations and sugar cane plantations our entire trip up.  Local farmers are quite adept at terracing the rice paddies to minimize erosion.  Despite that, every river and stream was the color of copper, reflecting the red clay soil that is washing down to the Red River Delta and the Sea of China. 

The sun is coming out, and I want to take a walk in town before the bike tour.  More later.

Close to 6 p.m. now.  Rain prevented the walk into town, but cleared just before the bike tour started.  Once again, I was the only one.  My guide, Duong, is a 39 YO local member of the White Thai tribe, the predominant tribe in this area (migrated from Laos and China in the 7th century A.D.)  Duong has been working at the hotel since 2008, when his livestock farm was wiped out by disease.

Duong took me on about a 10 km. leisurely tour among about half a dozen villages, some Thai and some H'mong.  We stayed mainly on the concrete sidewalks that curved through the rear portions of the villages.  He seems to know everybody, which makes sense because he has never left this area, and the largest village we visited has just over 1,000 residents (the smallest had maybe 60).  Unless you are working at the lodge or are a small retailer in the village, there really is no occupation here except for agriculture.  Rice paddies are everywhere, but the cooler weather at these altitudes only allows for two crops per year.   Winter rains did not materialize this year, so many people were out today planting corn instead of rice.  It is truly a subsistence situation.  Two women were seining a small pond for tiny fish, and another was investigating the irrigation channels for snails...all intended for tonight's dinner.  Almost every family has chickens running about, and there is a decent number of water buffalo for milk, hard farm labor, and meat.  For the most part, meals are a combination of corn and rice, along with fresh veggies from the garden that dominates every front "yard".

Each family unit has an assigned agricultural plot, measuring about 3/4 acre.  The local government has not redistributed land since 1986, so you can find families of 2 members and families of ten members with the same-sized plot.  There is no purchase of land...this is a communist society.

Duong took me into one house in his village.  Almost every house is built of solid bamboo beams, with bamboo veneer and smaller stalks for the roof, sides, and floor.  Houses are two story, more from tradition because when the tribes moved here, wild animals were still rampant and families lived on the second floor for protection.  Now, the open-air lower levels are used for storage of wood, tools, and sometimes livestock.  The living area consisted of two rooms.  One, perhaps 15 feet sq., was the kitchen with basically kettles and an open wood fire.  Wood is gathered from the surrounding forests daily.  The living quarters were perhaps 20 by 30 feet, shared by 3 generations.  A grandmother, mother, and two kids live there.  Both husbands died in the war or its aftermath.   Nylon net tents are used for sleeping quarters, and beds are mats perhaps 2 inches thick.  There is no other furniture save for a couple of cushions to sit on.  There is, however, a TV and two florescent lights (although I saw no direct evidence of electricity), and a shrine to ancestors and featuring photos of the dead husbands.  In the frist floor storage area were three coffins being built...always a cheerful sight.

If a new villager moves here (initially crashing with a relative), or a household becomes too large, it takes about three years to gather enough wood from forests to build.  Then the entire village comes together to build the new abode.

We also passed through villages where the company that booked my tour has built schools, rec facilities, and other benefits that the villages couldn't possibly afford.  Glad to see a company doing exactly what it should.

The only downside to the tour is that my phone battery died, so I got no pictures.  But, tomorrow morning we will be walking some of the same paths, and I have the sucker on charge all night.

Speaking of which, it is after dark now.  The village of Mai Chau does have streetlights.  There are no other lights to be seen anywhere.  Too bad low clouds have moved in, as the stars would probably be beautiful.

Dinner beckons. 

  

Just before noon on Sunday.  I have checked out of the hotel and am sitting in the outdoor patio, just above the pool, awaiting lunch (spring rolls, sauteed pork, baked apple).  My van doesn't come until 1:30, which should get me back in Hanoi just after 5:55.

Dinner was also wonderful, a combination of spring rolls, pond-raised catfish, rice, and bean sprout salad.  Fresh fruit and thick coffee for dessert.  At 8:30, we enjoyed the hour-long performance of a local H'mong dance troupe.  But my camera was still on recharge, so you will never see how good they looked.  The native costumes looked good, the drums were certainly handmade and authentic.  But, I'm not sure that the electric accordion has been a mainstay of their culture.

After the troupe, the town and hotel essentially shut down.  I was struggling with the totally sucky wifi in the room...I seemed to lose the connection at least every 10 minutes. I tried TV, which consisted of 7 channels, and four of those couldn't be watched because of audio problems.  So, I spent a while sitting on my balcony watching townspeople journey by, and called it quits just after 11:00.  Woke up refreshed just before 6:00.  The bed was super comfortable, and I probably could have stolen another hour of sleep save for the symphony of horns from the busses that started at 5:30 or so.

The hotel has a tip jar (a ceramic pig, actually) at the front desk, with a sign asking that you contribute only if you feel service was exemplary.   All tips are distributed evenly among all staff.  So I took advantage of the opportunity to stick a bill up Porky's butt!

BTW, it just hit Easter Sunday back home.  Enjoy!

I hit breakfast right when they opened at 7:00 (fresh fruit and omelets-to-order, and again thick black coffee) and headed into town.  Not much to see...the open vendors were primarily selling cooked foodstuffs.  I tried to buy a silver necklace from the one jewelry vendor, but she had nothing that would both fit the loop around my hematite pendant, and around my thick neck.  As soon as I approached her, at least half a dozen locals crowded in to watch the exchange.  No doubt they will remember me for.....minutes.

Got back to the room and finally got my cell phone camera working in time for my 9:00 walking tour.  Surprise!  It was Duong again, and I was the only one again.  In 90 minutes, we walked about 6 km. through rice paddies being worked, small ponds for raising fish (such as the one from dinner last night), the Sunday shopping fair at the local White Thai village, and some smaller villages that are not there just to sell things to tourists.  I probably have 75 photos which, when uploaded and captioned, should show the full beauty, simplicity, and poverty of this area (and, indeed, most of rural Vietnam).  People were out working their fields as early as 8:00.  I heard a number of short stories building on yesterday's short stories.  Duong's actual village is over the mountain (well...hill...maybe 500 meters above this road) across the street from the hotel.   He has climbed that mountain many times...the bamboo at the top is extremely tensile and strong, and is prized for building houses.  He is planning to build a new, smaller home for he and his wife now that their 15 YO daughter has been sent off to boarding school.

Walking through the Thai village, I did buy a few gifts to bring back...after haggling, I probably paid somewhere between American prices and local prices.  The can use the extra money...maybe I overpaid by 5 bucks total. 

In the midst of the last paragraph, the manager of this complex came over to thank me for my stay.  We ensued into a discussion of why I am in Vietnam, and he offered his opinion that none of the banks in the country (1) have unique products, (2) have a distinct brand, or (3) have decent customer service.  Duong, in one of our many mini-conversations, proffered that banks here look for reasons not to lend to anything but large corporations, and require too much paperwork and take too much time to make decisions.  All of that ties in with what we have heard elsewhere on this project.

With that, I close on this update.  I totally recommend this resort if you are ever in this area, and suggest that you stay more than 1 night to take advantage of the many activities that are not held daily.  And, come prepared to relax.

Picture show: 

https://picasaweb.google.com/110414898143254307072/MaiChauApril2012

Greetings, all.

Just a few parting thoughts as this week winds down, and I look forward to a weekend excursion to Mai Chau, an enclave of mountain villages about 4 hours NW of here.

Last weekend, while I was strolling a local park, I ran into the first example of a local just staring at me.  Admittedly he was only about 10 years old, but he just stopped and stood in the middle of the path, arms down and mouth open, looking at me.  Most people are more discrete.  Maybe he was just more openly honest than most.

The father-and-son duo I mentioned regarding the B-52 cache bears more commentary. I was wandering, hopelessly lost, in deep back alleys of Hanoi when I chanced upon a lake that looked like it might have been the one in which the B-52 crashed in 1972.  No luck, but a kindly gent shouted over, asking what I was looking for.  He volunteered his son (senior in high school) to walk me to the small lake where the plane remains are located.  They were most hospitable.  The father is an entrepreneur, focused mainly on importing and selling trucks.  He also mines gypsum in Cambodia and Laos to mix into concrete.  The son who showed me around is headed to college in Japan on a full scholarship, kinda following his brother who is on a full scholarship at Drexel in Philly.

The at-home son, Tu, is also an accomplished sax player.  We parted (after the father snuck off and paid the café bill), promising to meet during my trip at the jazz club where he plays.

It is just totally amazing how wonderful people can be, wherever one is.

To me, I am a bit skittish knowing I am in a country that we tried to bomb back to the stone age 40+ years ago.  Yet, to a person, if the topic comes up, the response is “The past is past.  Move on.”  We Americans should be so intelligent.

Over the long holiday weekend, I wound my way back to the bai hoi (beer today) dive a couple of blocks away.  It was pretty crowded on the sidewalk (their dining room) and decided I should have some food to justify taking up a table and (too low) stool. So I pointed to a plate of fried stuff, topped with greens, that many tables were savoring.  Well, about midway through the tasty treat, I realized that it was deep fried baby frogs.  Whole…bones, intestines, and all.  But, 3 days later, my GI tract hasn’t rebelled.

Returned to the French Hospital yesterday morning for a checkup on my cyst removal.  That incision was fine.  The doctor applied a deeper liquid nitro app to the growth on my back; then we agreed to have her remove about a dozen moles from my neckline.  Again, a very professional procedure.  Much less costly than back in the States, too.

I had to recharge my local cell phone yesterday…bought a 100,000 VND (less than $5) card to carry me through.  Like most reasonable countries (USA excepted), only the sender of a call or message pays.  I can send a text on this network for about 1 ½ cents.

One of the many attendants in the hotel saw me in the lobby earlier this week and, after a few minutes’ conversation, said he also cleaned rooms and asked my room number.  He then told me I was “neat”.  I was tempted to respond “Groovy, man!”, but figured it would only confuse.  I hope it meant that I did not leave a mess for the staff every morning.  They have better things to do than to attend to slobs.

I got a nice surprise when I returned to the room this evening.  Two surprises, actually.  There was an envelope with a cert for a glass of wine at a local restaurant.  Also, the front desk manger left a bottle of Chilean merlot, with a thanks for booking a trip to Mai Chau through the hotel this weekend.  This hotel does know how to acknowledge its loyal guests.

With that, I will close.  Many pics and descriptions of the upcoming weekend’s trip to the mountains to follow.

Enjoy your lives!

First Week Back

Ly Thuong Kiet is eerily quiet just after 5 p.m. this Saturday as I sit at the hotel’s streetside patio, taking advantage of their half-price beer.  Normally this street is a madhouse until close to midnight, but many sidewalk merchants closed shop early this afternoon because of the national holiday, and the sidewalks were much less crowded than usual as I walked some 18 km. earlier today.  But, more on that later, as this is the first post in almost a week.

It’s gray again today in Hanoi, but the vastly reduced traffic has substantially reduced the smog, and a mild breeze makes it feel almost cool.  Rain has been threatening all day, but nothing so far.  The forecast calls for us to be pushing 90 by next weekend.

Had a mild cultural shock earlier this week – the first time anywhere I saw a woman squat to urinate in the road gutter.  I am used to seeing guys use almost any venue (including off the Long Bridge into the Red River during my last trip), but this was a first.

It occurred to me that Korea Airways was a bit inconsistent on my trip here.  Boarding in Columbus, Delta spit out boarding passes for all three legs of my trip.  Trying to board Korea Airlines in Atlanta, I had to go back to the gate desk and get a new boarding pass.  But in Seoul, they accepted the original Delta pass without any question.  I can understand needing to change passes, but not the lack of uniformity.

I also got a first chance to test foreign medical facilities this past week.  Just before leaving Columbus, I had a long-standing lump on my shoulder re-inflame, and chose to ignore it (as anyone knowing me would expect).  Anyway, it broke open just as I landed late Saturday, and by Monday I finally decided to have someone look at it.  Four trusted contacts all recommended the French Hospital as the top med facility for expats, and they seemed to be correct.  The dermatologist took a quick look, de-pained the area, cut it open, scooped out the crud, and stitched me back up very professionally.  She also did a liquid nitrogen treatment on another growth I’ve had on my back since high school.  Both are now healing quite nicely, pending a return visit in a few days.  Total tab was only about $225, plus $9 for bandages, antiseptics, and antibiotics.  For a bad situation, not an adverse outcome.

Just spent a fine 45 minutes conversing on this patio with a couple of German gents who are here advising Viet vocational schools on how to bring their training up to international standards.  I love the meeting-new-people-and-cultures part of these trips.

The week at the bank started off very badly…the project has been in disarray with the rapid-fire changes in personnel, and coordination has been a joke.  Finally, after a presentation the IFC made to the bank on Thursday, the CEO gave a go-ahead on the strategy that had been worked on since last July.  With that, the mood and focus shifted, and while a shitload of work remains for my next three weeks, at least it looks to be worthwhile work.

So, after the successful presentation to the CEO, the head of the SME department at the bank took 7 of us (2 consultants, 3 IFC people, and a couple of bank associates) to a celebratory lunch at a top Japanese restaurant here.  The food was superb.  It was truly the first time I had ever enjoyed raw fish, fish eggs, seaweed, and all of the other assorted things many of you reading this have already experienced.  I was also a source of amusement, as it took about half an hour for me to re-acquire the chopstick skills I had learned last fall.

Not wanting to be self-confined to Hanoi as during my first trip, today I booked a 2-day group tour for next weekend to Mai Chau, located in the mountain highlands about 100 km. (4 hours by bus) from here.  Leaving at 8 Saturday morning and returning about 6 Sunday night.  I’m sure the mountain villages we will be visiting are not quite as “authentic” as they are portrayed, but it is a chance to see another aspect of this beautiful country.  The tour includes transportation, full meals, visits to at least 4 villages, a cave exploration, performance by a Thai tribe dance troupe, and other stuff for $205.  Seems like a good investment.  If all goes decently, the following weekend (my last in Vietnam) I’ll book a 2-day trip to Ha Long Bay, which was just named by UNESCO as one of the seven new natural wonders of the world.  Stay tuned for many pics.

So, back to today and the 18 km. walk.  Nancy and I have become immersed in geocaching (www.geocaching.com), which involves trying to find objects people have placed around the world, using clues and latitude/longitude coordinates.  We have been pretty successful doing this in Ohio.  There are 19 sites of which I know in this area of Vietnam.  I found one last weekend, at the National Military Museum; and am still trying to find a second that involves a 7-tiered rendition of clue solving.

For today, there is a cache about 1.7 km. from here that relates to the 12-day bombing raid Americans administered to a specific neighborhood in Hanoi in 1972.  So, after scoping out the clues online, and plotting my route, I set off at 10:30 this morning.  Finally admitted defeat about 3:00.  In essence, the site is supposed to be obvious once you see it, so I was kinda looking for plane wreckage or a sign saying “American Captured Here”, but found nothing of the sort.  I stopped for lunch (wonderful fried rice with pineapple) in a place that had wifi.  Used that and Google translator to ask the server if she knew where the wreckage might be. Another server knew, pointed it out on my map, and still I couldn’t find it.  So, back to the site to gather more clues, and I will make another attempt.

But, the afternoon wasn’t a bust as I re-visited Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum and strolled the beautiful grounds again.  I spent most of the walk in the grounds of a massive Buddhist temple, during which services were being held and many school groups came for their pics.  Much as Greg found out in Indonesia, everybody wanted their picture to be taken with the white guy, so I may be popping up on Facebook sites around the world tonight.  Many pics came from my wanderings…hopefully the hotel internet will allow me to upload them sometime tonight.

Tomorrow?  Well, there is yet another cache, located west of here past some nice parks I saw on my trip to the hospital Monday.  A whole new section of the city that I have yet to explore.

Final thought.  I converted more USD at the hotel desk this afternoon, and they rejected a $100 bill that has a small tear in it.  The local currency has a lot of plastic fibres in it to make it durable, and locals refuse anything that looks as if it may not function in an ATM.  Interesting.

Now to watch Monty Python – The Holy Grail, and catch up on sleep.  Enjoy.   

Some photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/110414898143254307072/HanoiMarch312012

Second Trip, Day One

Here we are, folks…back at it in Hanoi for another four weeks of enjoying the culture and food, plus being essentially on my own in this project to fight the bank and IFC on their lack of marketing knowledge and sense.  But, we won’t let that spoil my first day, will we?

The flights coming in were uneventful, which is about the best compliment I can make about air travel anymore.  Left Columbus on time at 9:50 Friday morning on an absolutely full flight for Atlanta.  Most of the plane was packed with family vacationers, many heading for cruises out of Miami.  After almost a mile walk between the domestic and international terminal/concourse/whatever, I got to the gate just as boarding was to start.  But, the gate was packed with news crews and TV cameras….supposedly some mucky-muck trade delegation was boarding this flight to Seoul.  That set us back about half an hour, giving me time to have an unpleasant discussion with a TSA rookie about getting a new boarding pass.  We left late, but easily made up the time on the 15 ½ hour flight over the polar ice cap to Seoul.  On the bright side, my section was just over half full, so I could spread out my laptops and work, and burned thru a battery starting to watch season 1 of Walking Dead (thanks, Jaye!).  We were fed twice but I have no memory of the meals, so they were apparently in line with the culinary delight we call McDs.  We arrived about 5 p.m. local time Saturday.

After killing an hour in Seoul airport (sorry – my phone battery was also dead, but I will get photos of the beautiful airport on the backhaul), and after clearing security and their usual questions about my mass of electronics, we left for Hanoi about 7:30 Saturday night.  The 4 ½ hour flight, with another time change of 2 hours, got us here at 10 Saturday night.  While first class and business class were full on this flight, my section was less than ¼ full.  I could get used to this.  Another unremarkable chicken dinner (at all 3 meals, the choices were chicken, beef, and fish, and I have learned to avoid the latter two on Asian airlines).  The immigration lines were fully staffed but long – we are apparently in a tourist season.  But, it took a long time for the baggage to be delivered, so the net time loss was probably zero.

The customs inspectors didn’t even glance at me as I walked right by (apparently old Celtic dudes don’t look suspicious); my driver was waiting for me, and I made it to the hotel room just before midnight.  Unpacking, checking in online, and snacking took me to 1:30, and it was time to crash after getting (maybe) 2 hours of sleep during the trip.

BTW, Vietnam doesn’t observe daylight savings time, so I am now 11 hours ahead of the east coast of the U.S.  DST would make it an even 12 hours, which would be SO much easier.

Despite the lack of sleep I was up just after 7 this morning (both sunrise and sunset here are just after 6:00).  Hit the fine breakfast buffet at the hotel – the same one I stayed in last Sept./Oct.  Most of the staff seems to be the same, and they seem to remember the guy who is always pounding away at the keyboard during meals.

I’m writing this over a beer at happy hour on the hotel patio.  A bus full of Aussies just pulled up to disgorge its load.  I remember about 1/3 of them from breakfast…about half of the population of Australia is in the hotel this week.  At least it is easier to eavesdrop on them than on the Germans and Cantonese who were predominant last fall.

Today I walked about 8 miles, determined to score a couple of Viet caches for Nancy and me.  There are about 20 caches in greater Hanoi (which extends to Ha Long Bay, over 150 km. from here), two of which are within a mile of the hotel.  But, I crapped out.

The first cache is a 7- or 8-stage one, with each stage in a different area around Hoan Kiem Lake.  You have to solve the clue for stage X in order to find point X+1, which makes it difficult if you can’t even find the location of the first clue.  It is supposedly across the street from the local Calvin Klein jeans store, but damned if I could find it in two tours around the lake.  I had a photo and the coordinates, but got nowhere.  I’ll check more dutifully, and take another crack at it next weekend.

The next cache was an “easy” one…on the grounds of the National Military Museum.  It was supposed to be on a captured American tank, right side, rear wheel, under the tread.  Well, the photo clue was of a howitzer, not a tank, and when I couldn’t locate it I decided to look at the same location on a real American tank.  Still nothing.  Of course, pawing around a dirty tank wheel and tread, looking for a cache the size of your thumbnail, with a bunch of “muggles” (non-caching humanoids) wandering around doesn’t make it easy.  But, I got photos of the two points where it could be, so I will try to claim credit for finding it.

Beyond that, the museum was quite interesting.  Of course, most of it was focused on the wars against French and American aggression (they have much more loquacious names for each), and I got some decent photos of the millions of dollars of still-whole and crashed equipment we left on this countryside.  Also climbed to the top of a 35-meter tower from the 1800s that was heavily used as a lookout post during the war against the French during the 1950s.

That’s it for today, other than a trip to the mini-mart for nuts, cheese, and bread.  I converted $200 into just over 4.1 million dong, so I am feeling quite rich right now.  Prices seem to be about the same as last fall, despite an unofficial inflation rate of about 17%.  As I wandered today, the upscale stores seemed deserted but run-of-the-mill shops are reasonably packed with customers.  Construction seems to have slowed a notch, which makes sense since the federal government will not allow any bank to increase its loans by more than 20% vs. 2011.  At best, that keeps pace with cost increases.

And thus endeth my day.  I’ll catch up with online work tonight, and do a little prep for tomorrow’s battles.  Saturday is a national holiday, so offices are closed Monday and I should have a 3-day weekend.  But people are expected to travel heavily, so I will stay put.  Hopefully the following weekend I can book an overnight trip to Ha Long Bay or the mountain highlands (and eat some squeezel…ask Nancy to explain) and get a different perspective on this beautiful country.

More later in the week…take care, all.

BTW, today’s photos can be found at:

https://plus.google.com/photos/110414898143254307072/albums/5723776610304248625

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.