Day Twenty-One

Why hello Vietnam. I am officially in love with Saigon (which I prefer to HCMC, it sounds much more romantic). What an amazing place. Almost instantly you can feel the energy on the streets and it just makes you want to be out and about. I never really thought about it before, or I guess never realized it, but the population here is so incredibly young. Something like 70% of the population is under the age of 35, and nearly 95% under 65. As you can imagine this is highly influenced by the Vietnam War and the devastating effect it had on the population. More on that later.

Dinner in Saigon/HCMC at Pho 24

 The most important side note to this post, which I will express now, is that a Korean pop band, JYJ, is staying at our hotel. This most likely means nothing to you (let alone me) except that every time I come home or leave, there are about a thousand screaming girls lining the circle drive waiting to see them at any given time in the day. What was amusing at first is now fairly irritating as I can hear them yelling all the way up on the 10^th floor. Go here if you would like to see their debut US song. We also learned today that a soccer team is staying here for some charity event. Of this bunch is Ji-Sung Park who plays for Manchester United. I’m pretty sure he is the one everyone wants to see and is fawning over. 

Now the real stuff. Our first full day in Vietnam we heard from people from the U.S. Consulate – which I learned cannot be called an embassy since Saigon isn’t the capital of Vietnam. They gave us a brief overview on Vietnam and overall seemed to be quite optimistic about the direction that the country was headed in. What was most fascinating about all this talk is the amount of unreported wealth in Vietnam. Over 70% of the population is considered to be ‘unbanked’ and there is an overarching distrust of banks and financial centers. Because of this, people often hoard their money literally under the mattress or even more interesting keep it in gold still. Crazy. That afternoon we visited another company, Vinamilk, which is one of the top 5 largest private companies in Vietnam. As you can imagine they sell dairy products and were also a good example of having women in the workforce. One point for the females.

Monday night we had another UVA Reception event hosted by a woman named Lee Baker at the Temple Club. There were several fascinating people there and if I have gotten anything out of all of these receptions so far it’s that I need to move to Asia. A lot of these people I have met over the past few weeks have literally just packed up their entire lives and moved to Asia on a whim. I find that so admirable that they could just follow something they are passionate about like that and do it. I definitely have fleeting moments where I think I could move out here and do something different for a change. I especially feel that here in Saigon where it is just so lively yet still in need of a little help. Who says I have to sit at a desk in New York all day?

Cai Mep Port

Tuesday was a long day with a trip out to Cai Mep Port. This was about a 2.5 hour bus ride in which Maddy and I chose to watch ‘You’ve Got Mail’ while bumping down the sometimes paved/sometimes not highway. This port was pretty sorry looking compared to the one we saw in Singapore but none the less interesting. Greg Rake, the SVP of Supply Chain for Pier 1, led us around all day which was pretty amazing. We also went to Johnson Wood which is a factory that produces furniture for Pottery Barn, West Elm, Pier 1, etc. We walked through about 6 factory floors and watched people stain wood, assemble tables, cut shapes, and so on and so forth. It was weird to see all this happening and boxed up, most likely destined for some shelf in California or Ohio. 

Tuesday evening was one of the better night’s we have had so far. We took a dinner cruise on a junk boat where we dined on what I assume was traditional Vietnamese food and watched live performers. Unfortunately it rained off and on so we were confined to the interior cabin and forced to entertain ourselves through our classmates’ hidden musical talents. After this, we went to some place called Saloon 17 where we were expecting country music but instead got a Filipino band who loved to play rage against the machine and ac/dc. Quite the experience, I wish I had video.

Our dinner boat

Maddy and I up top on the deck

Saloon 17 Filipino Band

Wednesday started with a visit to P&G Vietnam where we learned a little bit about differences between the North and the South and how consumers behave in different ways. Most notably, people in Saigon tend to be more trendy and frivolous with their money yet people in Hanoi will buy higher prestige items and tend to be more formal and cautious. It has been really neat to learn about P&G really all year and how their products literally touch lives every single day. I encourage you to explore their website so you can really see just how large their brand portfolio is with Tide and Pampers and Charmin and so on. It is amazing the selection they have been able to build up and adapt to new markets.

Wednesday afternoon was a real learning moment for me. We visited the ‘War Remnants Museum’ which houses several photographs, stories, and artifacts from the Vietnam War. I also learned today that people in Vietnam often call it ‘The War of American Aggression.’ Walking through this museum is a truly emotional thing- I find that the Vietnam War is where history classes stop and that I have never actually learned about it before. Seeing it from the Vietnamese perspective was fascinating and it made me wonder how the United States could screw up for that long and that badly. As Kathryn and I walked through looking at pictures of Agent Orange casualties or some of the bombs that were used we just kept looking at each other saying who ever thought that this was the way to approach the issues? Definitely a once in lifetime experience I will most certainly never forget.

there were a lot of interesting signs around

Some Agent Orange aftermath

Really neat then and now photos

something known as tiger cages used during the war

 And finally, tonight we ate at a restaurant called ‘Nha Hang Ngon’ which was really good. We ordered about a million dishes and tried a little bit of everything. I definitely appreciate that type of eating style so you don’t get stuck with one massive plate you end up not liking. This way you can have so many different things and it’s not a waste of money. Although speaking of money, crazy cheap, got two full dishes of food and a bottle of water for less than 5 dollars. Inflation is crazy and $1USD=$20,400Dong give or take. As with Indonesia, we just laugh at how we have bills that say $500,000 (25 USD). It is unreal. The night finished with a dessert stop in our hotel lobby where we watched a member of JYJ eat some dinner as well as apparently famous soccer players. Wish I knew my Asian athletes. Until we meet again – Becca

P.S. There are few crosswalks/traffic lights in the city. Three rules to crossing streets in Saigon: 1. No fear 2. Walk at a steady pace 3. Do not stop or walk backwards