Day Nine

Tuesday was a long day. We were up early and headed about an hour away to the Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) to get a briefing from them and II-IV industries which is a company that operates out of the industrial park.

When we first got there, we entered a room that had two very large models of the industrial park we were visiting and another one that they have located about 11 km down the road. We were then taken into a conference room fro the briefing. The VSIP briefing was very interesting. I had never realized everything that goes into an industrial park. They handle everything from damage control to customs regulation. They make it incredibly easy for a company to operate and take care of a lot of the dirty work that is involved with managing a company.

The VSIP talk was cut a little short and we then got a briefing from the Chief Engineer from II-VI. The II-VI briefing was really cool. They make lenses for lasers and thermoelectric coolers. Two very specific products for a very niche market. They supply a variety of industries, providing products for the US military, the scientific community, and everything in between. We then took a tour of their manufacturing facility which was really interesting to see. We saw all the steps in making several different types of lenses and how they test them, and we saw all them steps in preparing the parts of the thermoelectric coolers and how they are assembled and tested as well. I had never seen a factory assembly line before so that was really cool to see and definitely my favorite company visit of the whole trip.

After leaving VSIP, we went to lunch in the area at a really nice restaurant where we had an extensive tasting menu including but not limited to: fried prawns, fried chicken, roasted pork, etc. I also ordered a jasmine tea and I was expecting just a cup of tea but I got a whole teapot with really nice jasmine pearls and ended up sharing with everyone because I'm a good guy. After lunch we drove back to the hotel to end the day and it was raining a lot and flooded everywhere.

When we got back we headed back to the war zone that was the Ben Thanh market to buy some last gifts and stuff for people. I was a lot better at bartering the second time and was even told by one of the shop owners that I was really good at bartering. 

On the way back we stopped for Banh Mi, those little Vietnamese Sandwiches that are made on Baguettes and that was super good.

That night we decided to explore some more Ho Chi Minh City night life and went to a sports pub owned by the son of the chief engineer at II-VI which was cool. I had never played darts before and was not very good but it was still a lot of fun. After leaving tere we went to a few other pubs in the area to play more darts.

check out this flood

look at this. I'm crazy

Day Eight

As the fun times and lack of class from the weekend wore off, we were back to the old grind of Vietnamese Culture Class and Vietnamese Language Class. We progressed our scarce knowledge of the Vietnamese language and expanded our knowledge of the Vietnamese culture (which actually turned out to be quite vast in the end). We were pretty pressed for time though because we had to go to the Ben Thanh Market and we had arranged a meeting with VinaCapital, an investment group and charity foundation for the ethnic minorities in Vietnam.

Our first stop after class was to the Ben Thanh Market. We were all enamored by the chaos of the market. From the moment we walked in, we were bombarded with salespeople grabbing our arms, and trying to sell us things. I had never bartered before and oh my god was it fun. I went to buy a t-shirt and the salesman told me it was 250,000 Dong. After arguing with him for about ten minutes, I was able to get it down to 50,000. The "walk away" really does work. After about an hour of similar purchases and exchanges with salespeople we had to leave to go get ready for our trip to VinaCapital. Many of us decided that we would definitely return to the market on a later date.

The visit to VinaCapital was extremely interesting. We first heard from the leader of the VinaCapital Foundation that works to improve the quality of life of ethnic minorities in Vietnam. The guy was from South Carolina which was a refreshing change as far as the language barrier goes. He explained to us that he has visited all but four provinces in Vietnam researching the people and helping them improve their quality of life. He has worked with the government and the healthcare system to receive discounts on different surgeries for children that don't have access to healthcare, and even if they did, they wouldn't be able to afford it.

He also works with girls, trying to get them into and through college. He told us that he has gotten hundreds of girls who wouldn't have even considered college before to not only get into college but also graduate medical or pharmacy school or some other professional school. This is unbelievable to me, that these girls come from societies and subcultures that have little to no emphasis on education to the point where, in his words, "These girls had never heard the word 'doctor' before I got to them, and now they will be one"

The most impressive part of this foundation is that much unlike most charity organizations, 100% of the overhead costs are covered by the VinaCapital Group meaning that all the money donated to the Foundation goes straight to the people they work with. None of it goes to salaries, travel costs, etc. which is very admirable.

For dinner on Monday night, the Vietnamese students took us to a restaurant that served a dish called ban xeo, which is basically a Vietnamese omelette made with an egg and rice pancake filled with bean sprouts, vegetables and various seafood or meats. We also got one with a bunch of exotic mushrooms in it which was delicious. When we first sat down, the faculty member from UEF that had been our guide the whole trip ordered us all iced tea and told us some history about Vietnamese iced tea. After that little lecture several pitchers of what looked like iced tea were placed on the table. I promptly poured some of the contents of the pitcher over a glass of ice that was placed in front of me earlier. I took a sip and it was in fact NOT iced tea. It was fish sauce meant for the pancakes...I was understandably laughed at by everyone, especially the Vietnamese students.

After dinner we went to a karaoke house which was ridiculous. We had our own soundproof room that was decorated very glamorously and sort of in the style of Louis XIV's palace of Versailles. This was very fun and everyone got very into it.

After karaoke a few of us went to a night club for a little bit that turned out to be a bit lackluster since it was a Monday night. After not too long we left and went back to the hotel to sleep.

Vung Tau Beach (Day Seven)

On Sunday we drove about two hours to Vung Tau Beach in the southeast of Vietnam. As much as I wanted to sleep on the drive there I stayed awake because I couldn't stop looking out the window of the bus. The drive goes through some very rural parts of Vietnam and seeing the dichotomy of that versus the city was unbelievable. We drove past farms that had little shack houses made of bamboo and palm fronds that just had hammocks for beds and didn't even have walls. At one point in the drive we literally passed an ox-drawn cart on the road. It was crazy to see how some of these people live and I was blown away by the standard of living for these people.

When we finally arrived at Vung Tau, the first thing we did was climbed up what seemed like thousands of cobblestone steps to the top of a mountain where an enormous statue of Jesus was waiting for us with open arms. We then proceeded to climb up inside the statue and stood out on those open arms. The view was incredible. Words cannot describe the overwhelming beauty of the beach and and the surrounding town. Unfortunately, we could not stay up there long because there were a ton of other people waiting to come out and see.

We then went to a hotel/resort that was our base camp for the day and went swimming in the ocean. The water was so unbelievably warm and stayed shallow as far out as we were comfortable going so in my mind that beach experience was perfect. The only problem was that if we went out too far we started to run into a lot of trash and a lot of jellyfish too. The jellyfish were really cool but then someone got stung so we kept our distance. The most fun thing to do was have my good buddy Chris "Dad Jump" me where he would go underwater and I would stand on his shoulders and he would stand up and I would jump off soaring into the air like the graceful swan that I am. You can check out Chris' Blog here: http://chrisherrick.blogspot.com/

At the beach we were served a glorious lunch that started with a plate of fried calamri, then steamed oysters, then we were served chicken wings and steamed prawns, and finally a fish soup and a large seafood hot-pot. The hot-pot was not as good as the one we had before, but it was still quite delicious.

After lunch we headed back to the water for  bit and departed around 3:30 for the ride home which for me involved sleeping.

We ended up stopping at a truck stop on the way home for some snacks and to use the bathroom. I was not expecting to get such a cultural experience out of this but it was incredible. There was a whole farmer's market type thing going on outside with people selling dried meats and seafood and fresh fruits and vegetables and there were people inside selling food out of street food type carts and stands everywhere and there were a bunch of little convenience store type places selling snacks and drinks. It was completely different from anything else I have ever seen and it was utterly fascinating.

When we got back to the hotel there was a schism in the group. We split into two schools of people: Those that were pining for the fjords and wanted american food, and those of us that wanted to immerse ourselves in the Vietnamese culture. So the burger group went and got burgers (lame) and I and a few others went to a noodle house. The noodle house was very strange, it looked sort of like street food with a woman cooking out in front of the little shop, but inside were a few small tables and chairs. There was only one thing on the menu and that was a beef noodle soup with very thick round rice noodles. I'm not sure what this dish was called, but I wish I did because it was delicious.

After that I fell asleep.

Cu Chi Tunnels (Day Six)

Saturday was the day we drove about an hour to the district of Cu Chi, which is the site of the notorious Cu Chi Tunnel network. The tunnels were built originally during the early 20th century to be used in the World Wars, and were later vastly expanded to be used the war against the Americans. These tunnels were entire underground cities where people could eat, sleep and fight without leaving the tunnels for months at a time.

The beginning of the tour was very strange. They showed us a video that was made in 1967 and it talked all about how terrible the Americans were and all of us found it very offensive. It was so strange to see their perspective on the war, because all we ever hear is the American side of things.

The tunnels were so expertly camouflaged, the holes that were dug to let air in were disguised as termite nests, which in the middle of the jungle don't seem out of place at all. There were also small outposts built where guerrilla fighters could shoot out of little slits in the ground that were barely visible. The tour guide showed us the opening to one of the tunnels and it was so well disguised that he actually had to knock on the ground to find it.

We actually got to crawl through some of the tunnels too which was really cool because some of us (including me) could barely fit inside, and the tunnels had been expanded for tourist purposes, so I couldn't even imagine what they were like originally. Inside the tunnel system there would be a long tunnel and every once in a while it would open up into a room, there were dining rooms, sleeping areas, kitchens, medical rooms, work shops, etc. It was amazing to see all the different amenities these underground tunnel systems had.

For Dinner on Saturday, we went to a restaurant that was just down the block from the hotel. It was very good. Three of us ordered a tuna soup with rice noodles. The first soup came and it had the tail of the tuna in it. The second soup cam and it had a nice filet of tuna from the body of the fish. Then my soup came and it had the head of the tuna...just the head. I was fine with it but it was still very shocking to receive my soup and just see a dead tuna staring back at me. After dinner we went to a bar that was situated on the 32nd floor of a sky scraper and that was an incredible experience. the view was amazing. there was also an outdoor patio, and I guess there isn't very much wind that high up because the weather was perfect.

Day Five

Friday we had a very rushed class, we learned more Vietnamese, and we started to learn how to barter to prepare for our visit to the Ben Thanh Market on Monday. After class we had a very quick lunch and headed for the US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City.

This was a really cool visit because what is now the US Consulate used to be the US Embassy for South Vietnam before 1975. We talked to a consular officer, a political officer, an economist, and a public affairs officer about what a consulate does and how they interact with the host country. This was also preparing us for what we would do later that afternoon talking to other Vietnamese students about US schools compared to Vietnamese schools. We then got a tour of the grounds where we saw the historic sight of the attack on the US Embassy in Saigon.

From the consulate, we walked to the American Center in the Diamond Plaza where we were part of an event for Education USA, a program that the consulate has to help Vietnamese kids get into American colleges. This was really fun because the Vietnamese kids were really into it, we didnt really talk about school all that much, they were much more interested in daily life and what we do for fun in america. We stayed there for an hour and then all went back to the hotel.

At this point we split up for dinner, the girls all went shopping and the guys went out for traditional Vietnamese hot-pot. The hot-pot place was really cool, it was basically an empty warehouse type place with tables and chairs set up in the middle. We were served several goat dishes as appetizers and then they brought the hot-pots out. in the pots were all sorts of vegetables and they also gave us pig brains to put in as well, which I was very skeptical about, but it ended up being very good.

Day Four

Thursday was a very cool day. We went to class as usual and after lunch we went back to the hotel so we could get ready to go visit Glass Egg Digital Media. Basically what Glass Egg does is 3D animation for video games. They generally don't design entire games, but big game companies like Microsoft and Sony contract with them to design objects and environments. For example, they designed all of the cars for the Fast and Furious games and over half of the cars for the Forza games.

When we walked in, we first saw some regular cubicle type desks where people were doing non-animation work, but in the back there was an entire floor full of colorful desks and tons of computer monitors where the artists were hard at work. We weren't allowed to take pictures of this space because of the nondisclosure agreement that Glass Egg has with their clients. We weren't told what games any of the art was for but we saw artists working on a myriad of things. We saw fantasy characters for a Japanese game, we saw cars being designed based in photographs of real cars, we saw robots being designed for a mobile game, and a whole lot more.

The thing that surprised me the most was how much detail goes into the cars. The artists design every single detail inside and out. Every but and bolt on the engine is designed and the exterior of the car is modeled like a real car so that when the car crashes in the game they can simulate the most realistic crash possible.

The other really interesting thing about this company was that the CEO, Phil Tran, is a vietnamese refugee who escaped the country at 12 years old just seven days before the fall of Saigon (or liberation, depending on who you ask). Phil started at Morgan Interactive in San Francisco and started an animation branch in Vietnam some time ago, and when Morgan went bankrupt he turned that outsourcing branch into it's own company. Phil basically created animation outsourcing which is really cool because it is now a very large industry, especially in Asia. 

After Glass Egg, we went to dinner at a Vietnamese barbecue place where they give you raw meat and you cook it on a little grill in the middle of the table. I got deer and goat, both meats that I have never had before. Both of them tasted great, but the texture of the goat was a little hard to chew, I preferred the deer.

Phil and his business partner Steve also own a very popular night club in Ho Chi Minh City called Lush so needless to say that's what we needed up doing Thursday night after dinner and that was also quite fun.

"Dr. Strangelove" or "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Food"

Today I woke up feeling a little nauseous but I figured it was dehydration and didn’t worry about it. At breakfast I tried to eat but didn’t really have an appetite and again didn’t think much of it and ignored it but drank a lot of water. When we were getting on the bus I noticed a couple students say they were feeling sick and opted to stay at the hotel and rest, I thought about doing the same but decided that I just had to drink water to feel better. I drank a lot of water and it did not help. We started the day with a lecture on rural development in Vietnam and specifically the Mekong Delta. This lecture was very interesting but unfortunately I had a hard time listening because my condition was becoming worse. I started to feel myself go into a cold sweat and become light headed. It was then that I knew I had to head to the bathroom to “reverse some digestion” I will leave out the details but long story short, I am now back at the hotel with a classic case of food poisoning. Apparently it is very common for westerners to react this way to being in a place like Vietnam for the first time and especially after eating street food. I am not the only one exhibiting these symptoms and I have been told it will pass by the end of the day.  My Vietnamese friend came with me to the clinic at UEF to make sure I was okay which was very nice of him to do. I also very promptly received a Facebook message from another Vietnamese student asking if I was okay. I said it before and I’ll say it again, these students are the nicest people I have ever met.