Cu Chi Cu Chi Cu

….Then I woke up at 5:45 am. I was asleep for thirteen hours! Dear lord! I felt great, to say the least. Woke up, showered, had a good amount of time to eat, got on the bus for Cu Chi tunnels. Great visit. We watched an interesting video from the Northern Vietnamese perspective of the war. A lot of talk about the courage and valor of Viet Cong guerillas (of which there was certainly, the men and women of the Viet Cong were dedicated and loyal soldiers), and some intriguing description of certain people. Several of the Viet Cong depicted in the videos were awarded “Medals for killing Americans”, an interesting designation to hear as an American. But, at the end of the day, it was a war being fought, and I can’t say I have an ill feelings towards anybody involved. It’s certainly not my place. At any rate, we bore witness to bomb craters, terrifying booby traps used by the Viet Cong, the smells and sounds of a live firing range, the epic tightness of a real Viet Cong tunnel. I only needed to crawl on my hands and knees once; the rest of the time was in a Gears of War style crouch run. I could dig it. Very hot and sweaty, and everybody was yelling and using up my oxygen. It was fine though. Once I lose my laziness I’ll post the video I took: with a flashlight in one hand and my camera in the other, I documented the whole three-ish minute venture from start to finish. I thought it was cool. We had lunch at Cu Chi as well. They fried a whole freaking fish and put it on the table. Impressive. Next was a visit to the War Remnants Museum, which had some awesome hardware: a Chinook, a Huey, some planes, M-48, M-51, three howitzers, two anti-aircraft batteries (one flak one machinegun), and a lot of bomb casings. There was also a model prison, which was absolutely terrifying/shocking. The conditions that the prisoners were subjected to definitely portray they original name of the showcase: the War Crimes Museum. It was awful. I don’t even want to describe what the prisoners went through. After this, however, Dr. Berman had recommended a souvenir shop for us to visit, which had some really nice things in there. Pricey, but nice. We also took a stroll around the bend, where we found the Lion’s German Brewery, at which we placed a reservation so that we could take our Vietnamese friends out and pay them back for the amazing two weeks they had shown us. After a run in with the worst cab driver ever and a whole lot of frustration the half of us that had gone in that specific taxi showed up a half hour late for our reservation. I had American food (BBQ Pork Spare Ribs) and it was a strange experience. I still felt it necessary to use the chili sauce I usually throw on squid and octopus. It’s weird what total cultural immersion will do to you. After that we had dessert and Snowee Ice Cream, a Swiss invention of epic proportion. So much ice cream. I partook in a joint effort between Laura and I, sampling and Apple Pie concoction and a Strawberry Cheesecake concoction. I ate a lot. And, for once, that brings me to right now, writing this blog on time. Well. Now that we’re here, this is kind of awkward. Eh jeez. Bye.

Oh my word. So disappointed in myself.

Waking up was fun! I mysteriously woke up at 8:07 am in time to get changed and hit the bus. I do not know how. At any rate, we went through some basic introductory language in class; Hello, my name is, I am from, my hometown is, I study this program at this university. We have a test on this stuff on Friday! WOAH! Our culture class also yielded some more interesting concepts, with the focus being on the “saving face” aspect of the Vietnamese people. It doesn’t matter if I’m wrong, or you’re wrong, or everybody’s wrong, we are beating around the bush until we are at a mutual understanding as to which third party to blame and no one’s opinion is being depicted as incorrect. In some cases it might be too nice, but overall it shows a lot of compassion on the side of the Vietnamese. It is, after all, a love based culture. We had a quick break after lunch to change and prepare for CBRE, a realty firm. This was an interesting (?) presentation, because the first thing we did was to leave the building. The meeting room that was our initial location had been used up by a meeting that was running late, so we took a short stroll down the street to a local café, where we were treated with drinks on the house and a nice chat about Vietnam. I got a milkshake, smiley face. We talked about Vietnam as foreigner’s, as the CBRE representative we met was an American named Patti. She moved to Vietnam in 1996, and has seen a lot of the transition that has taken place in recent years. She knows first-hand the warmth of the Vietnamese people, but has also born witness to some of the grayer sides of Vietnamese life. It was an interesting outsiders view on the country we were visiting, whereas previously we had just gotten the shiny view offered by thriving business men living at the tippy top. Very interesting. Dinner was supposed to be at seven, and due to our early wake up time Steve and I laid down for a nap. That was about 4:45. My alarm was meant to go off at six to give me ample time to shower and change and generally get ready to go. I woke up at 7:48. Eh crap. Oh well. Then we both woke up to a doorbell ring at 10:45 pm. Meh. They didn’t ring twice. And….

The Name Dropping Victory

You know, I swear someone is cutting my toenails in my sleep. Not only are they too short to be indicative of sustained growth over a week and a half, but some just seem shorter than the previous day. Anyway. Back to class! Our bus was waiting for us! No wallet. Nothing. Tin hadn’t heard nothing from nobody. My iota of hope that for some reason it would still be present and accountable was hardly perceptible to begin with anyway. Oh well. Gears keep a-movin’. We learned more crazy Vietnamese cultural stuff. Buddhism was instituted to fight Confucianism. Any Chinese that attempted to move to Vietnam for cultural change (a term called Sinocizing, or the attempts by the Chinese to Chinese-ify Vietnam) actually ended up assimilating into Vietnam due to the strength of their culture. Interesting enough. Today also marked my shining day of glory: the visit to Glass Egg Digital Media. Steve, Kim and I were in charge of the initial presentation to the group about this company, and we were amped up and ready to go. Glass Egg sits on the 7^th floor of the rather impressive e.Town main building, e.Town being an office complex consisting of four large modern office buildings. The inside of Glass Egg, although at first sight just an ordinary office cubicle set up, definitely had a Google edge to it. It’s tough to explain. Every graphic artist had a cubicle of their own, most equipped with double monitors, incredible desktop towers (the towers themselves were clear and LED lit), and some artists had pin-ups of their current work coating the walls. One side office had four art directors inside, scrutinizing each and every bit of art that the artists currently were currently working on before sending it along the chain to be processed and sent to the client. Another side office had been dedicated to Glass Egg Online, a game Glass Egg is starting to develop. The white boards were covered in statistics about online gaming in Vietnam, and other stuff that I couldn’t grasp the purpose of at a glance. A presentation by a French guy showed how legit their operation had grown to; you know you’re too cool for school when you no longer have to seek out clients and they start coming to you. They have licenses with Microsoft. Enough said. The French guy was kind of… French though. But it was alright. After Glass Egg we came home briefly, and then Steve and I shipped out to Ben Thanh Market where nothing was purchased. Tee hee *wink wink*. We came home. Then went out to Barbeque Garden where we made our own food. Boo. They gave us raw skewers of meat and fire. I mean come on. Cook my damn food! I was tired and hungry. Any way. We came home again and, at the invitation of Steve Reid (CFO of Glass Egg), did some name dropping. We went to Lush again, said the name “James”, got hooked up with a VIP booth and an eventual chat with the owner of the club. Five hours later we left. It was awesome.

Vung Tau Beach Pics

Panorama of the harbor at Vung Tau

Church? I assume?

I enjoy the panorama setting. 

Statue of a god outside the pagoda

Faces.

Big Jesus

Hai yah. Yippee Kayai. Crouching Comer Hidden Austin.

A Much Needed Picture Update (May 11-14)

The Karaoke place we went to way back when. Excellent institution.

The awesome rating of this location makes pictures fuzzy.

Graves of ancestors buried near rice fields to give good fortune.

Cocoa beans chilling out under a tarp to hide from the rain.

The man running the cocoa farm we visited. All around good guy.

Cocoa beans chilling in a pot. I don't know why they were in there...

Some angry fire ant like species of insect eating leaves and stuff.

The inside of one of the post processing machines. Also used to punish bad boys and girls.

Panorama of the cool walkway connecting our lunch destination to other locations in the area.

A cool old school boat parked amidst a lot of larger motor boats.

The crew had to run laps in sweatsuits duck taped at the wrists and ankles in order to make weight and not sink the boat.

The Vietnamese lap dog

Viet Nam Thai Ltd International JSC Dot Org What?

No class again! Gah! That meant no searching the bus, and no going to UEF! Cadswallop I tell you! Instead, we had (essentially) a day visit with Viet Thai International Joint Stock Company. It was quite the inspiring tale. We spoke primarily with Dan Thai – who is the brother of founder David Thai – about the companies origins, growth, activities, partners, and composition. The company began when David Thai left America at the age of 21 with $700 dollars because he was bored. Honestly. It sounds like something I would do. He spent $300 of it in Korea, leaving him with $400 in US dollars chilling out in Hanoi in 1996. From there, he decided to make Vietnamese coffee into the product it was meant to be. Back then, Vietnamese coffee was sold in random café’s and on street corners, brewed with any number of awful additives (including fishsauce). David Thai wanted better coffee. Highlands Coffee, his start up brand of Starbucks style coffee stores (Starbucks style being loosely defined, Highlands is much better), is now worth well over $500 million dollars, and it is only found in Vietnam. The numbers are mind blowing. Viet Thai International, the company David and Dan Thai founded as an umbrella for all of their subsidiary companies, now serves as a partner for premium luxury brands to sell within Vietnam. Viet Thai has successfully opened franchise outlets for Nike, Aldo, and even a Hard Rock Café. The Hard Rock is where we initially went in the morning for Dan Thai’s presentation, a secondary talk with the general manager of that specific Hard Rock Café (there’s a second Café built in Hanoi), and lunch. The Peking Duck Wrap I ordered was typical Vietnamese composition; too much vegetation and too little meat. The meat and sauce that was actually in the wrap was spectacular, despite its small quantity. We then headed over to a nearby shopping center to see a few of the stores that Viet Thai owns and operates. Armani is still expensive… Then I had cheesecake at the Highlands Coffee downstairs, it was gelatinous on top but you get through it. We then shipped out to one of the main Highlands coffee locations, where they have a training center/conference room set up for training new staff. I had a look at one of their training presentations, and was rather surprised at their level of rigidity when dealing with appearance and hygiene. On the powerpoint slide of “Things Not To Do” there was a picture of George W. Bush picking his ear; I celebrated a silent victory on that one. We then had a more in depth talk about the Highlands brand specifically, along with various snippets of information on the coffee market in general and the future of Vietnam’s economy. After that, we had a short break before going out to dinner and karaoke with some of the Viet Thai staff. I booked it out the door and literally wandered aimlessly looking for any location to do a Western Union transfer. After fifteen minutes of turning random directions I came across Southern Bank on… Ly Tu Trong Avenue? I think? At any rate, I walked out a richer, more financially stable young man about twenty minutes later. I think it would be a great idea if two people pretended to be the same person, and both tried to withdraw from the same wire transfer at the same time in different locations. You could double your money for sure! I came back home and went straight out to karaoke with Viet Thai, featuring such hits as “Let It Be”, “Jessie’s Girl”, and “Xin Chao Viet Nam”. After that I… fell asleep again. Sigh…

Uncreative Title

May 15, 2011

Beach beach beach beach beach beach. Early wake up time, headed out to the dock. We nearly missed our freaking hydrofoil hydrozoomer hydro-2013 because one taxi went to the wrong dock (how weird is that, docks and all that jazz). However, we managed to board intact, and Anh was the nicest person ever because she brought us a cheese wheel and a bunch of bananas (remember this subject/adjective grouping for later compare/contrast). After a pretty sweet ride on a pretty sweet boat, we arrived at Vung Tau. My word. It was the epitome of exotic resort town. It was beautiful, captivating, enchanthing, fascinating, gorgeous, handsome, inviting, lovely, mesmerizing, stunning, and tantalizing. Source: thesaurus.com. Yet, for all intents and purposes, Tin was out to torture us today. Proof of this will emerge with time. We did not immediately go straight to the water. After an hour and a half boat ride, with the whole group (minus Tin apparently) was ready and raring to stretch those thighs and see the sights. In due order, our first stop is… some bar. “So you can relax” says Tin. TINNNN! Get this show moving! We then went to a parking lot to see a rather large statue of the Virgin Mary, depicted as an apparent body builder as she was all “nbd” holding a standing Baby Jesus on her palm, her arm practically fully extended. Okay Mary, okay, good deal. Next stop was a pagoda of (what I took as) undetermined denomination, as it appeared Buddhist or Confucian, but had large statues of Hindu gods. I don’t know. At any rate, I prayed with incense for the return of my wallet. I would have bought a little birdie to set free and make a wish come true, but I didn’t have any money… I feel as though that state of being earns you a free wish bird. Our next stop was the beach not. Instead, in the ungodly heat, humidity, and sun, Tin decides to take the white people out and WALK THEM. Up many stairs. At the top was a not Baby Jesus (which personally makes it a less awesome statue, but that may just be me), looking large and in charge with his palms outstretched. After a quick sweat up the hill, we found Jesus. He was quite lovely. The Vietnamese claim it’s the highest Jesus statue in the world, although that’s hard to believe because the Brazilians have a pretty epic hill Jesus statue in Rio de Janeiro. Just saying. There was also an old howitzer next to Jesus (he was apparently drafter way back when) which I summarily mounted and became king of. Then we went back down the hill, which always sucks worse than coming up for some reason. Then we went to a restaurant next door. BEACH TIN, BEACH! The reason I did not kill someone was two-fold: the girl putting ice in glasses was incredibly cute, and the shrimp was amazing. I mean, it was, ah. Spectacular. I ate a good plate and a half of those bad boys by myself. Garlic lemon lime cream sauce for the win. I had a fish head too. The eye was chewy. Bones are obnoxious. FINALLY THE BEACH ARRIVED. No sun screen for this guy! Changed up, shirt off, straight in the water. Salt. Bleh. It was like salty bath water. I’m sure I’ve used liquid of similar composition to rinse my sinuses. I quick dive underwater confirmed that, indeed, the sea was a great nasal wash. People slowly began to complain of burning and/or stinging sensations, and I thought they were being big babies. “Something touched my leg!” “My back is burning!” “I’m bleeding!” That last one is bull, nobody started bleeding. Eventually people began to be fed up with the stinging, blaming jellyfish and infamous hornet fish that don’t exist. During our slow walk out of the ocean, I got jabbed by something hardcore on the inside of the bicep. I still have a really clear bite/sting mark from the encounter of marine type. Then came the games… Tin walks up, a devilish gaze upon him. Anh divides us into teams. Tin gets the bags of bananas. He puts us on lines drawn in the sand, gives one side bananas. He says, “You put it between your legs, and…” Woah woah woah Tin. You can’t just make fools of the white people. And yet, we played… Worst game ever. So wrong in so many ways. Another game involved a group hug session on a tiny piece of paper. Another one eventually led several of us to hold ocean water in our mouths. In all honesty, they hate us. There’s no other explanation for this horrible series of games. What kind of sick twisted mind comes with these kinds of things? After the games came the trek home, after which I am fairly certain I crashed, burned, died, and fell asleep. At the very least I slept the entire hour and a half on the boat ride back. After that, who knows.