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Four and a half weeks in Vietnam already and boy oh boy, what a
change. It took me over a week to get
over the 14 hour difference, so now I can start sorting things into business,
cultural shock, weather shock and other buckets. So here come my first impressions from first 30
days of being here.
I arrived to Ho Chi Ming City late Friday and got picked up by a
driver that works for the lady that rents an apartment to me. The apartment is located right on the Saigon
river, is large and bright and has nice river views from my 12th floor. It is a strange feeling to be in a completely
normal modern apartment with AC in the middle of a country where an average
wage is 200US per month. Of course I now
know that my apartment location is good for going to work with only a 30 minute
ride in a company car, but it is far from any expat life, restaurants and
shopping. As originally planned, I will
try to move to another for October to be able to start making some connections.
Our office is interestingly located in District 12, just like the
home of Catness from the Hunger Games.
In general Vietnam seems to have some interesting similarities to the
society in the Hunger Games series: there are very rich and very poor
districts, all supporting the elite few.
My first memorable experiences
·
Becoming a multi-millionaire
at the age of 40! I exchanged 300 € at the airport and got 7,700,000 Vietnamese
Dong! Definitely need a bigger wallet!
·
Went to a supermarket for
the first time. Was able to easily
identify apples, Pringles, coke, ritz crackers.
Everything else was in Vietnamese and packaging nothing alike to what we
know. So after some investigation I
found some yogurt, cookies, milk from New Zealand and even some extremely
expensive edam and gouda cheese. Here I
relieved myself of 1.3 million Dong at the cash register. Basically: supermarkets are very much geared
to the rich and the expats and the prices resemble those in Spain.
- I
was very proud of myself when in the regular market I found and bought a
metal coffee filter that everyone here uses. Fact: Vietnam is the second largest
coffee producer in the world after Brazil, threatening to go number
1. After, I bought best coffee
brand in the store (Trung Nguyen Coffee) and the first Sunday I was stoked to make myself the first
cup of jo Vietnam style. I got my
condensed milk prepared (which they use here as cream and sugar in one)
and started the drip. What a huge
disappointment! When I opened the
pack of the ground coffee of the best brand in Vietnam, it smelled
somewhat strange, with hint of hazelnut or some other flavor, and it
tasted nothing like a normal coffee.
Then I find out that Vietnam produces a lot of coffee but the way
they roast it is completely different from Europe. They add some oil and other additives which
makes it taste strange (it is similar to Louisiana chicory coffee). So for now the closest I got at home is
a German Tchibo instant. I also
learned that I can get "normal" coffee in many coffee shops
downtown that do espresso from Italian roast. Now I am on a quest to find my own... Believe it or not, they have a Nespresso
store in town and a number of Startbucks stores.
·
You know the old saying
"slow road to china"? Well, I
have finally experienced this first hand!
Just imagine that it is very normal on a highway to go about 33 km in 1
hour! Or 200 km in 5! That is a normal thing here, due to
congestion, scooters and really really bad driving. I am just surprised there aren't more
accidents. Traffic is insane! I thought
Italians were crazy and Spanish were bad, this is infinitely more insane! The city is about 10 million and everybody
drives a scooter (reportedly 5 million scooters here), because the cars are
reserved for the very rich and cost 3 times the price in Europe due to government
tax. Just imagine your Toyota 4 runner
costing you 100k! The streets are
crowded with traffic jams, there are barely any traffic lights so it is a free
for all. You will see every kind of
thing carried on a scooter, from building materials to 10 bottles of office
cooler water to huge bags of rice. While
helmets are obligatory for those over 9 years of age, the little ones are
carried on those bikes with no helmets, many times asleep. You will see entire families on one: parents
with 2 children or 5 kids on one!
Essentially, Vietnam is a great testing facility for motorbikes (aka
scooters) as they undergo extreme trials on a daily basis. Parking a scooter is
an exact science as every establishment has security guards that will look
after your bike for a nominal fee, otherwise it will get stolen. Elsewhere in the city and the country there
are some new roads and highways which we used over the weekends. While the toll highways are good, driving is no
better. A Canadian would go mad here:
all the slow traffic is in the left lane and you go passing them on the
right. Add to this 120km/hr speed max,
and situation is not at all optimal for safety.
Breaks, tires and horns bust be the biggest sellers in this
country. All this said, I already got a
scooter, as without one living in Saigon is impossible. Now trying to get a licence. Maybe should have done this the other way
around…. Oh well…
·
People seem very nice here,
they are very polite, still quite traditional but it is changing. Many young people coming to Saigon to find
work and better life, so easy to see lots of western influence. So far my interactions have been limited to
the office, and here staff seem normal, hard working, with their own issues and
concerns. Privacy seems to be not a
concept they embrace much: they will ask very direct questions about family,
marital status, age, etc. I am sure I
will get more insights later. Starting
to meet some business people in Saigon, so networking scene in this city is
very promising.
·
Weather here is hot all the
time and humid. Slowly getting used to
it but being out for extended periods of time is hard, so a coffee shop with AC
is a good escape. Summer is the rainy
season and winter is dry, but the temperature in winter is still in the high
20s, which I think is quite pleasant.
Good time to visit Vietnam for those thinking about it.
·
Ho Chi Minh City is a fast
growing city. The downtown is almost all
new, full of tall buildings and a few skyscrapers. Aside from the famous reunification palace,
Note Dame Cathedral and French central post office (designed by Eiffel company,
same guy that stood up the Eiffel tower in Paris), the downtown looks fairly
modern, clean and an epitome of what this country fast becoming. All the luxury brands are here (Louis
Vuitton, Dior, etc) along with many US fast food chains like KFC, McDonald's,
Dunkin Donuts, while the statue of Uncle Ho (Vietnam 's liberation hero Ho Chi
Minh) proudly stands overseeing the main downtown plaza being invaded by the
capitalist promise of tomorrow. There
are entire new districts being built, skyscraper apartment buildings for luxury
living, sky train and metro stations to connect the city. The city and the country are on the move
where the luxury and the poverty coexist in a dynamic, almost symbiotic way,
and there is no stopping the progress.
Soon this city will resemble many other large cities with its cleaned up
waterfront, more green spaces, more restored monuments. Exciting to be here during the metamorphosis.
·
Communism is still well and
alive in Vietnam. It is a Socialist
country with its red flag with a gold star in the middle. You see much propaganda art, banners and
flags, all reminding me of my childhood.
In fact this is the closest I have gotten to time travel, going back 30
years. In some ways I think I even
understand some of the people dynamics here, because individualism is still an
evolving concept. But as with any
totalitarian regime, there are many aspects that are common in a transitional
economy. You can guess what they are.
·
Pollution and garbage is a
big issue. There is no recycling. People litter and don't seem to care, as they
have more pressing needs. Government has
to pick up after them. Again, much hope
for the future and I feel the next few years will start introducing these
changes.
·
Restaurants and food are
plenty in Vietnam, from cheap cheap street vendors to fast food to qreat restaurants
that are as expensive as in Canada.
Wine, given it is an import, is expensive, comparable to Canada, but
there is some good selection if you look.
Beer is cheap if you drink local.
Vietnamese food seems very varied and appears very healthy, with lots of
rice, herbs, vegetables, seafood and a bit of meat. Dairy barely exists and meat is a luxury, so
fish, rice and veggie are the fare.
Everyone says Vietnamese food is healthy and it looks and tastes that
way, but I do really wonder about the production of it, as I am sure the
quality standards for chemical treatment controls are nonexistent or low. Despite my thoughts, I have tried some tasty
soups, their famous fish and shrimp sauce, rice rolls, fish and rice: all
wholesome, tasty and plenty. With a beer
or ice tea to accompany, it is not a hard thing to get used to. And for those times when I have a steak
craving, I can always go to El Gaucho Argentinian restaurant downtown to scarf
down a 50$ US steak. Good excuse when an
American client comes to visit. One more
thing: in many restaurants when you sit down, girls show up wearing beer
brands, trying to convince you to buy their brand. We like Tiger girls best; they also have
Saporo, Heineken, Saigon, etc. I order
Saporo or Saigon as I am not a massive fan of Tiger.
·
Language is interesting: I
have been asking my driver to teach me a few things so I have about a 40 word
vocabulary and can ask for the bill at the restaurant. The hardest part about it is pronunciation, given
that same word can have multiple meetings based on how you say it. Will let you know how my 5th language
progresses. So far so good, and staff
have been impressed me making an attempt at the official gala dinner. They politely laughed.
Other adventures during my 4 weeks here included a company staff
trip to a beach town of Vung Tau. A nice
town that is becoming a big beach tourism destination. Water cleanliness and overall pollution still
an issue, but the town is making strides to improve. Saw a beautiful Pagoda and 5 Chinese temples,
one of which was dedicated to a whale!
Then we did a trip to Can Tho, 4 hours away from Saigon, to visit
our 2nd office location. We were taken
at 6am by boat to see a traditional floating (boat) market. A very traditional way of buying wholesale
fruits and vegetables.
We had coconut water, sticky rice with banana and pineapple for
breakfast there. For those technically
inclined, the engines on these boats are mostly car engines with direct drive
shaft with a prop at the end that gets dipped into the water. It is like taking a weed eater, attaching a
prop at the end and dipping into the water.
What a great idea!
War museum was one of the most impacting experiences so far. It is a very graphic exposition of the
Vietnam war against the US, with various artifacts and photographs. While I read about the war before coming
here, the stats, the pictures and the stories are truly shocking. Especially the Agent Orange use to defoliate
the jungles and the catastrophic effects it had on the country. And then the killing of civilian populations
that went completely unchecked. While
not for the faint of heart, it is something everyone should see and know that
humans are still very much capable of doing the most atrocious things to one
another. And then I wondered after
seeing this, how a nation of Vietnam had the strength and the humanity to
forgive the aggressors and move on.
Today there seems to be no animosity towards the US and the tourists, as
long as they come in peace and with respect.
So my first four weeks have been quite full of sensory input, not
to mention a new workplace and all the issues that come with that. Step by step I am adjusting to my new
circumstance and feeling privileged to be able to experience this new Land in
all its business and glory. Next week
going to Switzerland for business meetings for a week, so will make-up for my
cheese and schnitzel cravings.
