Company Visits and the Gang Goes to Zest

Wednesday all we had was company visits, which was a nice break from class. I was getting pretty filled up on the Vietnamese language. The company we visited in the morning was Saigon Newport Corporation. This company was the first state-owned enterprise (SOE) we had seen. It was a shipping company mainly focused on water transport. Everyone showing us around was wearing a Navy uniform, so I assumed they were all sailors turned businesspersons, but I was incorrect. One of the students asked that question, and the people working there were assigned naval ranks based on their position in the company. Very different from the US that they were able to jump ranks based on their business merits. The company was definitely interesting though, and they seemed to have a well-run business despite SOEs' reputation of being wasteful and noncompetitive. Seeing an SOE was definitely helpful to understand business in a communist country. Here are a couple pictures of the port.

After this visit we grabbed lunch at the hotel and had some free time. I don't think I've commented on our hotel's buffet yet. It's really different what Vietnamese people eat for breakfast. There are no noticeable differences (to me) from the other meals. There are noodles, pho, and all sorts of meats. This is no trouble to me, as I've always eaten whatever was in front of me for breakfast, but I think some students were having difficulties at the beginning. The lunch buffet was twice the size with interesting things like spring rolls and shellfish, so eating lunch there was always kind of exciting. The food at the buffet was of good quality too, which is unexpected from a hotel, but definitely something I can get excited about.

After lunch, we went to visit a different real estate company, similar but different from Phu My Hung. They were just making apartment buildings rather than practically building a new city. The apartments were really nice though. They took us through a sample they use for sales and it was gorgeous. The layout practically describes what I'd look for in an apartment. What was really cool was talking around the roof of a 20-some story building. The view was awesome, with the HCMC skyline in the distance. This was our last company visit, and it was a fun one to finish on because it just felt like we were shopping for a place to live.

Again my picture taking was slowed down and I have no idea why. I guess I was just too concerned hanging out with people to take pictures. 

Dinner was a ton of fun that night. I think 5 or 6 of us went to a place we found online called Zest. It had had 100's of reviews that were all 5 stars so obviously it was going to be amazing. When we got there at peak dinner hour we were the only people in the place and they started taking pictures of us for their facebook and making friends with us. Also, being the only people in there we could get a little loud. I don't think anything that funny was said but it was one of those meals where everyone was practically in tears laughing the whole time. And the food wasn't bad either. It was an interesting take on certain American foods. I had a pulled pork sandwich served like a club sandwich, with pulled pork on bottom and cole slaw on top. Normally I hate anything cabbage, but there was so much going on that I could ignore the texture and the flavor was great. After dinner they entered us into some competition and there was a line on the form we signed up on that asked for "occasion," so we combined a couple of jokes and wrote "the gang goes to Zest." We thought it was funny, but it probably wasn't that funny. 

When we were finished there we realized we were right on the river, so we hung out and watched boats for a couple minutes. That meal was one of my favorite times in Vietnam.

The next day was the War Remnants Museum, which we had been warned about and is supposed to be very difficult for Americans to walk through.