final words

On Day 1, Vietnam was definitely an unusual place to all of us, but I'm sure that we have all grown to love it by the end of the trip. This blog was made with the intention of highlighting all things good (and bad) that I have experienced about the country.

As you could have probably deduced from my title, Vietnam Rocks, this blog was intended to showcase the lighter side of Vietnam, adding a slice of humour to this huge (and serious) pile of work that is called IBSM.

We have learnt many new things about working in a foreign country that I'm sure we can apply to our lives in the future, even if our eventual destination may not be Vietnam. We have also made many new friends and forged bonds that are stronger than anything we could have gotten through our normal school lives, simply by being around and relying on each other during the 10 days. These lessons and experiences will stay with us for a long time to come.


It was a strange land of motorbikes


and weird statues,

but we managed to survive


because we had each other.

when in vietnam

There were 5 things we did all the time:


Sleep.


Sweat.


Fool around.


Fool around more.


Sometimes it gets too much.


I found myself 5 girlfriends, so I'm not complaining.


These were the people who mattered (forgive my crazy eyes).

bargain hunters

Vietnam is a pirate paradise. I’m not referring to the sailors with parrots and peg-legs, but rather counterfeit goods. Ben Thanh Market, Saigon Square and the night market at Ben Thanh Market are just some of the places we visited that were filled with pirated goods. From the high-end LV and Fendi to the lower-end Adidas and Nike, everything could be found there.

Since the products are all pirated, there were no fixed prices so we were free to display our bargaining skills. We were told that we could get up to a fifth off the quoted price so we were often found doing extensive, mind-boggling mental calculations when bargaining with the shopkeepers.

busy people

However, this one-fifth price was often too low for the shopkeepers and they would laugh at our absurdity. It is also a common myth that Vietnamese never say ‘NO,’ because they have said ‘NO’ to us countless times.

Me: “How much?”
SK: “100,000 dong.”
Me: “20,000.”
SK: “NO!”

Unfortunately I was not really interested in the goods they had to offer, but that did not stop me from bargaining just for the fun of it. It was quite an adventure venturing into their territory, getting offers shouted at me from all angles although I haven’t given any sign that I was interested, and then getting molested by various shopkeepers once I stopped to take a look. I would scream when they came too close to scare them off.

It seems that being from Singapore is a disadvantage when it comes to bargaining because our country is well-known for being wealthier than our neighbours so they would quote us higher prices than usual. Once I lied and said that I was from China, and that the shirts in China were cheaper. “One dollar!” she said immediately, but I wasn’t interested in the first place.

Sometimes we would walk away from a shop, thinking that we've scored a good bargain after haggling like our lives depended on it, only to discover that someone else got the exact same item for an even lower price. At this time, it would be most appropriate to shout "TIO SCAM LIAO!" and then retreat to a corner to sulk over our lack of bargaining skills.

as a tourist

We had the chance to visit many tourist attractions, such as Ben Thanh Market, Mekong River, Cu Chi Tunnels and a water puppet show. Through these visits, I have concluded that Vietnam does not have much to offer in their tourism industry, but would still remain attractive to tourists who seek to experience a slice of Vietnam as seen through the eyes of the locals.


ben thanh market

Of these attractions, I found the Cu Chi Tunnels to be the most fun and also insightful. The Tunnels were first constructed in 1948 and then later used in the Vietnam War by the Viet Cong from 1959 to 1975. They were dug by hand at a pace of 5m per day but still managed to build 200km of tunnels in spite of this, which shows the strength and determination of the Vietnamese to survive against all odds.

We had the chance to go into the tunnels and had lots of fun in there. We were trying to recreate the scenario experienced by the poor Viet Cong soldiers when they were attacked by the US army. We tried to move through the tunnel at the fastest speed possible because there were imaginary enemies chasing us from behind, all the while shouting and screaming "BOMB! BOMB! POISONOUS GAS! AHHH!" and sweating because all our activities turned the tunnel into a pressure cooker.


BOMB! BOMB!

All in all, I felt that these tourist attractions still managed to retain a bit of old charm, despite already undergone much changes from their original state in order to cater to tourists. I believe that it is this charm that would help attract more tourists, and Vietnam should try to keep it this way, rather than turn into another identity-less tourist haven that we can so commonly find throughout the world.

all things grassy

The first thing that I’ve ever seen in Vietnam was large expanses of crop fields. I was on the plane looking out the window, expecting to see a bustling city in Hanoi but the sight that greeted me was green and flat and not very interesting at all.

i see fields

I soon found out that Vietnam was still an agriculture-driven country, with most of the people in the rural areas operating farms. The income gotten through farming is quite low so the government is seeking to shift the focus over to more economically viable industries such as manufacturing. They will be lagging behind the rest of the world if they do not make this change.

However if this change were to be successful, the mindsets of Vietnamese must be changed. Currently in their farming jobs, life is rather laidback and urgency is an unknown feeling to them. In the modern world, “time and tide waits for no man,” as my friend Max used to say. This phrase has to be indoctrinated into their minds or else they will be late for work everyday and work at a slow pace when they eventually get there.

food, food, food

Over the course of the trip, we have had the chance to eat many different types of Vietnamese cuisine. Most of the time we found that the food tastes very weird or is simply not suited to our Singaporean tastebuds. Vietnamese food tastes rather bland. Perhaps Vietnamese people like to adopt healthy lifestyles and stay away from oily and salty food that we are used to.

healthy food

One thing that we have grown to love is Pho (pronounced Fur? with the question mark), a type of noodles in soup with either chicken or beef. Locals usually have it for breakfast, but we eat it at all times of the day depending on availability. We could often be found across the street at the Pho shop in the early hours of the day during our stay at HCMC.

pho, our all-time favourite

There were also some strange food that are hard to come across in Singapore, such as cobra juice (pronounced cobrrra juize), fried pigeons and duck embryo. Some of us were squeamish when we saw these food.


fried pigeon? YUM!

I realized that there are very few fast food restaurants in Vietnam. From what I saw, there was only KFC and Lotteria, a Japanese fast food chain, which was quite tasty too, I must say. Perhaps a viable business opportunity could be found in setting up a fast food franchise in Vietnam? However, that would depend on the Vietnamese and if they have interest in such unhealthy food over their own healthy local dishes.

lotteria was nice and cheap

businessman in the making

We spoke to many businessmen throughout our stay in Vietnam. Most of them said that they went to Vietnam because they found that it had lots of potential to grow and thus they went there to maximize their business opportunities.

They said that for anyone to be successful in a foreign land, we must be sincere about helping the country develop through the business we are doing. Only then can we be successful rather than just wanting to earn the country’s money and escape when times get tough.

Another emphasis is on being daring enough to strike out and go to other countries for work when the chance arises. This is interesting as working in a foreign land brings a lot of difficulties so it wouldn’t be very appealing to me unless the rewards are high.

However they agreed that Vietnam would not be the top destination when our time comes as it would become too developed and not experience such exponential growth. It would not be that interesting for us to work here anymore. Instead, they recommended that we go to other SEA countries such as Laos and Myanmar where they are less developed and thus can experience the growth that Vietnam has currently.

I will keep in mind their words of wisdom.

successful businessmen

Destination: VIETNAM

Day 1

We set off from Changi Airport on the 18^th of September 2007. Destination: Vietnam. Spirits were high as we finally boarded the Vietnam Airlines flight VN744.

After settling down, we soon got very bored and I realised that the VN plane and stewards were of a low standard. This has left me a bad first impression of Vietnam as their national airlines is a representation of their country. Thus bad airlines = bad country.

I believe that this would also without a doubt leave behind a bad impression on other visitors to the country. For a start, the government could revamp their airlines and improve it to better promote their country. After all, the first impression is always the deepest.

we were bored on the plane

Perhaps I was too quick in my judgment, but we shall soon see.

We arrived in Hanoi in the evening and many unfamiliar sights greeted us. Before the trip, I had no idea what Vietnam was like. I imagined it to be more or less developed in the major cities, perhaps slightly below the level of Malaysia. Being the capital of Vietnam, I expected Hanoi to be a little more developed than what was in front of us.

The tallest building I could see was about 3 storeys high. I thought to myself that if the 22 storey HDB flat I live in was brought to Hanoi, it would be a skyscraper.

This level of development, or UNdevelopment was certainly shocking to me. As I lay in bed that night and thought of the adventures that were in store, I realised how fortunate I was to be living in Singapore, when our neighbours in the region were all lagging behind us.

vietnam

Hi I am Ryan and this is my Vietnam IBSM blog. I think you will LOVE it!