Day 1
Jet-lagged and feeling like complete sh*t, the group of college kids that I flew halfway around the world with began our day with a hotel lobby breakfast. I was impressed with the quality of the hotel food. In fact I was impressed with the hotel altogether. The service was remarkable and the rooms were splendid. Prior to the trip, to be completely honest, I had expected much more third world options for hotel stay. However this place was luxurious, and cleaner than most hotels in the states. The breakfast was delicious, with your classic omelets, baguette (French influence), some interesting Vietnamese dishes that were stew-like and full of meat (so good), assortments of fruit juices, dragon fruit and passion fruit, and of course, Vietnamese Iced Coffee (I miss it already).
Early in the morning after breakfast, at 10 am, we made our trek (taxi, of course) across town to our first company visit at Zalora. We were welcomed into a beautiful building with friendly employees, smiling and greeting us. Zalora is Asia's leading online fashion store, and they also operate in New Zealand and Australia. I was taken back by this place. I never imagined that Vietnam, who just years ago was still a "communist" country, could have such a well-developed fashion industry (these clothes rival anything we have in the States, check it out). I immediately began to feel like we were in the USA (Miami particularly), except for the fact that everyone around us was Asian. That is except for Tyler, an App State alumni who has worked his way up in the company after doing this same study abroad program and decided to stay. The office was dominated by women (and no I am not just talking about secretaries or fashion designers) which immediately blew my expectations out of the water. Each one of them was fierce, competitive, passionate, and strong-willed, which was 100% 21st century feminist from my perspective. What I began to realize was that Vietnam, a place long rooted in tradition, was changing. Except this change is much faster and more radical than that of the US, which transitioned from the old way to the new way EXTREMELY slowly. According to the women at Zalora, this change is very divisive in Vietnamese households. Many still believe that the old traditional gender roles should apply, but as education becomes more attainable and necessary, I like the women at Zalora, see this trend changing. From an office design perspective, it seemed that they were much more comfortable with large open tables than Americans are, as we tend to prefer cubicles for privacy rather than close proximity for collaboration.
We then took a lunch break at a Chinese Dim Sum restaurant (China is influencing Saigon once again, and is exporting a decent sized middle class to Vietnam). The restaurant once again beat my expectations of a Vietnamese restaurant (or Chinese). The delicious dim sum we ate was served for everyone on a spinning table, family style. Family-style seemed to be very common in Southeast Asia throughout the trip. The Zalora staff and our class became friends quickly, and we shared many personal experiences related to our home countries. This lunch was also the first time my pure-bred American, Southern ass used chopsticks.
After visiting Tyler's roommate, James's company, Hello Health Group. They are making awesome strides towards improving Vietnam's health (which is often outsourced to Singapore). By creating a Wed-MD like site in Vietnamese, they were making a huge stride towards a healthier Vietnam, and sieving a great opportunity. The War Remnants Museum was heartbreaking and left us all asking how our government could've caused so many atrocities, like agent orange and the murder of children (which I knew nothing about) to occur in a war that never should've happened. From the Vietnam War Museum, we went over to Tyler's apartment complex for an American-style steak grill-out session. The expat district (district 2) in Ho Chi Minh was luxurious, and by luxurious I mean Puff Daddy luxurious. Lavish pools, high rise apartment buildings, guarded gates, and beautiful cityscape views. We enjoyed a cookout with the Zalora staff, Tyler, James, and two other App Alumni, Andee (who works for Adidas, who we were touring on Day 2) and her boyfriend Luke.
After this day in Ho Chi Minh, my expectations were shot. I knew that I was seeing the more lavish side of Vietnam at this point, and therefore I was kind of skeptical. I knew that between our drives to the companies and the war remants museum, there was a lot of sides of Southeast Asia that we were missing and/or being sheltered from. Instead we were seeing the aspects of Saigon that were growing. On those trips to and from, I noticed a lot that NEEDED to be done. While it was apparent that there was growth potential in the areas we visited, health and fashion, I noticed several things being overlooked. From an American perspective, there was so much homelessness and poverty on the streets that it would make Mother Teresa rise from the dead. In America, there would've been homeless shelters, soup kitchens and non-profits to combat these issue. But because we are a social entrepreneurship class, one need I saw was the need for shelter and transportation. Another problem that I continually witnessed was the trash all over the streets and in the water. Waste Management companies are needed in Vietnam badly, as are various other infrastructure related industries. I witnessed many buildings being built, many old structures being torn down to make way for the changing city scape of Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City.
Day 2
Our second day in Saigon began the same, with that amazing breakfast food, and of course lots of coffee. We headed off to the Adidas factory where Andee worked, which was absolutely amazing. From a supply chain perspective, they were masters. They had some fabrics made in Italy and Germany, and much of it was made in Vietnam. Their leather came from Argentina. Also, the operations design was genius, each component of the shoe (down to individual stitches) was reduced to one job. That means that there was one worker performing each small task on a large scale. This created a super-efficient assembly line and ultimately kept costs low for Adidas. There were some employees from Germany (Where Adidas is based) and some from the US (where Adidas is extremely active) and many of these were Marketing and Upper-Level Management. The main operations manager was Korean. But there were so many corporate level employees that were Vietnamese in that building. Well-educated, professional, tech-savvy. These people represent the changing face of Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam as a whole. Because machines and computers play such a large role in this industry, there were so many skilled professionals there. This is indicative of a larger middle-class, and a better-educated populous.
Going into this I was skeptical. From someone who is a huge human-rights advocate, I had a bad taste in my mouth with regards to the corporate-giant, Adidas. Many other shoe companies have been tangled up in scandals with child-labor and praying on the impoverished 3rd world. This was absolutely not the case. Yes, these workers were not experiencing the "job enrichment" that every Human Resources professor will tell you is the best option for employee motivation. But, they were paid honest wages, given great benefits packages, childcare/education, housing, and their safety was taken into great concern. I saw this with my own two yes, and it made me happy to know that, yes, corporations do the right thing a lot of the time. I would like to applaud Adidas for this a million times.
Afterward, we headed to the Binh Tay market in downtown near our hotel. In Vietnam, bargaining is a part of the culture. As an American, I was a stranger to this concept. Every price (except food, kind of?) is completely negotiable in Southeast Asia. That means that every sticker in the market that says 160,000 dong is just a ballpark number. There is constant dialogue between customers and shopkeepers over prices, and because of the competitiveness between the shopkeepers (who were mostly bold women, might I add) meant that these women were (from someone who grew up in coal mine service industry) the best damn salespeople I'd ever met. I walked out of that market with more dong in my pocket than I'd went in with only because shopping is addicting there and I went to the ATM and withdrew 3 times. I was poorer in currency (which I treated like monopoly money) but so much richer in negotiation/bargaining skills and in pretty-but-useless trinkets and apparel. There is a draw to the market for world travelers. Even on a week-day such as this, there were so many visitors from Australia, Malaysia, France, the Philippines, Japan, and China. And, of course, my outgoing Southern self went out and made friends with all of them. I was taken back by the prices of these goods.
At night, we got to experience what we found to be the best aspect of Saigon, and why everyone on earth that enjoys 80s and 90s music, cheap beer, international youth, and good drunk food should move to Saigon. The nightlife was grand. We began at a run-down looking (reminded us of your average Appalachian State bar), but friendly outdoor bar with Sapporo and Tiger Beer (I miss them both). Then we ate a delicious Pho, which is a must have when travelling to Vietnam. Then we went to Sorae Sky Bar, perhaps the most expensive (but so reasonable in comparison to the United States), place we visited. The vibe was very "rooftop club in Miami overlooking the city" but with a subtle New Orleans-funk sound and some great Japanese cuisine. This was indicative of the new face of Saigon, a multi-cultural, young, capitalist crowd that is sophisticated and successful, but down-to-earth enough to dance to smooth remixes of early 80's disco, Mark Morrison, and 2001 Justin Timberlake.
The backpacker district was so different in speed. Rather than being young professionals, who came to Saigon for a career and a better lifestyle, the backpackers are transient hippies (but such good people as well) who come to Saigon for "good vibes" and "good times". The karaoke custom, which is taken so seriously, was on display. We made friends with young travelers, making their way through Southeast Asia on a spiritual journey. They were living on such a small budget, living for good times, and for experience and learning. They occupied this district, and much of the bars here catered to a younger rowdier crowd (think a bunch of college dive bars for miles on end). These travelers were mostly Dutch, British, French, Aussies, Kiwis, Argentinians and Germans.
The highlight of the night, hands down, was that there was a band playing Metallica, Megadeath, Iron Maiden, Guns N Roses, Motley Crue, and Europe's the final countdown. "One drink" led to us getting personal shoutouts and next think you know we are basically performing with them in a Western-themed bar.
What I saw was the three new aspects of Saigon: the rising middle class, the new Westerners taking professional jobs, and the soul-searching hippies, also from the west. The business culture (which is so much more capitalist than I had anticipated) is catching onto the change. They are growing and adapting with the demographics. English is becoming so common, even among the common sunglasses salesman. The fish market caters to both French and English speakers. The salespeople are becoming even more refined and sophisticated to catch the young crowd that is captivated by the cheap prices and the bargain culture (as I was). With this change comes the demand for new things that fit the preferences of the new customers that vary greatly from the previous ones.
Learning about Asia's Fashion Industry At Zalora
Ho Chi Minh city is growing rapidly. It is only some time until the grass is all covered with development.
James from Hello Health Group explaining his personal experience in Southeast Asia and the Health Industry in Vietnam. It was a very informative company visit.
Our cookout session in the expat district, District 2.
The walls commemorating the dead were chilling.
No comments:
Post a Comment