Tuesday, May 8, 2012

This morning we listened to a lecture at the university by Dr. Du Phuoc Tan on “Urban Development Planning—Current Status and Forecast in Ho Chi Minh City”. He began by giving an overview of the history of recent economic reform (Doi-Moi) in Vietnam and the history of Ho Chi Minh City’s development. He then proceeded to highlight the main issues the city is facing today (such as flooding, overcrowding, pollution, poverty, health care, and transportation) and what is being done to fix them. One issue that I thought was especially worth noting was that, in 2010, in Ho Chi Minh City there were only 42 hospital beds for every 10,000 inhabitants, only 11.7 doctors for every 1,000 inhabitants, and 108 hospitals. I thought one of the Foreign Service officers at the U.S Consulate explained the health care situation in Vietnam quite succinctly: “If you get sick in Vietnam, the best thing you can do for yourself is to jump on the first plane out of the country.” Afterwards, we had language class, during which we learned how to count from one to 1 million.

For lunch, we went to the Canteen again and had pork, chicken, prawns, rice, and vegetable soup. Afterwards, we went on our first company visit, which was at Phu My Hung Corporation. We drove through Saigon South, which is the development that Phu My Hung owns. This district seemed like a whole separate world from what we had seen of the city before. Saigon South is a community with residential areas, businesses, a mall, a movie theater, and several schools. From the looks of it, this was a place where the wealthiest people lived. It sort of reminded me of what a resort in Florida looks like, except for there were office buildings and car dealerships mixed in. Our guide told us that some of the apartments there cost $2 million USD. It seems a little ironic that a communist country has such a disparity of wealth. The Phu My Hung Corporation developed this district from unused swampland. Now, approximately 30,000 people live there, and it has the capacity to house 100,000. This development and the business it brought to the city created approximately 60,000 jobs.

One thing that I need to mention is the weather in Vietnam. Normally at this time of year, the monsoon season is approaching, and the humidity is close to 90%. Luckily for us, the rainy season came early this year, and it had already started before we got here. It rains for about 30 minutes or so every day, cooling the city off. It has been around 90° F every day, but I wouldn’t say the humidity is quite 90%. It is definitely nothing like anything I have ever experienced in America. Another interesting thing about Vietnam is the music. Anytime I hear music being played (in the van, in the Canteen) it is either instrumental traditional Vietnamese music or music that I remember from elementary school. At lunch today, we heard a couple of Backstreet Boys songs as well as “My Heart Will Go On” for the second time. It is almost like some cultural aspects are stuck a decade behind ours. A lot of the foreign companies that I see advertised here are car companies. We saw dealerships for Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Audi, BMW, Volkswagen, and several more. Tuan said that most cars are unbelievably expensive here since they all have to be imported. He said that a $20,000 in the USA would cost around $250,000 here. No wonder there are so many motorbikes.

Tonight some of the students from the university met us at the hotel to go to dinner. They brought us all smoothies, which were pretty delicious. I took a taxi on the way there with some of the other students. We ate Vietnamese pancakes and spring rolls for dinner. The pancakes were kind of likes crepes with beef and vegetables on the inside. Our dinner cost 65,000 Vietnamese Dong per person, which is about $3 USD. After, we went to an ice cream shop. I got to ride on the back of Tuan’s motorbike on the way there. It was pretty scary weaving in and out of traffic, but it was a lot of fun. We wore helmets and medical masks to protect us from breathing in insects and fumes. I had a really delicious Tiramisu ice cream dessert with cookie bits in it that was in a waffle bowl. Next, we walked back to our hotel and met with a Vietnamese tailor. I found a women’s suit online that I liked, and he measured me for it. The suit will cost 1,500,000 Vietnamese Dong, which is about $72 USD. I thought it was a pretty good deal for a hand-made, tailored suit, and I’m excited to see how it turns out.