Streets of Hai Phong

The last word we could say about our stay in Vietnam is that we are bored, we face tones of incredibly interesting situations on daily basis, and it’s on every level, at work, at any meal or myself after work going for stroll trough city center exploring each time new streets and finally taking motor taxi back to hotel.

Firstly let me update on today’s lunch meal which maybe was pretty ordinary comparing with others, it means nothing scary to eat so no need to have beer to help with eating some of the pieces:-) As usually I went out with my interpreters and my main contact from the company and this time it was small street restaurant and we had “only” soup but very good one. I can’t stop being amazed by all the variety of food I have already tasted here in the last 5 days, my 3-weeks spent in Vietnam last year is nothing comparing with current stay here.

It’s so easy to get used to 2-hour-lunch break and enjoying the meal. The only complain I could have is that I don’t have opportunity of taking a nap after lunch as the others have, some of them have even been forced to do it:-) Now probably we have simply “acknowledged” Vietnamese customs and enjoy it.

Despite of the rain (the weather is not very generous for us, it rains every day but usually only in the mornings) I still decided to go on with my tradition of walk after work and again was exploring some new streets in the center with main attraction of the food market. Below are the pictures but for most of the things I don’t the slightest idea what are the names.

And usually on the way back to hotel I took motor taxi:-)

I need to make a small movie to show the traffic on the streets here and how it goes here. There is no way that words can express it.

And today’s afternoon was different from the previous as finally we have decided to spent some time all together and go through many pending organizational things as well as share our thoughts, doubts, challenges we face on the projects we work on and to use each other’s knowledge. The session was very helpful for me especially that I have promised my client to present on Friday my analysis and proposal of my work for the remaining three weeks. It was very precious to hear others comments as my company has very high expectations on me and they somehow want me to analyze new whole organization structure, work on change management, prepare some plan for foreseen management and organization changes. Although I have mentioned that the task is huge and it can’t be done in such a short period as my assignment is planned my clients want to look at my proposals. Nevertheless we have gathered some ideas and points that I’m going to share with my client.
And the second crucial outcome from our team meeting was agenda with all the events we have plans for and it seems that whenever we receive another invitation we will need to consult our schedule to make sure that it is feasible:-) We have also draft regarding some of the community activities we would like to get involved in, maybe visiting blind school especially that Murali has so much experience in this field. We will work on it the coming weeks.
Last not the least it’s brilliant to be in a company of people with such a great sense of humor, that’s probably reason why we deal so well with constant changes, situations where flexibility and patience are real virtues.

Pre-work for Internationl Women Day......SPA evening

The number of surprises and unexpected immerses into Vietnamese culture we encounter each day is incredibly impressive and makes our days so vivid.

Today I have discovered that there are two women days in Vietnam: 8th of March is international women day and 20th of December is Vietnamese Women Day. And as the international women day is forthcoming I have experience already some evidences of the respect and special attention that is paid to women on this day.
Going out today for lunch with my client and my interpreters to the local restaurant enabled me to watch a company dinner with plenty of food, rice wine accompanied by some interesting speeches (Ok, I admit I didn’t understand much of it as my Vietnamese is limited to 10 words) However it was hilarious to observe body language of the people and trying to guess what’s going on as well as to master my ability to “comprehend” this precious knowledge so needed here. The fact is that we face so numerous situations on daily basis in which we have to guess the meaning of particular circumstances and even it might be tricky we don’t have a much choice.
After I have taken some pictures of this vivid group one of the men approached me and gave me a flower similar one as all the women in his group received. And talking about lunch of course I have to mention what this time menu was. Goat meat prepared on the kind on “barbeque” by the customers by themselves is the specialty of the restaurant. So when you are at your table the waiters bring plenty of different ingredients to let you to make your lunch. So there are various herbs, two kinds of meat and many vegetables. You prepare your meat; you can make kind f spring rolls – rice paper filled in according to you preferences. Than the soup is carried and additional items, like special mushrooms (first time in my life I’ve tried it, not that it’s something bizarre during my stay here, I keep on doing it constantly) rice pasta, vegetables, herbs and again the soups is boiled in front of you and you add whatever you want.

And just few words how proud I’m of myself starting taking up some Vietnamese very day and as nobody speaks English in my company that they are impressed when come in the morning and say “hello”, thank you, good bye or see you tomorrow. Nevertheless I have to admit that it’s very difficult language and it’s not similar to any of the languages I know and being able to pronounce words with proper intonation is big challenge. Even people laugh when I say something but I think it’s important I keep on trying.

Seizing the opportunity that the office of my client is located pretty in the center I decided to go every day ( if only possible) for a walk after work and later on catching taxi ( moto taxi) to the hotel. And without any doubts is really exhilarating stroll as it looks that inhabitants of Hai Phong are not so used to foreigner and I can’t hide that I’m not from Vietnam so passing by I constantly meet people smiling and greeting me so I do exactly the same. I love it. Thus I wouldn’t be surprised that I’ll get used to it very quickly and when I’m back home I would to greet people as well e.g getting on a bus and everyone will look at me as an idiotJ
I travelled in Vietnam 3 weeks last year and I met so many friendly people but in Hai Phong is incredible how open and welcoming their inhabitants are. I marvel every day.

And it’s not the end of the day full of unbelievable experiences……. we – 4 IBM women of our lovely “The Hai Phong Blue Team” were invited by Monica’s client to visit ……. SPA. We were driven to one of the most upper market Beauty Centers in Hai Phong to secret treatment. It turned out that we had special facial treatment, skin analysis and individual recommendation. Everything happened in the surrounding of 3 interpreters, all the staff of the beauty salon and one man filming us.:-) And everything ended with the session with manager of the Beauty Center, we were asked to share our opinion about the place, think about any recommendation or guidelines we could give for running this business, for marketing or generally for strategy.





We have had such a lovely; relaxing evening even we have asked ourselves if this is supposed to be our assignment?! But we can’t forget that we are in Vietnam and one of the crucial cultural characteristics is building relationship and that’s what we are working on:-)

Tomorrow I try to focus more on writing a bit about my client, my work with interpreters and the assignment.

Eating out in Vietnam

Everyday seems to be so full of emotions, and it’s hard to believe that it’s only the second day spent in the client’s location. In addition when we share our thoughts in the team we are amazed how different our experiences are, how many new situations we encounter and how varied our assignments are. That’s make the whole project so rich and valuable at many levels.
Apart from work we have already started to think if there are any other community activities we could be involved in and we do not forget to take care of our weekend plans for exploring a bit the north of Vietnam:-)

Hai Phong is well-known for seafood and we have had a chance to discover it today being invited for the dinner by Director and other staff members of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI). The variety of seafood was amazing however I have to admit that I didn’t dare to try everything even though Debbie was trying to convince me that as I’m adventurous type so I should do it:-) I’m really keen on exploring Vietnamese cuisine but at the same I’m a bit concerned each time I order the meal because you never know what you will get and sometimes it might too extreme. But of course that’s part of excitement related to travelling.

And if I have already started the subject of eating it’s worthy mentioning that food is very important part of the Vietnamese culture, lunch lasts in most of companies 2 hours (11.30 -13.30) and if it’s a small family run business, where house is not only for live but at the same it’s an office, maybe little factory or warehouse, food will be prepared there and the owners (directors, managers) will have meal with other employees. What’s important to point out is that meal consists of many various dishes.
More on Vietnamese food, some tradition and Vietnamese culture will follow on later.

First meeting with client

We have waited for such a long time to meet our clients as well as to get more information about our one-month assignments and it happened today. The first introduction of both sides and the first day spent in our client’s location.
Despite the initial uneasiness caused by language barrier and the new situation for every one: the client, my two interpreters and myself (getting into completely new environment) we managed to get know each other a bit and break the first ice. The further steps will consist of getting understanding of each other’s expectations for our month partnership and analyzing what we can do.

From so far experience I can say that Vietnamese people are incredibly friendly and always willing to help despite the fact that communication barrier exist and both sides have pretty difficulty expressing themselves the way that interlocutor will comprehend. Another observation is that it’s true that smile is constantly on their faces making any human interactions easier as well as tricky frequently. Our partner may not understand us, will keep smiling, will be polite and we would be need to find the way to pass still our message.
So our journey into Vietnamese business environment and immersion into intercultural communication started:-)

Hai Phong - Meeting with the interpreters

After lazy morning, walking a bit around in the old town and having foot massage (we are in Asia so it’s difficult to resist for long time with massage and it’s important to keep fit:-) we left Hanoi heading to Hai Phong the destination of our assignments. And here after arrival we’ve got the surprise – the first meeting with our interpreters the students of private university that will help us during our one-month-assignment.

For all of us volunteers it’s going to be a first experience of working with interpreters and for sure it’s going to be additional challenge. Me personally even tough I have worked, studied or travelled using other languages than my mother tongue I still think that the coming experience is going to be unique one, enriching both side as well as challenging one. Especially that I have somehow been chosen to work with two students: Hang and Anh. So hopefully I have enough knowledge, cultural sensibility and other traits that will help me to deal well with the new task.

Let’s see tomorrow during the first meeting with our clients in the division of Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce how our month partnership will work out.

Hanoi, day 2 sightseeing

Seizing the opportunity that meeting with IBM Vietnam General Manager and others representative from IBM Vietnam was schedule for the evening we have spent day sightseeing and wandering around old town. And to my surprise I still remember pretty well the old town and was able to “guide” our group. So we started with visiting the Temple of Literature - Vietnam’s first university established in 1076 to educate the sons of mandarins, than we continued to see from outside Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex – the holiest of the holies pilgrimage place for many Vietnamese, place where there is sarcophagus with the body of Ho Chi Minh.

Than we went to glimpse at One Pillar Pagoda –

Hanoi landmark built of wood on a single stone

pillar that was designed to resemble a lotus blossom, the symbol of purity, rising out of a sea of sorrow.

And being in Hanoi we couldn’t permit not skip seeing the Water Puppet Show (http://www.thanglongwaterpuppet.org/) – the ancient art of water puppetry show, originated with rice farmers who worked the flooded fields of the Red River Delta. The farmers carved the puppets from water-resistant fig-tree timber in forms modeled on the villagers themselves, animals from their daily lives as well mythical creatures as the dragon, phoenix. Contemporary performences use a square tank of waist-deep water for the “stage”. Additionally to the show, there is live music performed by the band allowing to get know a bit Vietnamese traditional music.

The day was finishing with lovely team dinner in Highway4 Restaurant ( http://www.highway4.com/) in the company of IBM Vietnam General manager as well as other ‘s guests and we are all time so warmly welcomed here and we are sure that our projects are so strongly supported.

Arrival to Hanoi, Vietnam day 1

After very long journey I’ve made and I’m finally in Vietnam, Hanoi. It’s a bit bizarre to be back in the South East Asia again but I enjoy from the first moment and especially this time I’ll have a chance to gain totally different experience than last year backpacking.
At the airport in Bangkok, I’ve met Monica and Jo and it was a positive surprise that we didn’t any have problems to recognize each others. That’s what good pictures on Bluepages or earlier email introduction meanJ It’s great to meet in person after the last two months spent on the conference calls, Sametime and email exchanges. Later in hotel we met Murali and Debbie.