Weekend in Vietnam

Most this weekend has been spent doing tourist stuff and let me tell you it has been interesting. We went to the Cu chi tunnels. On the way there one of of the tires blew, but let me a assure you that did not stop the bus driver. We drove another 20 minutes till till we arrived with the flat tire. We watched a movie about the people who dug and fought in the tunnels. It was kinda depressing. It was going into detail of how these local farmers earned the titl of american killer. I cant really blame them for hating us so much though we burned every tree in the poor village. besides that little part it was a blast. We got to shot an AK 47 and look at all the boobie traps. I took pictures of these crazy killing contraptions. at the end of the tour we enjoyed some traditional Tea. On the trip back we stop at a rice paper hut and watched this old lady make it. I did get my favorite business ideas yet. They have these coffee shops on the side of the freeway that are just hundreds of hamicks and you sit and relax and the people bring you drinks. its really awesome. We went to the club later that night and we noticed it was a little odd and by the end of the night we figured out it was a gay club. hahah awkward. The next day we met with some of the students we met at the university and they took us around town. It was really cool to socialize with local kids our age and compare cultures. Now its time to look forward to more business visits.

The school of economics Ho Chi Minh City

This was our first business visit of the trip and it was an amazing way to kick it off. We mingled among theirs students and then broke into groups with them. Their professor then gave a presentation about Vietnam economics and the problems that they are currently facing. He than presented us with four questions and assigned each group to answer one. The first question was what were the main factors for Vietnam for the increase gap between labor work force increasing but not the GDP? This i believe comes back to the education of the work force now. However, I feel like this gap will start to shrink in with the up coming generation. There has been 98 new universities built in the past 10 years. the quality of work will increase with the more education the young Vietnamese receive. The next question was If the economy started to fail and the government did nothing, who would intervene? This was my groups question and i was actually the one who got to get up and present our theories. I believe that the foreign  investors would intervene. These companies already invested money in the success of the country. They would want to protect their investment. In most cases it is cheaper to try to improve your investment and not abandoning it and losing more money. The example we used was the economic crises in the United States. China was willing to soak up a lot of our debt to help try and protect their investment. The next question was how does Vietnam fix the rate of inflation? They would need to increase interest rates. This would be to motivate citizens to start saving money and take less loans out, This would decrease the amount of money in the spending pool. The last question was "what are the obstacles for developing Vietnam?" Most of the obstacles were already addressed in the previous questions, but there were a few loose end that were tightened up. The main obstacle is the inefficient transportation system. It is difficult function efficiently when all your work force and products and wasting large amounts of time in traffic.

The information was amazing, but the best part of the visit was working with Vietnamese., They are so friendly. We will going out with them through out the week while were here. Tonight we are going to a karaoke bar. apparently this is something everyone Asian person loves. Maybe I will even get up and try to single. So as i feared, I struggling finding food I can eat. There is no fast food here at all, but so far it has made every meal a journey to find.

Plane Ride Across the World

well 30 hrs after departure from West Point I have finally made it. I am very glad i didnt sleep the day before i was able to sleep most the plane ride to hong kong. I was stuck with an ile seat on a big 747. The odd thing about the flight is the cabin smelled of curry. Apparently the flight was connecting to two places. One was going to vietnam and the other was to India. I hate the smell of curry by the way, and sitting smelling it for 14 hr was needless to say awful. Hong Kong had a very cool airport. I look forward to visiting the rest of the city later. The plane ride from Hong Kong to Vietnam was not bad. I sat next to a couple going on a service mission for a baptists in Wisonsin. They find people to bring back to the united states and train them to be nurses. I thought it was really neat. This city is very intriguing already. Everyone rides scooters and makes out at park. Its really kinda funny. Well it is late here. Ill Email everyone back shortly.