Say Hello To Vietnam

I heartily recommend a visit to Saigon, where I spent a long weekend with my sister and bro in law. Vietnam is easy to get to and the red tape is light. I saw countless foreigners here, but it is hard to say if they were diverted here because of the problems with Thailand, or this is typical. This place reminds me of Guangzhou 1980, a place that is starting to take off. Everything is cheap, people are organising now that they have freedom, creativity is flourishing, and instead of a million bicycles, there are million motor scooters. It is truly a world-class city with people from all over the world living here. Since Vietnam is a 3rd world country right now (with a growing first world component) many of the ex-pats are from other 3rd world countries: Africa, South America, middle East. Everyone loves freedom, and are willing to work hard if they can keep the profits. The communist party is cutting red tape and encouraging private enterprise, even for foreignors. What irony that as USA goes into lockdown as it requires no responsibility or accountability for the waste fraud and corruption at the highest levels, the Vietnamese are promoting freedom and prosperity. No wonder the Vietnamese fought so hard to throw us out of their country. Now that USA is out, there seems to be a domino effect where more and more South East Asian countries are achieving peace, freedom and prosperity.

Learn the money before you come here. You can exchange it at the airport, but otherwise it is not really available outside of Vietnam. The currency is called the dong, and indicated as VND. There are about VND 18,000 to the dollar, and all those zeroes made my head swim. You can use foreign currency just about anywhere you would use credit cards, so just use dollars if you want, but otherwise use the VND.

There are plenty of excellent small hotels, first rate world class, are about $45 a night in prime location. Check out sophiahotelvietnam.com . There is a great travel guide my sister shared with me, and I recommend it before you go. Very current, and even gets into "falling in love." The only sour note is the authors of the book condemn knock-offs, but everyone on this list of course knows knock-offs are no problem in the real world.

The wall sockets are actually universal converters, so all electronics seem to work here! Just as Cuba as old USA autos, the Vietnames seem to have an endless supply of ancient cameras, still in use. Camera repair stores are prevalent, and anyone who loves old cameras can probably make a good business with Vietnamese talent.

For some local flavor, here are various ads and articles from the Communist press:

1. The local english-version paper announces a visit of leader of another third world country: Jose Ramos Horta, of the Democratic Republic of Timor - Leste, a country dominated by Portuguese settlers, who regained their independence from Indonesia. The Timorese are too finding their way under peace and freedom, so they are consulting with the Vietnamese.

2. Garment workers promote safety... this is to show how happy garment workers are, and in charge of their own destiny. They organized a fun run. This is worth investigating more closely.

3. There are countless ads for schools from around the world, mostly vocational schools... everyone is setting up a school in Saigon, it seems.

4. climate change... officially a big deal here, but I suspect the Vietnamese don't believe it, just there are grants to be had for pretending to be into it.

5. Upcoming fair: May 14, 2010 Dalat (outside of Saigon) emerging trends for the bamboo industry in vietnam.arbcp.com. I bet you'd see some fantastic uses for bamboo, and the ad rather begs for you to bring your designs for Vietnam to produce. For some reason USAID is a co-sponsor, but that can be overlooked.

6. Sheraton Hotel is advertising a buffet for Liberation Day holiday. that would be the day the Vietnamese kicked the USA out of Vietbam. Ironic.

7. The vietnam military has its own bank. It is listed on the stock exchange in Saigon. A free market military! I'd invest.

8. Ad for apartment: good location, 40m2 one floor apt $600 month... I think that is about 120 sf, and you could proabably get them down to $500... I'd JV on developing a dump. To find a jv partner there are ads offering help in setting up expats in vietnam. I'd visit here and hire various drivers each for a half day. As an interview, have them take you to the same places, and ask their advice, etc. I'd then offer to JV with the sharpest one. They provide the vietnam power and culture know how, you provide the capital and tech. This is vietnam, a peasant with a usa biz persons backing moves to the front of the line.

I wish I had more time to spend here, this is about the only place on earth I know that I would invest in real estate. I spent a quite a bit of time with another importer, from LA, who is here for candles and lacquer ware, two things at which the Vietnamese excel. Of course, since this importer competes on design, he is quite successful. He was also a very entertaining companion for the few days.

He insisted my sister and I join him for a foot massage, 45 minutes for $6. I never do those since there is the possibility I'll be offered more massage than I agreed to, and I am a happily married man. With my sister there, that was not going to happen, so I agreed. I recommend a foot massage. Great for the feet after walking around all day.

I don't have to tell you the food was excellent.

Petty theft is a problem, so take minor precautions and you'll avoid any loss.

I drove past Pou Chen company Vietnam headquarters, and that would have been fun to visit. Pou Chen is Nike's (and addidas, and Puma, and Norsport, and Brooks and everyone else in sports shoes) agent in Asia, and of course they are the one who place Nike designs to be made in Vietnamese factories. "Nike exploits cheap labor" is nonsense, and it would have been fun to explore and video on this.

Vietnam excels in lacquer ware, hand made wooden models of ships and boats, garments and cashews, and defeating invaders. Keep that in mind.

Here is a quote out of the book cited above:

"Capitalism is the exploitatin of man by man. Communism is the opposite."

Just so.

Neither a capitalist not a communist be, although if ones has to pick, advantage communism in the world right now.

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