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Hello Earthlings!

Sunshine. Tanning. Good friends. Fun times. Bad times. Chill outs.
Picnics. Singing. Dancing. Laughing. Crying. Unglams.
Island getaways. New experiences. Many more..


This is my story. Enjoy. (:

Thursday, October 29, 2009

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STUDY MISSION 2009 (VIETNAM)
Part 6


Day 7 & 8
Ho Chi Minh City - Vung Tau

Hello, i'm back to updating about my Vietnam trip! So far it had been interesting and all of us had bonded rather well with a couple of inside jokes. Haha.

Our tourguide Long. We call him Ahlong in short.
I think HCMC's weather is worse than in Hanoi. At least you get to experience occasional drizzles in Hanoi, but HCMC gets nothing but bright sunshine everyday! I swear sometimes its hard to see straight because the sun's so glaring!

Some companies we visited on day 7 were SACOMM Bank, Phu My Hung and Pho24. The reason why i stopped blogging about the trip is because of this extremely taxing day for all of us. Its exhausting to write too. Hahaha.


SACOMM Bank is one of the biggest banks in Southern Vietnam. They are the 6th biggest lenders in Vietnam and offers all sorts of loans and different borrowing schemes for customers. Oh shit. I need to stop if not i would be writing my report on my blog instead.


Anyway, this is the mighty CEO of SACOMM Bank.
And i'm standing next to him! In a photo!!
Ok, excited much.



Solemn people.
Next up, Phu My Hung.
This is a Taiwan based company which helps to develop infrastructures to improve Vietnamese lives. To summarise everything in a nutshell, they basically sell houses to people, both foreigners and Vietnamese.

The lady which gave us a speech and answered all our questions is a Taiwanese! She speaks Chinese! I have no idea why, but we were all super happy when she speaks Chinese. Maybe its finally a language we all could understand properly here in Vietnam.


She provided us with a tour of their residential areas and schools, and i must say its seriously NOT BAD AT ALL.
I wouldnt mind living in one of these if the price is more.. reasonable. Hahaha!
They have villas and condos. But i dont think you wanna know how much one of each costs.





After the company visits, we went back to TAN HAI LONG (Love!) for a little rest before our networking dinner with the Singapore Business Group. I was so exhausted that i got knocked out after 15 minutes of lying on my bed unconciously!


Josephine had a hard time waking me up for the networking dinner. Now's my turn. ):
She said she tried to shake and shout at me but not getting any response from me at all. But in the end, i woke up to her shouting. I felt really sleepy throughout the networking session after the 30mins nap. Hahaha.

A million bucks worthy photo, no?
Hahaha!
I think our group is the most buay paiseh and unglam group among the rest. Hahaha! We were so hungry after the Q&A session that we took quite alot of food to our table only to realise that when they say 'networking dinner', it usually means 'networking without the dinner.'

Networking dinner is not easy you know!
Just imagine this:
You need to think on your feet about small talk topics while trying to concentrate on peeling the damn prawn so that the shell doesnt fly off your plate!


Damn.
No wonder Mrs. Ng only took a little portion of food. And no prawns.


Look at how Xinying is sitting! Hahaha! That's the table in between her legs by the way. Because she's sitting in the middle of two tables, that's why her legs must open until this way. We are so unglam that people dont even notice.


Josephine and her MRT face.

It was supposed to be a 'AH! RAPE ME' photo. But....
I think all three of us didnt fit the theme at all. Hahahaha!
Lynette's expression is so classic. Ask her to pretend she got raped, then she gave the shocked expression like she just won a million bucks.

Ok lah, dont say people. Mine was like shit too. Haha.
Before the networking dinner, we also went to Pho 24, the best selling beef/chicken noodles in Vietnam with many outlets around Vietnam and in other countries as well.

They made use of 24 different ingredients and 24 different processes to make the soup base, so you can be guaranteed about the greate taste! I tasted the chicken noodles, but i think the beef one is nicer because the soup had more flavor.

And like every meal we had in Vietnam, we always see this appearing on the table.
It might be in different colors and fillings, but its still the same:
That's right. Spring rolls.
Turn that frown upside down Xinying.
Hahaha.


The noodles came with other spices and vegetables that we can add into our soup according to our personal preferences. This is the chicken version. The soup is not too bad, i liked it.



On day 8, we visited Vung Tau Investment Promotion Center. A goverment based agency to attract foreign investors into Vungtau area.


Two words to describe:
Halfway through the Q&A, the representative called me 'MR. Ong Kai Xin'.
)):






Got Ho Chi Minh statue on stage means no fooling around or funny poses.

Us on stage!!


I got Karen's namecard from her during lunch, and i think i left it on the table. Shit.


Some of the lovely views we see in Vung Tau! We are staying at Sammy Hotel for 1 night! We were kinda excited at first, because the views from the hotel seems not bad. But but but! LOOKS ARE DECEIVING!


Read on:
Next, we visited DIC Star Hotel, a 4 star hotel in Vietnam. We met up with their manager, but i think the manager doesnt seem to understand how to answer our questions, so most of the time his answers were not really useful for our research, which is a pity.

Wondering why Clarence is smiling like that?


Xinying: Eh En Sheng, why you never ask about flooding?
En Sheng: This is a hotel what.
Xinying: You never know mah! Just ask Just ask!
En Sheng: Hmm. Okay. So had your company experienced any floodings in the past?
Everyone: ............. AHAHAHA!



Trying to hide his laughter but failed miserably!
Hahaha.


When we reached our hotel, we were imagining some kinda gorgeous lobby much better than THL. But sad to say, horribly disappointed!


The lobby's is open-aired, but it just lacks the grandness of a hotel (unlike Tan Hai Long).
Omg, i'm a TanHaiLong fan! HAHAHA.


And when we reached our rooms, WORSEEEEEEEEEEE.
The room Josephine and I had was not well ventilated, and the aircon seems to be spoilt so its freaking hot in our room.
Worst thing is: The last residents must had smoked in the room, because due to the poor air ventilation, the smoke's not gone yet! WTF.

So what if you got nice views of the sea,
Singapore has sea views too.
And our hotels do not have the smell of smoke in the rooms!


Ultra horrible. Lynette, Xinying Yilin and I went exploring the nearby mall beside our hotel - The Imperial Place.
WAH. I tell you!
The whole place is SOOOOO deserted its like a ghost town! Its so quiet too! Where are the tourists, or people roaming around the mall???


Even queuing up for ice cream also got no queue. In fact, i think we might be the biggest batch of customers the girl of the shop had ever seen, that she doesnt have enough ice cream cones for us.





One of the countries we visited before checking in to Sammy Hotel was Vung tau Auditing Firm. Honestly, its 10x more boring than the Investment Center.


I think everyone secretly hope that this company visit will end ASAP, because we were all exhausted and there's the problem with communication as well. But we have an aspiring auditor in our group, ENSHENG, who can't help but take this chance to ask alot of questions about the life of an auditor.


Honestly, the life of an auditor is spent doing accounts for companies lah! What else do you expect auditors to do? Play a part in stopping floods? Hahaha, okay la. WISP taught me that sterotyping is wrong.


Maybe there ARE auditors that stop floodings.
Hmmmmmmmm.
I can't imagine, sorry. Hahahaha!
It was so agonising that we spent our time camwhoring while waiting for Ensheng to finished questioning.



We had a seafood feast after the company visits!
Yay! Though the seafood soup was too sour for my taste, and there's the presense of Spring rolls again (!!!), but it was nonetheless great because of the company. :D

Reheased in Shuwen's room after dinner for the performance the next day till 12 plus am, and we headed back to our rooms for some rest. But since my room has poor ventilation and the fucking smoke smell is still not gone (the aircon's on for so long and its still there! wtf), I went to sleep in Lynette's room and Josephine slept in Xinying's room.


Groupmates love! Hahaha.
Okay, byebye!


Tell me to stop. 7:09 AM