Today started off a little differently than our days have this past week. Austin and I got up around the same time as normal, but instead of going right to breakfast, we went on an adventure, searching far and wide for a bank in which he could get receive the money his dad had sent him via wire transfer. We had an address and a decent idea of where it was supposed to be in relation to the hotel, so we assumed it’d be a pretty easy walk. However, when we got to the address, there definitely was not a bank there. Feeling cheated, we walked back to the hotel and grabbed some breakfast before heading out for the day.
About a 10-15 minute walk, the Hard Rock Café of Ho Chi Minh City sits in a pretty clutch location. Here we met with Dan Thai, the Commercial Director of the Viet Thai International Joint Stock Company—a company that does a lot of business with large companies in Vietnam. From Highlands Coffee to Armani to Nike to the Hard Rock Café, Viet Thai international brings these companies into Vietnam to expand the brands to the Vietnamese people. Dan Thai is the brother of the CEO of Viet Thai International, David Thai, and is a viet-kieu, or a Vietnamese American—born in Vietnam, but grew up mostly in America before following his dream and going back to Vietnam and founding what is now a very successful joint stock company.
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| Hard Rock, Ho Chi Minh style |
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| Nikki, Laura, Austin, and Ben sitting in the Hard Rock before talking to Dan Thai |
After lunch at the Hard Rock Café, we took a walk through a mall that housed some of the Viet Thai brands, such as Armani, Swarovski, Debenhams, and Highlands Coffee before heading over (by taxi) to another Highlands Coffee Café, the training centre for all of the Highlands Coffee’s in Ho Chi Minh City. There, we talked to Andrew Nathan, the Director of all of Highlands Coffee. A pretty chill guy, Andrew allowed us all to try some cà phê sữa đá, or Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed milk, and answered whatever questions we had about Highlands Coffee or about Vietnam in general. Having worked for Starbucks for 15 years prior to coming to Highlands, Andrew had an interesting perspective on the coffee competition and outlook on marketing strategies for Vietnam.
Immediately following our meeting with Andrew Nathan, Nikki, Ben, and I decided to go to the Bến Thành Market to look around and shop for souvenirs. I found a few neat things that I bought as gifts for friends and family back home, as well as buying another bag to pack clothes and souvenirs in for the flight(s) home so that I do not exceed the weight restrictions. Only 317,000 Vietnamese dong (about $16.00), the bag was a steal. Austin and I also decided that we were going back to the market either tomorrow or Wednesday to try and get suits tailored, just for the hell of it (and the facts that I don’t currently own a suit and it’ll be much cheaper than buying a suit in the US).
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| Karaoke! |
Back at the hotel, Comer, Jake, Austin and I took a quick dip in the pool to relax and cool off before going to karaoke with the group and members from Viet Thai International. We were given dinner while we sang, both Vietnamese and English songs coming through the speakers and microphones. It was a good experience to get to relax with some important people from such a big South East Asian company—they seemed and acted like your normal, everyday people when in our company. A few others and I picked out and sang “Build Me Up”, ending the night on a good note before heading back to the hotel to relax and blog for the rest of the evening.
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