In any case, it is Thursday evening here and I'm camped in the lobby of our hotel - the only place with wifi - with a glass of cab and a cheese plate.
We got into Hanoi last night around 8pm. Once we arrived at our hotel (the Hilton Hanoi Opera - not to be confused with the Hanoi Hilton! More on that in a bit), anyway, once we arrived at our hotel Vanessa and Dani and I headed out to grab some dinner. We have food that the danger of staying in these fancy 5-star hotels is that they recommend fancy (expensive) places. So instead of the restaurant that the concierge sent us too that had dishes for 3,000,000dong (approx $150), we went next door and got pho ga for 67,000dong ($3.35). Yum!
Today has been spectacular. First thing we went off on a cyclo tour of the Old Quarter. A cyclo is a bicycle with sort of a carriage seat attached to the front. The passenger sits in the front and a driver peddles you around, like so:
Hanoi is an incredibly beautiful city. The French influence is evident everywhere. It is much older (they celebrated 1000 years last October) and smaller (6m vs 10m) than HCMC. It feels much cleaner and more refined. The weather is also MUCH cooler - 62 vs 90 degrees! While it is a nice break from sweating, I didn't bring many warm clothes!! Oh well. :)
So on the tour we got a great view of daily life in Hanoi as we cruised through the market streets. Each block seemed to have a different specialty - one shoes, the next rugs, then baby supplies, ect. We saw beautiful French buildings and many many motorbikes - like HCMC, Hanoi has a 2:1 people to bike ratio!
Next stop was the "Hanoi Hilton" which is the prison where American pilots, like John McCain were held prisoner during the war. The prison was originally built in the 1890s by the French to hold and torture Vietnamese revolutionaries. Now only 1/5 of the building remains - the rest has been bulldozed and replaced with a huge office tower. Ah, progress. What remains, though is still harrowing - dark narrow cells with leg irons restricting movement even around the cell. The most disturbing part of all though was the propaganda (videos, pamphlets, pictures, ect) about how well the American pilots were treated. Direct quote - "they were grateful to be held in the good standards by the Vietnamese people." It is incredible how different perception can be.
After a quick lunch near the hotel we went off to our day's business meeting at the Vietnamese Ministry of Trade. What an extraordinary experience to be welcomed into a high ranking government official's office in a place like Vietnam. It is clear from talking to them that despite being the "Socialist Republic of Vietnam" they are moving more and more towards capitalist ways. We discussed repercussions of the midterm elections on free trade. Afterward, I put on my McCombs Admissions Committee hat and talked with one of the women there about admission to the MBA program!
Since then I've been camped in the lobby working on the presentation that my group has to give to the Thai Stock Exchange. Our professor just sprung this on us - we will have to present on the Flash Crash of the US Stock Exchange in May 2010. Even though I'd rather be taking in the city, it was great to have a chance to sit back with a couple glasses of wine and relax.
Off tonight for another group dinner. Ford tomorrow then spa afternoon!!
Later kids!
- Posted on the go...
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