Day 5 - friday

After a normal start to the day (two eggs sunny side up on white toast and a banana or two) we got on a bus with a few UEF students and drove to Intel - their brand new location in Vietnam after shutting down factories around China and consolidating. We started off with a quick tour of the factory where I was a little confused to see barely any workers. Then, we went back to the office building (passing 2 rows of sinks on the way so that employees can wash their hands before coming from the factory) and went upstairs. We entered a room with 400 cubicles - 9/10 of which were empty. Across the hallway was the same set up - a huge room without any workers. We found out though that because Intel has just opened up here they only have around 350 employees while their location has been constructed to employ around 4000 people. So, one day, all of the empty cubicles will be filled. Tracy, our tour guide, then showed us the "chill" room and "play" room which were really cool. Both had bean bags and comfortable couches while the chill room was equipped with a TV and the play room had games like darts, a pool table, etc. All of the rooms and hallways were painted bright cheery colors and the whole environment seemed like a really positive one in which to work. If someone feels they need to take a break, they just walk over to the chill room for a little without any hassle. The whole thing seemed to raidate a, "we treat our employees well" message (good CSR).
We then went back downstairs for a presentation on Intel and their move to Vietnam. It was very impressive. Intel makes 40billion dollars in revenue each year with profits of around 12 billion. This number has been pretty steady for a while now though meaning that Intel is hitting the mature phase of their life cycle while they would prefer to still be in the growth phase and making 80 billion a year in revenue. As a result, they have a few products they are working on now and hope to become first movers in the industry for them. Throughout the presentation various terms from my MCE notes were used which Andrew and I thought was really cool - even more cool, I knew what the terms meant! Eventually we were done with questions and went outside to take a group picture. I think pretty much everyone's eyes are closed because as usual, we ended up facing the sun.

We then drove back to the hotel for lunch - it wasn't very good but i did have a lot of clams so that was a major plus. I guess the white rice was good too. We then had some time to just hang out and rest. I spent the time blogging. Julie and I found a lizard in our room by the air conditioning. Turns out it makes really weird noises so that was the noise i heard when i asked julie if there was a monkey in the room. Too soon it was time to walk to the Success Alliance and ACDI/VOCA presentation. Once there, we learned about the cocoa farms and cocoa beans. It was difficult to pay attention because the room was so hot and I was so tired but I'm pretty sure we'll be learning more about this tomorrow and this was just so we are somewhat prepared.


Back at the hotel the girls got ready to go to dinner and shopping and a rock show with Ms. Too and Phoung. Andrew and David decided to come too. We all took turns going on their motor bikes but i started off in the taxi to the shopping place. The place we went was like a cleaner version of ben thanh with a lot of clothing places selling fake things. I didnt want any fake clothes and didnt think anything would fit anyway but then i found a really fun head band store that sold crazy and ridiculous head bands. I bought one with a flower - nothing too crazy. We ignored the "no pictures" sign and did a mini photo shoot. Even David tried on one crazy hat one. On the second floor i found a really cool store that sold art made out of tiny, tightly rolled paper scrolls. I bought a card and a snail key chain for my grandma and a picture. I loved this big one of two peacocks that was blues and purple shades but Andrew told me it would be too difficult to get home. After arguing with him and walking away upset because I really liked it, Julie convinced me to go back and buy it. I'm really happy I did. Its something that I'll have for myself that will remind me of Vietnam. Once everyone was done shopping we took a taxi and the motor bikes to dinner.

At dinner, I ordered from a picture menu until someone showed me they had an english menu. All but 2 dishes had pork in them so Julie and i got those. We shared 2 fried eggs and braised shrimp. I liked the egg a lot. The shrimp was weird but i ate it anyway just because I was really hungry. (While shopping i'd eaten my cheez-its and a nutri-grain bar). My pepsi was refreshing though. Dinner got awkward when the rock-show came up because we all wanted to have a night out with everyone and the boys were already back at the hotel. Ms. Too seemed really excited about us seeing the rock show at the coffee shop though and looked so disappointed when we said we couldn't go because the boys were waiting for us. In the end, we realized we could go out whenever but the rock show was a one time opportunity. Now i'm really happy i went. Getting there was difficult though. Our taxi driver didnt really know where we were going so we ended up driving up and down the street. None of us had a phone or ms. Too's number. We were just about to go back to the hotel when we saw andrew and ms. too outside the coffee shop getting off of her bike. It was perfect timing. We paid the taxi driver and followed them inside where Ms. Too's friend was waiting for us. She teaches English and you could definitely tell. We all ordered drinks and enjoyed the show - an older man singing old American songs. After the show we got a picture with him. The place was really cool and the band was taking requests. Unfortunately we got there pretty late and only got to hear about 5 songs. Then, it was time to go back to the hotel and I finally got my chance to ride on the back of Ms. Too's motor bike. It was so much fun! But i definitely see why people where sunglasses and masks...there is a lot of exhaust on the roads, even at night when they're relatively empty. I was surprised that we were able to talk while she was driving and making her way through the streets.

Back at the hotel we quickly changed and got ready to go out. We decided on The Bar Factory, a place that Tony had told Kyle about. The place was pretty cool, all of the people working there were wearing orange jump suits and the whole place was very mechanical looking so it was an interesting theme for a bar. Not long later, we made our way back to the hotel and I hung out with Ashley and Elizabeth in the hallway for a while eating goldfish and ritz. Then I went to bed because tomorrow, we go to the Mekong.