My First Meal Back (and other thoughts on food)

So even though Chuy's won the "what do I eat" poll (I'm guessing the kids arranged to have that poll stacked because that is what they wanted), we in fact had ... Vietnamese for dinner. I couldn't face Chuy's, Rudy's or, to be honest, any other Western food. Instead, we had Bun Bo for dinner. It was made from memory so I missed several things, which is why we are trying again tonight with Hue pancakes and the marinated beef from a Bun Bo recipe for spring rolls.
Thoughts on food? The portion sizes in the US (well in Texas everything is bigger) are HUGE as is the emphasis on protein. When we had Bun Bo on Tuesday, we had what I thought was twice the amount of meat that four people would have had in DaNang. And we ended up eating almost half what we would had we eaten it as steak.
The other huge food revelation was how HARD it is to avoid all of emphasis on food (and unhealthy food) in this country. I was NOT hungry when I got off the plane and had no need to eat. But after standing in the airport (and walking from D terminal over to C37 in DFW for the exercise), I started thinking "I want that" - pretzel/cinnamon bun/bean burrito/pumpkin spice latte.... I didn't want it but all of the sights, smells are so hard to avoid that its no wonder that people eat more here. It isn't a matter of will power or self control - the system is stacked against you, even when you have that.
Which is why we will be eating Vietnamese-style for a while at home - it is just easier to manage a healthy diet this way. And a side trip to Chuy's will be all the more special because of it.

Our final team activity

On Sunday we had one last team activity. A group of us pooled together some money to buy bicycles for the children at the orphanage we visited. It really was a loaves and fishes sort of thing. We put together enough money to buy eight bicycles (at a street price of 1.2M VND each) and then with other sources and some good bargaining, turned this into 14 bicycles, including a smaller one for the little kids, and supplies - mostly brakes and things. So on Sunday, we arranged for at truck and two taxies to take us and the bikes to the orphanage.
It was the BEST thing we did in my opinion. I know we were in Vietnam for business reaons, to help Vietnam small-medium business jump start themselves by access to our collective IBM experience. But personally, the part of the trip that moved me the most, and that I think we had the biggest impact with, was at the orphanage.
Many of the kids remembered us from our visit the week before. It was great to see them again and to spend time with some of the mentally disabled kids (we didn't get to do that the other time as we went after work then instead of Sunday afternoon this time).
There are lots of photos - I think that Tom put a bunch up on our IBM AdTech blog. Once I get home and have access to a working computer again, I will add some of my pictures. In the meantime, it is the home stretch as I am in Narita on a yuch-o seven hour layover. In 24 hours I will be re-learning how to use a knife and fork (but I am bringing chopsticks just in case I can't cope.....)

My Vietnam Birthday

I have uploaded pictures to Picasa from our network drive via Robyn's computer (I am crippled without my laptop and have returned Nguyet's to her because our assignments are technically over). I'll worry about the link later - but if you follow the links to my albums from other places on my blog, and look at my public albums, you will find the album for my birthday.

Yesterday was my birthday and I had the best possible away-from-home birthday. My CSC family and several of our interpreters went out to eat. We were going to go to a restaurant with "grown up" sized chairs but I changed my mind at the last minute and we went for skewers, Hue pancakes and Saigon beer from a street vendor/restaurant while sitting on little tiny plastic stools (think nursery school/creche sized). We had several rounds of "Mo, Hai, Bat, Yo!" to the amusement of the locals.

Friends Don't say "Thank You"

My friend and interperter, Yen, and I hare working hard on this one. Yen is a wonderful person - she is beautiful, intelligent, friendly, compassionate and generally a GOOD person. She has been helping me with all sorts of thing, not just translation. The lesson that she is helping me with now is "friends don't say thank you"
It all started when Yen was helping me run an errand, for which I was very grateful. I kept saying "thank you" and she was almost in tears. Imagine my horror when she said

STOP SAYING THANK YOU. It makes me think that you are not my friend!

I was mortified and humbled. Things that friends do for each other hear are so commonplace and accepted that they do not feel or have the need to say thank you. It is just the way it is. Whereas in Western society, we are so used to the "what's in it for me" approach that we feel that we have to say thank you for everything.

Chalk that one up to one of the more humbling lessons of this trip.

My Projects in Da Nang

As we are starting to wrap up I guess I should be able to articulate what we have done here. I have been working with several different groups, including the Institute for Information Technology in Business (ITB), part of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce & Industry, with DongA College (with Robyn) and with Hai Van Cement (with Nigel). At least, these are the ones for which I have deliverables. I have also helped Daniel from Mexico with the Port Authority (we all attended a meeting on ERP with them and I helped Daniel with some network security stuff) and with the English Language Institute at the University of Da Nang (with Siobhan and Deborah). So we have all been busy!
Our projects have covered open source and OpenOffice/Linux education, sales training, ERP planning, project management and change management best practices, curriculum development, elearning recommendations, distributed database design, backup strategies, network assessment, strategic MIS planning and more.
The more is stuff for other blogs - like trying to learn a Viet folk song to sing at the Khai Phat (Dan from Canada's customer) birthday party last night. Let's just say that we will all pay good money to keep those videos hidden!

What we are doing Sunday

I should post this on our official IBM site but maybe I'll copy it over after we get photos.
Friday is our last official day but we are all staying on for Sat/Sun to spend the weekend together (except Dan Chan who is racing home to his wife Peggy and their 5 month old daughter Karina). As one of our last hurrahs, Tom is organizing the purchase of as many bicycles as we can fund to give to the children at the orphanage we visited last week. There are 12 children there who walk to school for probably 30-45 min each way. We are hoping to get money from the team for 12 bikes, but given the way kids double up here, we are looking good with the 7 that we have budget for so far.
I signed up for two bike at $1.2M VND each (about $85 USD each) instead of spending a night at the "Furama", a lovely resort on the beach. It seems like a better use of my money. And I'll go do 2-1 drinks on Sunday night with Siobhan at the Furama anyway.

My laptop is dead, sniff

and that's why I haven't posted anything in a while. If it is any consolation, the blogs that I have written in my head are wonderful. If I ever get them transcribed, you will love them.
In the mean time, thanks to Sven's wonderful interpreter Nguyet, I have managed to borrow a laptop that I can use to do public work. Very interesting that when I called all of the help numbers that we were given by IBM and ABV (our NGO) every conversation started with "I would love to help, but here is why I can't....". With our local interpreters (now friends first, interpreters/guides/lifelines second), the conversation went "Hi Heather, Nguyet is coming by with a laptop. She needs it back on Thursday but its yours until then."

We are almost wrapping up - tomorrow is our last work day so everyone is in full panic mode trying to get their assignment reports ready to present. Saturday/Sunday we have a weekend together as a team (our last, sniff) and then we all start dispersing on Sunday/Monday/Tuesday.
It has been the most amazing experience. I would not have traded this for a great many things.

My Son and Hoi An

I started to write out a lovely description of our team trip to My Son and Hoi An and then blogger lost my post. So instead, you can look at my photo albums on Picasa and I will write something descriptive later on.

The My Son album is here and my Hoi An album is here

Why jogging in Da Nang hurts your cheeks

And I mean your face, of course. So why would running around the lake at the Da Nang park hurt your face? It is because EVERYBODY is smiling at you and all the little kids and older people have to wave and yell "Hello". They may be smiling at me (and the rest of our crazy jogging team) because we are, well, crazy but who cares. It makes the run a blast - everyone is happy and it makes the run so much more fun to be waving and yelling "Hello!!!!" back.

Added pictures to Picasa

I will try and find time tonight to write some more (so many thoughts whirling around it is hard to keep track of them all) but in the meantime, I have uploaded a number of pictures to Picasa, including
Ha Long Bay (near Ha Noi)
and others (go to my "public gallery)

have fun!

KOTO Hanoi

In an attempt to chase the sun, we had a team trip to Hanoi this weekend. We were supposed to go to Hoi An but it is flooded (apparently more than 1.5m - did I mention that it has been wet here?). In Hanoi there is a great not-for-profit called "Know One, Teach One" (or KOTO).
The training program is designed to help disadvantaged youth (orphans, at risk kids) by providing them with a loving environment and skills as chefs/wait staff in the restaurant business. All food and service at the KOTO restaurant is from the hands of the KOTO program participants. This is a quote from their website:


Every six months KOTO takes about 25 disadvantaged youth off the streets or from extremely difficult life circumstances to undertake an 24-month intensive life skills, English language and hospitality training program. KOTO currently has up to 70 trainees in its program.

KOTO trainees are all aged between 16 and 22 and are selected for the program based on their life situation. They must have the capacity to undertake training and work in the hospitality industry and be committed to KOTO's philosophy.

After being accepted into KOTO, trainees are given vaccinations and health checks, they are provided with uniforms, laundry, accommodation in group houses, lunch every day and ongoing health care. The trainees are paid an allowance, which enables them to focus on their studies, save a little for the future and provide some financial support to their families

So of course, we had to go and have dinner at KOTO. It was wonderful - the food was great, the staff was friendly and fun, the venue was relaxed and perfect after a long day of running around Hanoi following IBMer-turned-tour-guide Sven.

From 2008-10-18-KOTO

From 2008-10-18-KOTO

Mr Golden Sun, Please Won't You Shine on Me!

Not that it is ALWAYS raining here, but it is apparently the start of the rainy season, which is the most rainy part (as opposed to the END of the rainy season where the rain lets up). Just to prove that all it is doing is raining, here are some more pictures of people getting wet:
 
 
 
 

In order to get out of all of this rain, we are going to Hanoi for the weekend. The weather report for Hanoi is for sunny and 31C (Da Nang is pouring rain and 27C).
Hopefully Mr Golden Sun will make an appearance in my Monday photos.

Mot Hai Ba, Yo!

Not sure that I got the spelling right, but more or less phonetically, this is "1, 2, 3, YO!". And what happens now? Its not that hard to guess...

And once one has been through several rounds (or more - I lost count) of Mot, Hai, Ba, Yo!?

Rush Hour in Da Nang

We are all trying to out-do each other in recording the controlled chaos that is Da Nang rush hour. So far Sven has the best
video but I am trying to get pictures/video of the kids who ride double (both pedalling) and how they have to jump on/off when traffic stops so that they don't topple over. The families (mother, father, kids & babies) manage to all stay astride their motor-scooters during this chaos.




To give you an idea of the traffic that does empty out on to the streets, this is a picture of some (not all) of the bikes outside Dong A College where Robyn and I have been working several days this week.

This is one of my videos - check out all of the things that people are carrying on their bikes - like the 13 boxes of things. I have to try and get a picture of someone carrying a mattress on the back of their bike as we saw last night when it wasn't raining (did I mention that it is now rainy season in Vietnam?)

Traffic Patterns in Da Nang

I posted the following to my IBM Corporate Service Corps blog:

New York City may style itself as 'the city that never sleeps" but having spent (over three days) waking hours at all hours of the clock, I think that Da Nang is the real "city that never sleeps", or at least "where the traffic never stops."

In the morning (let's start at 4am, when I woke up today), the traffic is pretty quiet. A moderate two car/motorbikes a minute and no honking. It is quiet enough that you can hear a deep, beautiful, mellow "gong" striking from somewhere not too far and the occassional dog barking (protesting the gong?). Around 4:30, the traffic starts to pick up but it still isn't heavy enough for horns to be required. At 5am, the horns start, but its really more of a warm-up honk from most drivers, not the real, in-your-face-6am to 8pm type of honking.
Horns are heaviest (so far at least) between 6am-8am and about 4pm-8pm. That isn't to say that they aren't there between 8 and 4, its just that they blend into the regular background noise of life.
Between 8pm-10pm the horns are getting one last shout before being put away. It may be the Da Nang equivalent of taking your dog out for one last walk before bed. That doesn't mean that people are going to bed, because the traffic is still noticeable until 11pm to almost midnight when it dies down to the soothing one-two passers-by a minute that lulls you into a gentle, tired sleep.

Da Nang Market

After lunch, most of us were too wet to want to go out again. However, Sven and Dan Chan (who arrived at lunch) braved the weather and went to the Da Nang Market across from the Big C. Here is the video Sven took on his camera:

And more video of the market. The trick with this is that to walk in this rain, you may as well wear ratty old flip flops, but to walk in the market, you DON'T walk to walk through all of the offal that is floating around.

Da Nang in the Rainy Season

Sven from our team took a video of the rain today (we were out walking). It is posted on our IBM "AdTech" site and I have also uploaded it here:

I'm thinking that getting to our assignments tomorrow could be a wet and messy affair. First impressions may well be of a drowned rat!

Pictures from "The Running Park"

About 1/2 mile from our hotel is a no-longer in use amusement park. At least, given how rickity the rides are, I'm hoping its not in use - it certainly wasn't when we were the Saturday afternoon for a walk nor Sunday morning for a run.
This is one of the statues at the entrance to the park (which is the 29-3 park on my map):

From 2008-10-11

I would show you the park but I have given up on getting Google maps to produce anything useful. To look at this on a map, you need to look at my Picasa web album
In the meantime, more pictures from "The running park":

From 2008-10-11

Little Home Wildlife

We had our first sighting of the Little Home rat last night. Both Nigel and I saw something small, brown, furry and VERY fast go scooting by in the dining room. We haven't started the naming because Siobhan doesn't yet know about the rat sighting (she is not pleased with the wildlife aspects of this assignment and I'm afraid that we aren't making it much easier for her with all of the teasing that we are doing). Once it does slip that we have seen the rat, I'm guessing that we'll be pulling Siobhan out of the ceiling (or trying to convince her that the floor is safe to walk on) and THEN the naming will begin.
Aside from the rat there have been several lizards (they look like geckos) and lots of sugar ants. Living in Texas now means that both of those are common sightings (although Texas lizards do tend to stay outside).

The Litle Home Hotel

The Little Home Hotel - I have the room to the LEFT of the "logo" sign.

Looking to the left of the LIttle Home...

Out and About in Da Nang

We had our first day as an almost team (started with me, Robyn, Nigel and Tom) with Daniel arriving after lunch and Siobhan, Deb and Sven arriving at dinner time. Mostly the day was spent with errands and exploring.

General traffic outside the Little Home Hotel


The entrance to the "Big C".













We had several trips to the "Big C", a supermarket where I bought an electric kettle (for tea in my room), coffee, tea, wine (the staples), a washcloth and towel and other sundries. A second trip with Daniel after lunch resulted in batteries (for camera), soap, and more wine.

And a rain coat. The rainy season has most definitely started!

Seoncd impressions of Vietnam

It really is an assualt on the senses here.
Individual commerce is very aggressive - at the airport, taxi drivers throw themselves in front of you to get your luggage so that they can take you somewhere. Once in a taxi, the horn appears to be tied to the turn indicator. Or perhaps its the other way around...
I have already seen a couple of instances of the painted face masks that Ivan and Dan want for ACL next year (if I find them, I think I"ll buy a gross or so - they look like they'll be popular).
The hotel is a tiny building jammed up between several other shops - not something that a tourist is likely to find on their own. There is no sign of our rat yet but we are all watching and waiting for him (her?) to appear. Relatives of the Little Home Hotel rat have already been spotted out on the street so we're sure they're still in town.
And yes, the reason that I sending this now (6:30am) is that even on a Saturday, the car and motorbike horns provide an inescapable alarm clock.

Now to go find wired or wireless because my room does not appear to have either...

Initial impressions of Vietnam

Noisy. Wet. Full of people but not necessarily crowded. And the domestic terminal at Saigon airport appears to be a very well preserved relic of the late 1950's. It reminds me that we take for granted all of the incredible modernization that places such as KL, Singapore and Hong Kong have undertaken with their airports and transportation infrastructure (ok, Singapore could use a high speed rail to the city from the airport, but the airport itself is lovely and the drive is usually easy because planes only seem to ever land there at midnight....)
My plane from Siagon/HCMC leaves in just over an hour and I'll be in Da Nang in 1.5 hours.

Ready or not, here I go.....

What I learned in KL

Well, KL is a beautiful city, no doubt about it. I learned many things in the past two days, including
- I probably need to come back for a longer visit as I didn't get to see much
- I want to stay at the Hilton KL again - its a very nice hotel
- Don't stand IN the waterfall shower at the KL Hilton trying to fiddle with the water until you are ready to get wet
- KL doesn't have nearly as many motorcycles as I had expected. I was imaging something more like Bangalore, where you are swarmed by motorbikes
- Everyone riding a moto in KL is wearing a helmet (unlike Bangalore where the driver may wear a helmet but the three other motorbike passengers do NOT wear helmets)
- Lots of people wear an old, long sleeved shirt backwards - to keep their t-shirts clean when riding
- The lights are in fact turned off at night in the downtown (KLCC) office buildings for energy conservation reasons - hear hear!
I"m sure there are other things worth mentioning, but I'll get back to them later

First thoughts on KL

I am about to venture out into the city to go uptown to the IBM site. I think that means that we are not in the KLCC (KL City Centre) where the Patronas Towers (famous from that movie with Sean Connery and Catherine "I'm a pretzel watch me bend" Zeta-Jones). I can see the towers from my hotel, but edge on so that they look like a single tower. Interestingly, it looks as if they turn out all of the office building lights in the KLCC over night - that or the fog/pollution is so bad that  I can't see the buildings during the night. Not sure if that is because of energy costs or just energy grid reliability.
The trip into my hotel was fine - KL is one of those wonderfully advanced places that has a direct access train link from the airport to the city, and my hotel is right beside the train station.
I'll post pictures of the hotel room later - it is entirely open concept, which means that you stand in your "waterfall shower" and can look out over the sleeping area and out the windows if you really want to. And a note about "waterfall showers" - the water really does come out of the ceiling, which means that standing IN the shower trying to fiddle with the taps is not a good idea if you are still wearing your pyjamas.

More En Route Stuff

So now that I am waiting to go to KL, here is where KL is on a map. KL is about a 2.5 hour flight from Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC for those in the know, even though it still has the left over Saigon airport code, SGN), which is here on map. From there, it is about a 1 hour flight to Da Nang (look up 1 cm or so from HCMC on the map).
In KL I am going to visit our "Malaysia Development Lab" (MDL), previously known as Vallent. I'll be spending the day with the team there, telling them about the Corporate Service Corps program and hopefully helping the team with some of their patenting and mentoring activities.
On Friday it will be on to Vietnam to meet the Vietnam 2 team and get started on our projects.

So Far, Not So Bon Voyage

Well, so far the trip hasn't started out all that well. American Airlines had equipment troubles in DFW and couldn't get their acts together enough to tell us when we would take off (its much easier to just make people sit on the plane) and so I missed my connection in Narita.
I'm now in the Hotel Nikko Narita trying to Skype with the travel agents to get everything back in order with my reservations - but of course my hotels down the line all have a 24 hour cancellation fee. What are the chances that American will pick up the tab for that do you think? I'm guessing approaching zero from the negative side... Gumble grumble grumble
At least in their defense, AA has put us all up in a hotel (I'm guessing a half of a 777's worth of people) and after only minor arguing has booked me straight on to KL tomorrow (instead of a crazy flight to HCMC with a less than two hour layover and then on to KL). At least I have a bed to sleep in tonight.

Bon Voyage

Last night my wonderful neighbours threw a small "gathering" that turned into a full blown Bon Voyage party. I apologize to all of the teachers of students who live on Rip Ford Drive for their lack of attentiveness today at school. What a great place to live! I'm going to miss all of my friends but it is wonderful to know that there are so many people who will help Philip at the drop of a hat and will keep an eye on all of them for me.
Thanks to :
Melissa & Mark (did you get your grading done?)
Amy & Matthew (enjoy your mid week break!)
Elizabeth & Chris (Happy Birthday Chris and way to go at 70.3!)
Elise & Matt (thanks as always for everything)
Karen & Chase (always up for a party)
Liz & Brett (who wandered by for a bit to say hi and avoid putting kids to bed?)
MariCarmen & Ben (Ben - you were there in spirit - have a good tour)
Mike & Kristen (good timing you guys!)
and of course
Linnea and Madeline for making my banner
Alex for entertaining us
Colin, Nathan, Travis, Mark, Adam, Harper, Kieron, Brighton, and all the other rug rats

I have posted my pictures from last night in a Picasa web album

What I did this weekend

My last weekend at home for a long while has turned out to be a wonderful one. This weekend was the start of the Short Course (swimming) season with the TXLA meet at UTexas Lee and Joe Jamil Swimming Center. Linnea swam two events on Friday night and three events today (Saturday) and she KICKED BUTT! It was wonderful to watch - after all her hard work at swim team practice she really showed how much she has learned and improved with Coach Kay and Coach John at Cedar Park Swimming. Our neighbour Colin also swam and had the same kick butt kind of meet so much celebration was to be had (and the kids were allowed to eat pizza in the car on the way home).
And not to be outdone, Alex's soccer team (this week they are the "Orange Tigers" - I'm betting on them being the pumpkins at least once before the fall season is done) had a great game and Alex had a great goal and some assists.
Now I am finishing up configuring six netbooks for the kids school, Austin International School. Not much to do there but hit "return" "return" "I accept" and "return" as I replace the Linux systems with XP. I should point out that the teachers want XP, not me. In the process, I have found some great freeware for the kids laptops. My favourite is "Stellarium"
Now all that's left is packing (eeck!)

What happened to all the prep time?

I don't know what happened to all that time we had to get ready. Everything was so calm and orderly, even as recently as three days ago. And then my organization fell apart. I made Linnea's Hallowe'en costume last weekend, but I haven't hemmed it and I have to finish knitting a 17 foot long (or so it seems) Hogwarts scarf to go with the rest. Thank goodness Alex is borrowing a complete (wait for it...) Jedi outfit from our wonderful neighbours, Chris and Elizabeth. As long as my 3ft, freckled red-head doesn't need to be Mace Windu, we're set on that front.
I managed to remember bug juice (mosquito repellent) and pick that up today after signing our wills. There is a bizarre variation on nesting that goes on when getting ready to do extended travel away from family that I am trying to deal with.

I think at the end of the day, I have to stick to the best piece of advice that I have been given so far. My GP, David Butler, is responsible for this basic and timely reminder "WEAR YOUR SEAT BELT." And really, doing that to come home safely is the best thing I've heard so far.

#

More Vietnam Prep

On Saturday my husband and I went to the movies (this is a big deal for us) and then to Barnes & Noble after. So why is this Vietnam prep? The movie was "Tropic Thunder" (in a guilty pleasure sort of way, thought it was hilarious, and minute for minute more profanities than "Slapshot") and at B&N picked up a copy of the Lonely Planet guide for Vietnam and a Vietnamese-English translation/language structure book.
The Lonely Planet guide is great - a concise but fascinating intro to Vietnam's history, great photos, and a street map of Da Nang! To be honest, I probably should have started here with my preparations!

Crossing the street in Vietnam - adventure #1

It looks like our first adventure may happen as early as stepping out the door. This is what one of my team members found on You Tube:

Since traffic lights don't exist in Vietnam, I suggest that we take a lesson on street crossing prior to departure.

Demonstration from tourists:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C8Q4vBUp8Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlyOom0bwwY&feature=related

Based on the demos, I've learned that you simply take a deep breath, close your eyes and hope you get across in one piece. <grin>

This also seems to validate the other advice on not bothering with an alarm clock (and being an early to bed person may require ear plugs)

Are we there yet?

We're now 4 weeks away from our travel to Vietnam, starting our projects on Canadian Thanksgiving. It looks like I will get to Da Nang very early on Oct 9, so I'll have two days there to look around and get acclimatized before we start our assignments.

There is a team in Vietnam right now (the "Vietnam1" team). One of their comments was "don't bother with the alarm clock as the horns, motorbikes, cars, and other street noise are just FINE at waking you up!"

Apparently the rooms, while mostly clean, are also home to several creepy crawlies (no snakes though, thank goodness). We now have a hotel mascot. I'll leave it up to Vietnam 1 to name it.

Note: The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

Stacy Nelson's Blog (Destination Bohol, Philippenes)

Stacy is a new friend and colleague from Tivoli (the same part of Software Group that I am part of) who is going to Bohol, Philippenes.
She has a great blog set up for her experiences, including a great introduction to IBM's Corporate Service Corps program

My IBM AdTech Blog

I started with adtech for blogging and so for those of you interested in some of my lead up thoughts on the Corporate Service Corps and our trips, start here.

Note: The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

Some Introductory Pictures and Notes on Vietnam

Lots of information all over the web on Vietnam, but here are some quick links and notes that I particularly liked:

• Starting where we all should, with wikipedia's introduction to Da Nang
• Official "Welcome to Danang" from Danang City
• Some great photos of Danang and Vientam from Terragalleria (wonderful photos, somehow I am much less keen on trying my hand at photography while there given how wonderful these photos are)
• A timeline of Vietnam's history
• Some basic information on Danang from Circle of Asia

Note: The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

Welcome to my Blog!

Welcome to me at least. I'm going to use this blog mostly to record my thoughts and experiences as part of the "Vietnam 2" team of IBM's Corporate Service Corps.
I'll also post pictures, and videos (I hope).