Traveling in Vietnam

Read first installment here
Read second installment here
Read third installment here


Three-Day River Cruise. Having taught for an intensive 6 hours a day for five straight days I was ready for some r & r. The cruise left from Can Duoc, an hour-plus drive from Saigon and ended in Can Tho, about three hours away. The cruise company arranged the transfer for me, this time an air-conditioned Toyota SUV. It was another interesting trip through the countryside, but I’d suggest trying to arrange a package when you book instead of paying separately for the transfer.

Arriving at the end of a road in Can Duoc, I saw what was clearly the tour boat across the river. The small boat that is towed behind for excursions was sent across to get me. With help my heavy suitcase and I made it down the worse dock I have ever seen—simply various sizes of boards affixed to the muddy river bank in a semblance of steps—and safely onto the little boat, and my adventure had begun. I took a lot of pictures, the best of which are in my Flickr slideshow.

I was greeted with a hot towel and glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice and shown to my stateroom. The boat is mahogany, or something that looks just like it, throughout and only about a year old. The stateroom with double beds and built-in furniture was small but efficient. The bathroom was one of those “the bathroom is the shower stall” affairs, but that’s ok. Water pressure was only a trickle and the difference between hot and cold water was negligible, but it was serviceable.

Having rid myself of some of the mud I accumulated on the trip across the river I went up on deck to meet John and Irene, my traveling companions. They hail from Cardiff in Wales and couldn’t have been better company. They are both well read and well traveled, and John is a retired ship’s captain who was a great source of information.

The boat had been waiting for me and pulled out into the river almost as soon as I got on. It was always a relief to get the breeze from being underway to take the edge off the heat and humidity of the delta. Although it is the dry winter season in January, it is still hot and the sun is fierce, so pack good sun block.

It was soon time for lunch in the open-air dining area. What ensued was a parade of courses that was the equal of the multi-star restaurant I had experienced earlier in the week in Saigon. It began with a plate of shrimp on greens that would have been a perfectly good lunch by itself. I may have lost track of the dishes, but there was also a roll-your-own spring rolls course, a whole deep-fried fish (just for me), a generous stir-fry, and of course fruit—and I may have missed one (or two). That began our three-day--and largely unsuccessful--campaign for fewer courses at each meal. The food was wonderful if you like the Vietnamese cuisine, which I do very much. If you didn’t like Vietnamese, you were out of luck.

Late afternoon we disembarked with Hai, our English-speaking guide, for a walk around a village and its marketplace. The excursions were planned for early morning or mid/late afternoon to avoid the heat of midday, a good choice.

The sunset viewed from one of the upper decks was indeed spectacular. We had drinks on deck, accompanied by some of the best fried dumplings I’ve ever tasted. That was followed in due time with another multi-course feast. The boat docked around 9 p.m. each evening, “so we could have a good sleep.” I was tired to begin with, and the activity and the massive amount of food made that easy.

The next morning (after a multi-course breakfast) we passed the first floating market, which is quite a sight. We disembarked and toured a village factory where rice paper and rice wine were made. The working conditions are primitive and the hours are long. The redeeming feature was that these rural workshops are open air, but I really can’t image what they must be like in summer. That afternoon we had a rather adventurous walk around a very rural area. The path was dry, caked clay—rough walking but manageable. Again, I can’t imagine what it must be like in the rainy season. The people were generally welcoming and unfailingly polite. Even watch dogs were polite—barking but not threatening the strangers walking down the village paths.

The people are dependent on the river to get their goods to market, although we saw bridges being built at several points. Barges were loaded with sand and gravel for construction. Family boats took produce of all kinds into the cities. Entire families live on their small boats and we were told that children were able to go to school on land when they were old enough. Our boat was engaged in the leisurely cruise we had been promised, but it was constantly being passed by heavily-loaded boats in one direction and empty ones flying back in the other direction for another load. It was a fascinating panorama that went on from early morning to late night. Children on the banks of the river got great delight from greeting and waving at us and having us wave back. I never got over how welcome the Vietnamese made me feel in their country.

On the last morning we got a close-up look at a large floating market, which was a real treat. Our final excursion was a pleasant walk around an area that is thickly planted with fruit of all kinds. Some like pineapple, papaya and mango are familiar to Westerners. Others like dragon fruit and water apple and many others whose names I can’t remember or never knew are unfamiliar, but wonderful. On my trip a year ago I decided that Vietnamese fruit is special. This trip confirmed that.

We were taken by boat to our destinations about 10:30 that last morning. John and Irene were staying in Can Tho for a few days while I was returning to Saigon for my flight the next morning. The crew of the boat was busy preparing for the next group of tourists who were due to start arriving at 11. There had been only three of us on this trip; there were 11 boarding on the next cruise. I was careful to specify a group on this multi-day cruise, but clearly numbers vary if the size of the group is a concern.

I’m really glad I made the effort to get out and experience some of the countryside. It was an unforgettable experience, although it definitely does qualify as adventure travel. It’s not for people who want all the modern comforts and conveniences and expect modern transportation at every turn. For me, it was well worth a bit of roughing it in return for sights and sounds that I’ll never forget.
Marketing in Vietnam environment
Marketing in Vietnam infrastructure
Sphere: Related Content

Marketing in Vietnam

Read first installment here.
The Marketing Infrastructure. My first trip to teach in Vietnam produced two immediate, huge surprises:
•How well grounded in the basics of marketing the students in this executive training program were. Many speak excellent English and some have lived and/or studied in the West.
•How warmly I, so obviously an American, and my American marketing expertise were welcomed.
Over the week of teaching another important realization grew; that the marketing infrastructure I was accustomed to in the US and Europe simply didn’t exist in Vietnam.

The basic media structure we are accustomed to is present in the cities. Media, especially outdoor and interactive, seem to be growing rapidly, but I haven’t been able to find any data in English. Many print and broadcast outlets are controlled by the government, but I didn’t see any direct effects of that on advertising. Just looking at what’s available from street vendors, there are many newspapers and magazines available. Internet connections are slow but they work, even to the extent of allowing brief streaming video in the classroom. I didn’t hear any discussion of government control of Internet content, but I wasn’t operating in a space where political issues were often mentioned.

One student had an advertising story that illustrates the need to beware of western expectations when using media in Vietnam. When he tried to use newspaper inserts for advertising purposes, he found one major distributor removing the FSIs and selling them for waste paper. Back to display advertising!

The biggest issue for marketers in Vietnam is the lack of a trusted payment system. In 2007 most of my students agreed that it was difficult to get a credit card. It is like poor credit in the US—put up a large amount of money in order to obtain the card. Some older professionals assured me that is not true, but I suspect they bank in non-Vietnamese banks. I specifically asked the question this year and was told that “if your company has relationships with banks, it’s easy to get a credit card.” However, one student added that he was unable to use his credit card to make an Internet purchase from outside Vietnam. I believe that it’s still not possible to sign up for a personal PayPal account from Vietnam, although you can transfer money to firms “in the PayPal network.” It sounds to me like my experience with Western Union—transfers have to be cash-based, not credit card or bank account.

Add to that the fact that the mail system is considered unreliable. In 2007 one magazine manager told of sending representatives out to collect for magazine subscriptions in person; they just didn’t find it possible to collect by mail. The result is that mail marketing and e-commerce as we know them in the US are non-existent. In addition, the majority of students seemed to believe that email marketing absolutely does not work in Vietnam. The reason is a huge amount of spam, resulting in filters that prevent most commercial mail from getting through. Email wasn’t a large part of my subject matter, but they were interested in registration forms, incentives and other aspects of permission marketing. One of the consumer products companies represented does seem to be using a website and email successfully. Careful permission-based email marketing seems to have promise but I recommend that the permissionning process be very careful and informative with clear value offered to the consumer for signing up and receiving email communications. Coupon distribution seems one obvious application.

The growing economy and middle class are attracting companies that provide marketing infrastructure. Media research, marketing research, and advertising agencies have offices in either Hanoi or Saigon or both. I’ve talked to other firms that operate in the Asia-Pacific that are watching Vietnam as an opportunity. So the infrastructure is growing. This slideshow appears to be a product of Yahoo! in Vietnam, which seems reasonable because Yahoo! is highly popular there.

My own opinion is that the lack of a trusted payment system is going to be the greatest barrier to a vibrant consumer economy, and that’s something that marketers cannot fix on their own.

One final story has a lot to say about marketing and the consumer in Vietnam. Several students were from AIG, the global insurance company. The story is that a year or so ago AIG had a sponsorship relationship with Manchester United. Soccer is wildly popular in Vietnam, just as in much of the rest of the world. However, AIG is a new brand and not yet well known in Vietnam. Consequently, there is now consumer confusion—many seem to believe that AIG is a soccer team!

I believe that Western companies that establish offices in Vietnam or who are looking for Vietnamese partners will find a reasonable supply of well-trained and highly motivated marketing personnel. Beware, however, of media and marketing infrastructures that require strategies specially designed for the situation there—and expect that situation to continue changing rapidly as the economy matures!
Sphere: Related Content

Traveling in Vietnam

Read first installment here.
Read second installment here.
Day Tour to Cu Chi Tunnels and the Cao Dai Temple. Saturday morning a comfortable air-conditioned Toyota Corolla complete with driver and guide picked me up at my hotel for a day trip into the delta. The destinations were the tunnels of Cu Chi and the Cao Dai Temple. We drove out of the city in the general direction of the airport, about 100 kilometers northwest to the area near the Cambodian border. Both destinations are near the province capital of Tay Ninh.

The drive itself was fascinating. It was mostly through countryside and small villages. The rice patties were incredibly green and we saw many fields planted with rubber trees. Some were being tapped and others appeared to be too young. Hai, my wonderful guide, pointed out that this area had been bombed extensively during the war, with population scattered and farms and forests destroyed.

I remembered the tunnels being in the news during the war but knew little about them. Both the extensiveness of the tunnel system and the small size of the tunnels themselves were amazing. At the height of their usefulness there were three levels with small living spaces, workshops, and kitchens. Tourists can enter the tunnels if they wish, but they are small and dark. Please see my slideshow on Flickr for more photos.

We reached the Cao Dai temple in time for the noon worship ceremony, which visitors are welcome to attend. The Cao Dai religion is a fusion of many religions, both Eastern and Western, with the goal of religious harmony and peace. The ornate temple is full of symbolism. I stayed for about half the hour-long ceremony of meditation.

If you are interested, there are numerous sites that have further information on both the tunnels and the Cao Dai religion and the grand temple. I’m not giving links because I’m not qualified to judge which are authoritative, but I’d encourage you to search for more information and photos.


I was then taken to a restaurant in one of the small towns for luncheon. It was the usual Vietnamese multi-course feast with soup, several types of seafood, spring rolls, noodles, rice, wonderfully fresh greens, and always fruit to finish. The restaurant obviously catered to the tourist trade, with a fixed menu that could be served quickly and efficiently. The tourists around me seemed to be eating just as happily as I was, but I wondered if many of us would have known what to order. This type of meal was a good solution, although as always, I could have done with fewer courses.

Hai managed to divert me from the statuary shops I had seen on the drive out of the city that morning. I had seen lions and dragons and Buddhas that must have been as tall as I, and I though one of them would look wonderful in my garden. Even at the reasonable Vietnamese prices shipping would have been a major issue, so it’s probably just as well I didn’t get there. Most people in the shops in Saigon have at least a few words of English, but a native speaker would be necessary to help negotiate a major purchase like this.

Back in Saigon, he helped me satisfy my shopping urge by taking me to the government-run lacquerware factory. The factory promotes this traditional craft and provides work for people with disabilities. Tourists can take a guided walk through the factory which, of course, ends in a well-stocked store. There you can find anything from small bowls and vases to large platters and wall plaques to beautifully inlaid pieces of furniture. It’s well set up for the tourist trade and they are happy to ship the larger pieces.

I arrived back at the hotel mid-afternoon tired, laden with lacquerware purchases, and very pleased to have seen this slice of Vietnam.

As a footnote, I’d point out that I signed up for a tour, but I turned out to be the only client that day. Labor costs in Vietnam are low and they don’t cancel outings for one or only a few people. That was fine for a day trip, but women traveling alone should take note and make decisions that are comfortable for them.
Sphere: Related Content

Marketing in Vietnam

The Environment. As already noted, when preparing for my 2007 teaching visit to Vietnam I attempted to do typical due diligence about the marketing situation there, but I came up with an almost totally blank slate. I could find basic economic data, but marketing data was almost non-existent. Sure I was missing something, I contacted eMarketer and found someone who was kind enough to search their files. He came up with exactly three tables that included Vietnamese data, so I knew I hadn’t missed much.

Since it was opened up to Western investment in 2001, Vietnam has become one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, albeit on a small base. Here are some key statistics from their statistical bureau. A search for economic data turns up quite a few blog entries, but I’ve stuck to statistics from governments or major world economic organizations. Vietnam has a page on the UN website that has current news, statistics and links. It was admitted to the World Trade Organization in January 2007 and has a page that has news and trade links as well as a link to a page with trade stats.

The economic statistics paint a picture of rapid economic growth. However, when you consider the size of the base on which growth is calculated, it is evident that growth was slow for decades following the war. The exchange rate of roughly 15,000 dong to the dollar also suggests inflation, which the State Department (which has a page with good narrative) says was 300% in 1987, but which has been brought under control in preparation for entry into the WTO. In fact, the exchange rate did not change perceptibly between my trips in January 2007 and 2008. Since the dollar was declining against major world currencies in 2007 that would say something to an economist, I’m sure. To me as a marketer, it says that Vietnam remains a very affordable tourist destination.

Here are some other key facts, all drawn from the ranking page of the the CIA World Factbook, which also has detailed narrative on many political, social and economic characteristics of the country. Against all other countries for which data is available in 2006/2007 Vietnam ranks:

•15th in population
•13th in size of the labor force
•24th in rate of growth of real GNP
•168th in per capita GNP.




One of the first things a traveler notices is construction everywhere, in rural areas as well as urban. Motorbikes clog the streets in cities, and there are plenty of taxis but few private cars. In Saigon, public transportation takes the form of buses and they are much in evidence on the streets. Another sign of the level of economic development is the ubiquitous street vendors. Some are in native dress and appear to be selling produce directly from family farms. Others have thriving businesses in everything from t-shirts to paper products and there are many pushcarts that offer a wide array of Vietnamese food. Most of the retail shops are small, but there are shopping malls, department stores and supermarkets. I noticed a sign that said that the Co-Op Mart, the largest supermarket chain at least in Saigon, was opening convenience stores, so signs of an emerging consumer economy are all around. There are many KFC outlets and I was told that the first McDonald’s franchise has been awarded in Saigon but is not yet open.

The evidence of a rapidly-growing economy is clear. The state of marketing is not so obvious, but in the next installment I’ll piece together what I’ve been able to learn.
Sphere: Related Content

Traveling in Vietnam: Second Trip--January 2008

Read first installment here.
In Saigon. This time I left time at both the beginning and end of the trip for sightseeing and travel. I headquartered at the Au Lac Hotel, a smaller three-star establishment on Nguyen Thj Minh Khai street in District 3. It’s one block over from the War Museum, if that places it for any of you.

As last year, I found the free breakfast buffet not only extremely tasty (I like Vietnamese food) but so plentiful that I could generally make it through the rest of the day on fruit and South Beach bars in my room. In fact, I had to. The amount of salt, and especially MSG, used in traditional Vietnamese cooking is far beyond what a mostly-organic American can tolerate. I was told that some Saigon restaurants were eliminating MSG and publicizing the fact, but I didn’t see any evidence of that. I drank at least one cup of herbal detox tea each day (yes, I brought it with me) to counter the effects. MSG is something the tourist industry should consider.

The Au Lac is not one of the new luxury hotels going up all over the city, but it has served me well on two trips. If the service is sometimes a bit uneven (mini bar not fully stocked when I arrived; on first leg of trip was in older room where shower leaked into an interesting drain contraption on the floor), the staff made up for it with their cheerful willingness to serve. Housekeeping staff who seemed to speak no English greeted me cheerfully whenever they saw me. Dining room staff generally spoke a little English and quickly fulfilled requests with a smile. Most of the front-desk personnel spoke enough English to give good service. All was done with cheerful good nature, which I found to be consistently true wherever I sent.

Before I set off, a word about the name of the city. Since the end of the war it has officially been Ho Chi Minh City. One resident told me that’s the legal name, but “in our hearts it’s still Saigon.” That’s the way people refer to it in everyday conversation.

The traffic is as bad as you’ve heard—some private cars, taxis and minibuses, public transport buses and tour buses, and the endless motorbikes. An interesting wrinkle
is the helmet law that went into effect at the end of last year. Unlike a few years ago when the government backed down on a helmet requirement, they seem entirely serious about enforcing it for adult motorbikers, although it does not include children or bicycle riders—both seeming oversights! I asked one of my Vietnamese hosts if people resisted the law and her laughing reply was, “We weren’t allowed to resist.” The socialist government is alive and well.

During my free day I found my way back to a wonderful street of antique stalls near the huge (and hot and airless) indoor Ben Thanh market. Le Cong Kieu Street is a delight, with some pricey antiques and a strong chance of getting ripped off, I’m told. But that doesn’t keep it from being lots of fun. On the other side of Ben Thanh there’s an open-air market that I’m told specializes in war artifacts. I didn’t make it there but it also looks interesting.

I did make it to the shopping streets that are plentiful as you move from District 3 into District 1, past the park in front of the Presidential Palace and near some of the luxury hotels. There are lots of street vendors (tshirts for as little as $1 American, Vietnamese food, bottled water and—thankfully—Diet Coke). There are interesting shops—art galleries, lots of silk, jewelry and watches and custom tailors. In spite of the heat and humidity, Saigon is tourist-friendly with an abundance of small parks where you can sit and watch the street life and a fair number of open cafes. There are surprisingly few panhandlers on the streets and vendors are generally polite. Even the constant offers of rides on motorbikes are polite, not insistent.

A lot of things are a real bargain—witness the “foot massage” I got for $10 American. It wasn’t what I expected; it included scalp massage, a cucumber facial, hot rocks and walking on my back, stretching of various kinds, and—oh yes—good work on my tired feet and legs. It ended with a cup of green tea and some fruit, as most things in Vietnam seem to do.

The one bad call I made was booking a dinner cruise on the river. I was suspicious when the hotel staff didn’t seem to be familiar with the dock area, although I had an address and a map that showed it clearly. It was fully dark when I left the hotel, and the taxi driver didn’t know where to find the dock. Unlike the streets of Districts 3 and 1, the further we went the more deserted it got. It clearly wasn’t a place where I wanted to be looking for a taxi at 9 p.m. to get back to the hotel. Even though it was a reputable tour provider, I turned around and went back to the hotel. A transfer service provided by the tour operator would have salvaged that one.

Overall, I felt as safe on the streets of Saigon as I feel on the streets of other large cities. I’m often alone, so that translates to being fine during the day and being careful how far and where I go at night. When you don’t speak the language, it makes especially good sense to be careful, but overall I found the Vietnamese people to be kind, caring and genuinely welcoming to tourists.

Traveling in Vietnam; First Trip, 2007

In January 2007 I made my first trip to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Most of my time was spent teaching, but I got an introduction to the country that made me look forward to more.

I hadn’t booked anything before I arrived, so I had to scramble for a half-day city tour. With the help of a travel agency I found one at a Sinh Café location. It really is a combination café and tour service. It is Vietnamese owned and shows evidence of the need to further develop the tourist infrastructure. The tour was about 3 hours long. We went to the War Museum, which every American should see once and probably will not want to see again. Then we visited the Presidential Palace, now a museum, but without a great deal to see. This is a view of Saigon from the palace. Finally we stopped at the National Cathedral. A wedding was in progress, so we couldn’t go inside; instead we walked across the street to the post office. That wasn’t much to see for 3 hours and there was no driving tour of the city to highlight major areas to which tourists might want to return.

That said, the tour guide spoke reasonable English and was friendly and willing to answer questions. I met an American woman traveling with a Vietnamese-born friend who has lived in the US for several years. Our reactions to the war museum were interesting. I introduced myself because I needed an American to talk to. We were both disturbed by what we saw, even though we had seen and heard virtually all of it during the war itself. Seeing it again in the context of the Iraq caused feelings of anger and frustration. The woman born in Vietnam told us we should “just move on,” which seems to be a common feeling, at least in the southern part of Vietnam. I wish I could, but if we had learned the lessons of that war, we wouldn’t be in Iraq now.

I was immediately captivated by Saigon itself. The French Colonial architecture and the general aura of charming deterioration reminded both Americans of New Orleans—before the flood. It was also my first introduction to Vietnamese hospitality. The two ladies invited me to join them (Vietnamese husband now included) for dinner at an outdoor restaurant that evening. The food was as good as the hospitality and we could see it being prepared. It was a great experience and one I wouldn’t have on my own, because I don’t think people who don’t know the food and/or language would be able to handle it. We parted at the end of the evening, the three of them to a Mekong Delta tour of several days run by the same tour group, which they reported later was enjoyable.

Before I went to work, I had a day on my own. It was fun, but the many short streets are hard to navigate and my map was in Vietnamese. It’s really hard to find things like a map in English once you are there. Extensive research on the web before you go and an up-to-date guidebook are highly recommended.

With those experiences in mind, and a desire to see more of Saigon and the surrounding area, I allowed more time and prepared for some tourism this year. I booked two activities through Viator, a large multinational travel company. That was a breeze. I also booked a three-day cruise on the Mekong River through a local company with headquarters in Hanoi and an office in Saigon. I already knew that I wasn’t going to be able to use a credit card to pay for it. They recommended Western Union, which seemed reasonable to me. I went to the Western Union web site, gave my information, the necessary information about Tuan Lihn Travel, credit card number, and selected Vietnam from the pull-down menu. Having done everything right, I watched the site implode in my face. It not only refused my transfer, the refusal blocked my credit card. Ugh!

In the end, I had to take cash and visit a local Western Union office in order to make the transfer. Maybe the travel company should have told me that; certainly Western Union should not have included Vietnam on the menu of countries where you can use your credit card to transfer money. It appears that they do not make any kind of transfer into Vietnam that can link to a credit card or bank account number. Stating that on the website would have saved me annoyance. It’s a sign of the lack of trust in the Vietnamese financial system that I’ll describe further in the marketing section of my travelogue.

DIY Marketing "Going Dark" While I Teach in Vietnam

DIY Marketing is going to take a brief respite while I teach and travel in Vietnam. I was there last year and found the experience both enjoyable and unsettling. The people were wonderful and I enjoyed the teaching experience, but I was taken aback by the state of the marketing infrastructure there.

Before I left, I tried to do my due diligence and was surprised that the only really in depth information I could find was in the CIA Factbook. It has a good section on the economics of the country but information on the business infrastructure seemed almost non-existent. My friends at eMarketer found a few charts that included Vietnam, but nothing of any depth.What I didn’t realize was that Vietnam had been essentially closed to outside investment and businesses until about six years ago. That means they had a lot of catching up to do in many ways. I found the marketing infrastructure, as I’m accustomed to it in the US and Europe, almost nonexistent. That made teaching Direct Marketing and CRM something of a challenge, but nothing compared to the challenge of conducting marketing operations there.

I leave tomorrow to teach CRM and Advertising and Promotion with a much better idea of what to expect. But I also look forward to finding out about positive advancements that have been made in the past year.

When I return I’ll diverge from the social media theme of this blog for some of the first few posts. I want to get down what I see and hear about the marketing environment there and if I can encourage participation from a few of the executives in my classes there, that will be a real plus.

I’ll look forward to picking up on January 21!
Sphere: Related Content