Thursday, 12 November 2009
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
....more pictures from Sapa
Hiking trial through the mountains in Sapa :)
Women from Sapa tribe - embroider
Got a heart made out of leaves from a Sapa Tribe woman on Vietnam's Womens day :)
Riceterraces in Sapa - just amazing!
2nd day in Sapa
I woke up from the sunlight which came into my room. I got so excited that I got up, got my camera and went straight outside onto my balcony to enjoy the view. It was so idyllic like on the pictures I saw beforehand. Sapa in sunshine is gorgeous!
Had a lovely noodle soup with beef for breakfast with the Australians which I met and took some more time out to sit in front of my room to enjoy the view! The mountains are so impressive!
Then our tour started and we walked for 3hours through breathtaking scenery - Fiona from Australia, myself & the tour guide! But anybody who knows Sapa, knows that we were much more people. Sapa has 5 different Hill tribes and so the women who want to sell some bags, pillowcases, duvets etc. are following you the whole way. You actually get used to it and chat with them, as they learned their English from the tourists.
We stopped for lunch and the food is even better then in Halong City. Soooo tasty. Vietnamese just know how to cook!
Then we walked to another 2 villages for another 1.5 hours before we got back to our hotel. Beautiful pictures taken and a great experience again. We passed by a school, where the kids decided to dance for us – so cute. Also we saw a hospital, which did not look so trustworthy to be honest, but who knows.
Today the Official National Womensday was celebrated in Vietnam and every man will buy flowers for his girlfriend or wife. It was fun to see all these flowers everywhere on the street and also all the guys riding on their motorbikes with a bunch of flowers.
At 5pm I had to say goodbye one more time to the Australians and was on my way back to Hanoi on the overnight train. What an experience!
Had a lovely noodle soup with beef for breakfast with the Australians which I met and took some more time out to sit in front of my room to enjoy the view! The mountains are so impressive!
Then our tour started and we walked for 3hours through breathtaking scenery - Fiona from Australia, myself & the tour guide! But anybody who knows Sapa, knows that we were much more people. Sapa has 5 different Hill tribes and so the women who want to sell some bags, pillowcases, duvets etc. are following you the whole way. You actually get used to it and chat with them, as they learned their English from the tourists.
We stopped for lunch and the food is even better then in Halong City. Soooo tasty. Vietnamese just know how to cook!
Then we walked to another 2 villages for another 1.5 hours before we got back to our hotel. Beautiful pictures taken and a great experience again. We passed by a school, where the kids decided to dance for us – so cute. Also we saw a hospital, which did not look so trustworthy to be honest, but who knows.
Today the Official National Womensday was celebrated in Vietnam and every man will buy flowers for his girlfriend or wife. It was fun to see all these flowers everywhere on the street and also all the guys riding on their motorbikes with a bunch of flowers.
At 5pm I had to say goodbye one more time to the Australians and was on my way back to Hanoi on the overnight train. What an experience!
Sapa Experience is starting...
On our walk to Cat Cat Village
Traditional dress + dance from one Tribe in Sapa
Traditional women in Sapa
Cat Cat Waterfall
Traditional dress + dance from one Tribe in Sapa
Traditional women in Sapa
Cat Cat Waterfall
Sunday Evening I went to the Kangaroo Café in Hanoi and started my tour to Sapa. We were 5 people, 4 Australian’s and I and we got on the overnight train. I was pleasantly surprised how clean the train was – much more modern then the train down to Saigon. I had a great night sleep until we had to get off at 5.30am. We all got on a bus for another 1.5h to reach Sapa & our hotel.
After a great breakfast we were waiting for our rooms. Unfortunately it was very foggy and a few hours later it started to rain. I had a stroll through the town and the markets, but in some shops you could not really see anything as we had an electricity outage.
In the afternoon we then met our tour guide and we had a great walk down to Cat Cat Village and the Waterfall. We also listened to some traditional music from Sapa and saw some great traditional dancing. All these dresses are so colourful as well as all the bags.
I saw it on pictures beforehand, but if you see it live it is even more impressive. The hike back up to our hotel was pretty tough but nice at the same time.
Tomorrow fingers crossed we have nicer weather and the rain is hopefully gone as well as the fog. We ended the evening with a gorgeous meal – I had deer on a hot iron plate and it was the best food I had eaten so far in Vietnam!
After a great breakfast we were waiting for our rooms. Unfortunately it was very foggy and a few hours later it started to rain. I had a stroll through the town and the markets, but in some shops you could not really see anything as we had an electricity outage.
In the afternoon we then met our tour guide and we had a great walk down to Cat Cat Village and the Waterfall. We also listened to some traditional music from Sapa and saw some great traditional dancing. All these dresses are so colourful as well as all the bags.
I saw it on pictures beforehand, but if you see it live it is even more impressive. The hike back up to our hotel was pretty tough but nice at the same time.
Tomorrow fingers crossed we have nicer weather and the rain is hopefully gone as well as the fog. We ended the evening with a gorgeous meal – I had deer on a hot iron plate and it was the best food I had eaten so far in Vietnam!
Saying Goodbye – Can it get worse?
Karaoke at the Junk Cruise with our translators
Group picture: CSC Team + tranlators
All our translators - what a great bunch of people!
Jump from the Junk Boat with John - that was fun!
Xoan, Kerstin & Lan on the Junk Cruise.On Friday at 10am it was time to say goodbye to our translators. This was the start of a dreadful experience. We had 3 month of pre-work calls, but nobody prepared all of us how tough it would be to say goodbye. I have never seen so many tears since a long time. However I would like to mention our fabulous time on Thursday on our final goodbye Dinner Cruise with our translators. We finished the CSC program with a stunning experience. Jumped from the junk deck from at least 3-4 meters height and that was something to remember! We had a really tasty dinner on the Cruise and we sang Karaoke with our hearts & souls.
Back in Hanoi, we quick checked into our hotel and had some lunch before we went to the IBM Office in Hanoi for our Press Conference. My first press conference ever ;)
Was a very interesting experience and they will show some parts of it on the Vietnamese National Television. Hope to get a link to it soon.
One member of the team already had to leave to the airport, so saying goodbye started all over again. In the evening we went for another lovely dinner with Mark from ABV and the remaining 9 of the CSC Team. The evening ended with some tasty Caipirinha in a Bar called I-Box with a great atmosphere.
Saturday we had to say goodbye to even more colleagues – no more details as it was just getting worse by the minute. The remaining colleagues and myself had a stroll around streets in Hanoi, did a bit of shopping, went for a nice lunch next to the Revolutionary Museum and so on.
Sunday morning was another time to say goodbye to more colleagues. Next time I will be the first one who is leaving, otherwise I cannot survive this. We met our translators Lan & Trang at 10am, went for lunch and visited the Museum of Ethnology. It was a really nice idea from Lan to bring us there. The wooden houses were the most impressive part! We had a final drink on the 5th floor in a lovely coffee place outside with Palm trees close to Hanoi Lake. We went for our last CSC colleagues dinner (whoever was left), before I left to go to Sapa. Lan & Trang where crying a lot and it was heartbreaking to leave them in Hanoi behind.
Back in Hanoi, we quick checked into our hotel and had some lunch before we went to the IBM Office in Hanoi for our Press Conference. My first press conference ever ;)
Was a very interesting experience and they will show some parts of it on the Vietnamese National Television. Hope to get a link to it soon.
One member of the team already had to leave to the airport, so saying goodbye started all over again. In the evening we went for another lovely dinner with Mark from ABV and the remaining 9 of the CSC Team. The evening ended with some tasty Caipirinha in a Bar called I-Box with a great atmosphere.
Saturday we had to say goodbye to even more colleagues – no more details as it was just getting worse by the minute. The remaining colleagues and myself had a stroll around streets in Hanoi, did a bit of shopping, went for a nice lunch next to the Revolutionary Museum and so on.
Sunday morning was another time to say goodbye to more colleagues. Next time I will be the first one who is leaving, otherwise I cannot survive this. We met our translators Lan & Trang at 10am, went for lunch and visited the Museum of Ethnology. It was a really nice idea from Lan to bring us there. The wooden houses were the most impressive part! We had a final drink on the 5th floor in a lovely coffee place outside with Palm trees close to Hanoi Lake. We went for our last CSC colleagues dinner (whoever was left), before I left to go to Sapa. Lan & Trang where crying a lot and it was heartbreaking to leave them in Hanoi behind.
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Final Presentation at our client
I guess 4 weeks ago nobody could have imagined how it is to have our final client presentation. And here it is – and now already over….so unreal. I have followed CSC Alumni’s beforehand on their blogs talking about their experiences, however to go through it yourself is just completely inspiring.
We met our client at the high school yesterday for the final presentation in the afternoon.
One thing what I have learned for sure is: Flexibility. This just applies to Vietnamese every day’s life and I am actually getting pretty used to it and it does not stress, upset or annoy me. I think that means adapting to Vietnamese culture ;)
So everything started that the driver from our company rang us and told us that they will pick us up 30min later. No surprise anymore after almost 4 weeks in Vietnam….
When we got out of the car all the High school students had a break and where waving at us and cheering. What a feeling that was! And after we waved back they were all giggling and clapping.
We met the director, the headmaster of the high school and some employees. The director told us straight away that he has only 1h and then he had to leave. So we changed spontaneously our whole agenda (so typical Vietnamese) and I really just had to smile about it. Adaptability is everything and I didn’t mind whatsoever. John started with our presentation of the Commercial Tower and the findings & recommendations to keep the tower, to sell it after completion or in 2020. You could see that their faces were lightning up. That was the first sign that they liked what we presented. The director stated clearly after the presentation that we helped him to get a better understanding of the financial outlook as well as the risk they have to keep in mind.
So the decision is made: Our client will keep the commercial tower until 2020 J!!!
Mr. Trinh, the director is very proud of his commercial tower and it is also a prestige project for Halong City in that location.
Then I took them through the High school presentation which was a lot of fun. We made a video for the High school which they just loved to watch. They were also very touched when they saw that we put some pictures which we took from the High school previously and included them in the presentation. You could feel how proud they were.
They were very happy with our best practises from Europe and US which they will try to implement in their High school. I really had the feeling after the presentation that they took the ideas on board. I handed a present to the Headmaster of the school Mr. Quôc’ Anh: A Guinness T-Shirt & pen which I brought from Ireland. He definitely appreciated this. Then we finished off with the Corporate Finance Presentation and the Director invited us for a last dinner with the Headmaster and the CFO. We had a lovely time and it was very sad & hard to say goodbye.
These 4 weeks is an experience I will never forget!
Today I went with John to Subbu’s & Jan’s client to go through our Corporate Finance Presentation and to give them some education in Sales. It was great to present even in front of another client, actually in the Directors private house in the living room. The client is operating a Boat Cruise in Halong Bay and a restaurant. We had a lovely lunch again today and I am so looking forward to our final “good-bye” Halong Bay Cruise with our translators tomorrow! It will be very sad to say goodbye to everybody including the translators. We are having a fabulous time here which will be never forgotten.
We met our client at the high school yesterday for the final presentation in the afternoon.
One thing what I have learned for sure is: Flexibility. This just applies to Vietnamese every day’s life and I am actually getting pretty used to it and it does not stress, upset or annoy me. I think that means adapting to Vietnamese culture ;)
So everything started that the driver from our company rang us and told us that they will pick us up 30min later. No surprise anymore after almost 4 weeks in Vietnam….
When we got out of the car all the High school students had a break and where waving at us and cheering. What a feeling that was! And after we waved back they were all giggling and clapping.
We met the director, the headmaster of the high school and some employees. The director told us straight away that he has only 1h and then he had to leave. So we changed spontaneously our whole agenda (so typical Vietnamese) and I really just had to smile about it. Adaptability is everything and I didn’t mind whatsoever. John started with our presentation of the Commercial Tower and the findings & recommendations to keep the tower, to sell it after completion or in 2020. You could see that their faces were lightning up. That was the first sign that they liked what we presented. The director stated clearly after the presentation that we helped him to get a better understanding of the financial outlook as well as the risk they have to keep in mind.
So the decision is made: Our client will keep the commercial tower until 2020 J!!!
Mr. Trinh, the director is very proud of his commercial tower and it is also a prestige project for Halong City in that location.
Then I took them through the High school presentation which was a lot of fun. We made a video for the High school which they just loved to watch. They were also very touched when they saw that we put some pictures which we took from the High school previously and included them in the presentation. You could feel how proud they were.
They were very happy with our best practises from Europe and US which they will try to implement in their High school. I really had the feeling after the presentation that they took the ideas on board. I handed a present to the Headmaster of the school Mr. Quôc’ Anh: A Guinness T-Shirt & pen which I brought from Ireland. He definitely appreciated this. Then we finished off with the Corporate Finance Presentation and the Director invited us for a last dinner with the Headmaster and the CFO. We had a lovely time and it was very sad & hard to say goodbye.
These 4 weeks is an experience I will never forget!
Today I went with John to Subbu’s & Jan’s client to go through our Corporate Finance Presentation and to give them some education in Sales. It was great to present even in front of another client, actually in the Directors private house in the living room. The client is operating a Boat Cruise in Halong Bay and a restaurant. We had a lovely lunch again today and I am so looking forward to our final “good-bye” Halong Bay Cruise with our translators tomorrow! It will be very sad to say goodbye to everybody including the translators. We are having a fabulous time here which will be never forgotten.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
More pictures from the Halong Bay Cruise
Picture from the top of the small Island on Sunday morning.
Beachvolleyball: Thu Trang, Juliana, Jan, Subbu, Kerstin
Leaving the lovely small Island.
Trying to keep us awake Sunday morning with the song "I survive"
John & myself kajaking on Saturday afternoon.
Beachvolleyball: Thu Trang, Juliana, Jan, Subbu, Kerstin
Leaving the lovely small Island.
Trying to keep us awake Sunday morning with the song "I survive"
John & myself kajaking on Saturday afternoon.
A fabulous weekend on the Halong Bay Cruise
Our last weekend here in Halong and we finished it with a fantastic Cruise!
I have done a cruise through Halong Bay already twice before, but it is always an experience and overwhelming. The Limestone’s are so impressive and what more can you wish for as to sit on a nice cruise on the sundeck and enjoy the wind which is blowing into your face! Just priceless!
We had brilliant food for lunch & dinner and in the afternoon we visited the cave. Magic view up from the top!
Then we went kayaking in a small little cave – it was just amazing. I had John with me in the Kayak, and after 2 minutes paddling John told me he had his camera with him…….ohoh, so the pressure was on not to fall into the water! But we managed to be a great team and it was a pleasure to kayak with John. Back at our boat we were asking the crew if we could jump from the boat for a swim before it gets dark.
And a few minutes later we were standing at the front of the boat, scared to jump from that height. Thank god I had Juliana on my side, so we managed to jump together……it was at least 4m high…….anyway, we really enjoyed our swim in the middle of the sea!
After a lovely hot shower in our great equipped cabins we had a very tasty dinner. I managed the first time in my life to eat 4 different kinds of fish and that all in one evening! But I know now for sure that I don’t fancy mussels! But everything else was delicious.
Later on that evening we started Karaoke and we didn’t finish before 2am. Then we had a nice chat on the Sundeck before we went finally to bed! What a brilliant day – who can ask for more?!
Next morning the crew woke us up to watch the sunrise at 6am. I just quickly opened my curtains – no sun was visible through the clouds – so I went back to sleep.
Breakfast was early anyway as we already sailed to a small Ireland at 8.30am to have a hike to the top and a lovely swim. We even managed to play Water Volleyball for a bit J
We had such a great time and were so lucky that the sun finally came out and we had a great time on the sundeck until we came back into the Bay of Halong City.
That was a weekend to remember! We had so much fun and we are still enjoying our last week as much as we can.
Tomorrow is our final client presentation. Keep you fingers crossed.
I have done a cruise through Halong Bay already twice before, but it is always an experience and overwhelming. The Limestone’s are so impressive and what more can you wish for as to sit on a nice cruise on the sundeck and enjoy the wind which is blowing into your face! Just priceless!
We had brilliant food for lunch & dinner and in the afternoon we visited the cave. Magic view up from the top!
Then we went kayaking in a small little cave – it was just amazing. I had John with me in the Kayak, and after 2 minutes paddling John told me he had his camera with him…….ohoh, so the pressure was on not to fall into the water! But we managed to be a great team and it was a pleasure to kayak with John. Back at our boat we were asking the crew if we could jump from the boat for a swim before it gets dark.
And a few minutes later we were standing at the front of the boat, scared to jump from that height. Thank god I had Juliana on my side, so we managed to jump together……it was at least 4m high…….anyway, we really enjoyed our swim in the middle of the sea!
After a lovely hot shower in our great equipped cabins we had a very tasty dinner. I managed the first time in my life to eat 4 different kinds of fish and that all in one evening! But I know now for sure that I don’t fancy mussels! But everything else was delicious.
Later on that evening we started Karaoke and we didn’t finish before 2am. Then we had a nice chat on the Sundeck before we went finally to bed! What a brilliant day – who can ask for more?!
Next morning the crew woke us up to watch the sunrise at 6am. I just quickly opened my curtains – no sun was visible through the clouds – so I went back to sleep.
Breakfast was early anyway as we already sailed to a small Ireland at 8.30am to have a hike to the top and a lovely swim. We even managed to play Water Volleyball for a bit J
We had such a great time and were so lucky that the sun finally came out and we had a great time on the sundeck until we came back into the Bay of Halong City.
That was a weekend to remember! We had so much fun and we are still enjoying our last week as much as we can.
Tomorrow is our final client presentation. Keep you fingers crossed.
Friday, 9 October 2009
3 weeks are already over – Can you believe it?
The time is flying here in Vietnam. We are going in our final phase of our Assignment.
We met with the director, his wife and the CFO today and discussed our open questions on the final presentation. It was a very productive meeting and I feel very comfortable & looking forward to next week - I have never created so many charts before ;) And you should see them translated in Vietnamese!
If I think about it - 3 weeks ago I was expecting to meet a completely different client. Now I am part of the team who is doing our final presentation on Corporate Finance and we have worked on the business case of a 15 story Commercial Tower, which is under construction already. We have worked on 3 different options: Option A - Selling the Tower now; Option B – Selling the Tower in 2011, Option C – Selling the Tower in 2020.
The director told us today he will make a decision after our presentation next week! So no pressure! We will have the final presentation in the High school. I am so looking forward to go there again. Have a look at the video below.
This weekend we are cruising in Halong Bay and then visit the Orphanage again on Sunday to bring some pictures, milk powder and trying to teach the kids a few things.
Our last weekend here in Halong Bay. I really cannot believe it and I think the whole team is sad about it! But now we’ll enjoy your last week here and go for a lovely Vietnamese Dinner.
And we still have next weekend in Hanoi left for a big "goodbye party".
We met with the director, his wife and the CFO today and discussed our open questions on the final presentation. It was a very productive meeting and I feel very comfortable & looking forward to next week - I have never created so many charts before ;) And you should see them translated in Vietnamese!
If I think about it - 3 weeks ago I was expecting to meet a completely different client. Now I am part of the team who is doing our final presentation on Corporate Finance and we have worked on the business case of a 15 story Commercial Tower, which is under construction already. We have worked on 3 different options: Option A - Selling the Tower now; Option B – Selling the Tower in 2011, Option C – Selling the Tower in 2020.
The director told us today he will make a decision after our presentation next week! So no pressure! We will have the final presentation in the High school. I am so looking forward to go there again. Have a look at the video below.
This weekend we are cruising in Halong Bay and then visit the Orphanage again on Sunday to bring some pictures, milk powder and trying to teach the kids a few things.
Our last weekend here in Halong Bay. I really cannot believe it and I think the whole team is sad about it! But now we’ll enjoy your last week here and go for a lovely Vietnamese Dinner.
And we still have next weekend in Hanoi left for a big "goodbye party".
Video from the Highschool
Here is the video from the Highschool including "Oh Tannenbaum" and a link for youtube as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBfgfMIjeCI
Monday, 5 October 2009
Motorbike Tour around Cat Ba Island
On Sunday morning we decided to get a ferry to the nearby Cat Ba Island to have a relaxing day at the beach. After a one hour ferry trip we arrived in Cat Ba and we had the idea to rent Motorbikes to get to know this Island.
You have imagine that our translator Lan just had a one minute conversation with a local Vietnamese at the Ferry Terminal and in seconds there were 10 motorbikes parked in front of us and we could go on our ride!
Best decision we had made for the day. I really forgot how nice it is to drive a Motorbike in 32 degrees on a beautiful Island. We drove for an hour through a really beautiful scenery including mountains and we passed the National Park as well.
Arriving at a gorgeous beach we had our first swim in the sea since we arrived in Vietnam! It was just brilliant; however the water was almost as hot as the air outside ;)
As we were all eager to get on the bikes again, we drove to another beach nearby and had another swim there after we had to get back to the Ferry. That was such a lovely relaxing day – it could not have been better!
On the ferry trip back to the Mainland we had a gorgeous sunset which just crowned the day. Overall we had such a great weekend, which you cannot top anymore. But lets wait until next ;) You never know.
Today we visited our CFO and gave our presentation about Corporate Financing. That was a good learning experience for all of us. The topic is already very complex and then to get it even translated into Vietnamese with the correct meaning was challenging, but the CFO was satisfied. We just will make some adjustments to make it a bit simpler and then the whole team can use it for their clients.
Tomorrow we will get a decision on if I can start to work with my original client or if he is pulling out. Flexibility is needed as we experienced from the first day onwards, but it is actually working well. Every day as small surprise as in real life J
Enjoy the pictures from the bike trip!
You have imagine that our translator Lan just had a one minute conversation with a local Vietnamese at the Ferry Terminal and in seconds there were 10 motorbikes parked in front of us and we could go on our ride!
Best decision we had made for the day. I really forgot how nice it is to drive a Motorbike in 32 degrees on a beautiful Island. We drove for an hour through a really beautiful scenery including mountains and we passed the National Park as well.
Arriving at a gorgeous beach we had our first swim in the sea since we arrived in Vietnam! It was just brilliant; however the water was almost as hot as the air outside ;)
As we were all eager to get on the bikes again, we drove to another beach nearby and had another swim there after we had to get back to the Ferry. That was such a lovely relaxing day – it could not have been better!
On the ferry trip back to the Mainland we had a gorgeous sunset which just crowned the day. Overall we had such a great weekend, which you cannot top anymore. But lets wait until next ;) You never know.
Today we visited our CFO and gave our presentation about Corporate Financing. That was a good learning experience for all of us. The topic is already very complex and then to get it even translated into Vietnamese with the correct meaning was challenging, but the CFO was satisfied. We just will make some adjustments to make it a bit simpler and then the whole team can use it for their clients.
Tomorrow we will get a decision on if I can start to work with my original client or if he is pulling out. Flexibility is needed as we experienced from the first day onwards, but it is actually working well. Every day as small surprise as in real life J
Enjoy the pictures from the bike trip!
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