Travel day started Friday Aug 19th at 7am out of Fargo to Minneapolis and a 3 hour layover. From Minneapolis came the fun 11 hour flight to Tokyo, Japan. Didn’t have to do any running, but got to the gate for Viet Nam just as it started to board. Then it was another 6 hour flight from Japan to Ho Chi Minh City. I got to my hotel room just after 11:30pm Aug 20th which would be 11:30am Saturday back in Minnesota. It was a very long almost 29 hour travel day, with over 3 airplane meals. After checking in, I was able to get on the internet and have a football draft with a group of buddies over 8000+ miles away. Some pictures from the hotel room 
Sunday was easy to sleep away because it rained very hard most of the day. Monday came and it was time to get to office. Morning went good, but was out of it after lunch because of being so tired. There is one food market that is next to the office. Not much variety, but it works. First meal was Bimbibop which was one of my favorites from Korea. My stomach still was feeling the day plus worth of airplane food, so I decided to stay safe with something I knew I liked, and missed.
Amazed by how many of the workers and people spook English. Have only learned hello (Sin Choy), and thank you (Com on), no chance I spelled them correctly. Tuesday night we left work early to go to the Ben Thanh market. The current market was built in 1912, but it's existense goes back to around the 1850s. It’s filled with cheap Rolex and other 'fake' name brand watches, and sunglasses. Pretty much had everything you could buy in Viet Nam. Tuesday night we ate at a Thai restaurant as a team. First pic is of our appetizers, fried spring rolls, and a pork dish I can’t remember. Every dish seems to have its’ own dipping sauce. Wednesday Fred and I went back there because it was pretty good, and the menu was a book. Third pic is of second meal. Very spicy chicken dish, you can see the red peppers that were pushed out of the way. There was enough spice left on the chop sticks, so I didn’t attempt to eat any of them. 
Thursday we flew to a city called Hue. The flight was just like going from Fargo to Minneapolis, very short, but the weather changed a lot. It was hot in Ho Chi Minh City, but Hue was a lot hotter. It was over a 100 when we touched down. We went there for a day of sightseeing, and a business function that three of us were invited to.
We went straight from the airport to lunch. Started off very interesting; the restaurant was a small shack completely outside except for a roof. 
I was real nervous about the food, and the fact that they put ice cubes in each of our glasses. Not sure how safe the water was. All turned out very good, and made for some good pictures. First one (right) shows a rice/lettuce dish that had peanuts in it. Up top is a pork dish that you ate with the veggies also shown, and of course my Pepsi. Next (bottom-right) shows a fish soup that is cooked with the whole fish (head and all) in it. You then take the fish out of the soup. It was actually very good. The fish fell off the bones, and had tons of flavor, with no real fishy taste. I stayed away from the soup part because it was over a 100, and I was warm enough. Last one shows a chicken dish that was just ok, chicken isn’t one of their specialties. I did hear that they do not have any turkeys which I thought was interesting.
After lunch we checked into hotel and showered/changed clothes since lunch was completely outside. I thought that the school opening was on Thursday, so I dressed in work clothes, instead of shorts. Our colleague from the office decided to wait till around 2pm to go do some sightseeing since it was so hot during the early afternoon. The hotel room was nice. It had a cool balcony.
Now started what I would consider the second best day of the trip. We first went to a palace which was amazing. Some of it had been restored, and some still stood like it did in the late 1800’s early 1900s.
The pictures shown here are from the outside of the palace. The pictures of the orange fish don’t speak to what we saw. I’m still kicking myself for not switching to video when taking these pictures. There was fish food that we could buy and toss into the water. The pictures show the fish going nuts trying to get at the food; so many, and so colorful. Next was a crazy experience I wasn’t expecting to see while in Viet Nam. From a distance a coworker pointed out a very large animal, an elephant. I thought very cool, but then after a short walk, we were within 10 feet of the beast. First one shows the elephant connected to what I thought was a not so thick chain. Then a guy got on it and started riding it around to get ready to give some kids a ride. 
I took a ton of pictures of the place. There is one of me by the cart that the king was pulled in. The coworker from the office told me to sit in it for a picture. I was in a half squat when the worker started to talk loudly in Vietnamese. I guess one has to dress up as the king in order to actually sit in it. After taking a glance at the outfit, I decided there was no chance that this guy was going to fit in it, so the picture standing will have to do. Other shows me in front of one of the king’s chairs, and the one on the right is of the ceiling in the same place. This was one of the buildings that had been restored. 
The area was beautiful. You were able to walk up say a prayer to Buddah if you pleased. We also saw young monks that lived their lives at this place. Very, very cool, and was a great place for some pictures. Every building had decoration on the roof, stair railings, etc. 
You can tell in the other pictures the sections that weren’t. After the palace we went to a super market (mainly to get into A/C), and then went to a small store so a coworker from Minneapolis could get a dress made for his wife. While another guy and I waited, the drivers (who were sales people for the company) invited us to sit down on preschool size chairs at what they call a ‘street cafeteria’. A lady will be cooking, and people would sit down for a bit, or come and grab some to go. I ate one, and called it good. One look at the picture and you'll know why.
From the palace we went to a temple that is still being used, but is also a tourist site. They say that this is the highest point in Viet Nam. Whenever they worship there is always incense burning. Outside of the temple was a river that had tourist boats; very colorful as you can see from pic. The head actually had incense lit, so smoke came out of its nose. 
We then went out for supper with the BU to a very nice Vietnamese restaurant. Within minutes the table was filled with multiple dishes; pork, beef, chicken, and a lot of seafood. 
A woman from the office asked me why I thought there was so much fish. I told her because Viet Nam has so much water around it. She laughed and told me it was because seafood is very expensive, and if your meal has a lot of it, it means that you have special guests. Pictures show some fancy art work with the food.
Friday turned out to be one of the most amazing days in my career, one that will be impossible to forget. Destination was in a very rural village outside of Hue. On the way we past a duck farm, fish farm, and many rice fields.
The reason for the trip was that Cargill has a volunteer/charity program called Cargill Cares. The program for Cargill Animal Nutrition (CAN) Vietnam opens schools in Vietnam villages. In the past 10+ years they have opened 45 children schools around Viet Nam. Two colleagues (one from Minneapolis, and one from Canada) and I were asked to participate in the opening of number 46. 
There are currently 9 other schools that are in construction, and will be opened by end of the year. Cargill doesn’t pay to run the schools, but pays for the construction of them. I heard that the government will pay for 20% of the cost to run the school, and the families need to come up with the rest if they want their children to get an education. This school had 3 classrooms, a bathroom, and a storage shed. One picture is of me with the town elders, one shows a statue of Ho Chi Minh that was up front. Other pictures are from the ceremony. I took a lot. All of the kids performed, and even the teachers. I don’t remember any of my teachers doing any type of dance routine. 
The opening was in a very small town, of a lot of poverty, outside of Hue. The way these locations are decided is that the employees of Cargill will write up a proposal that gets reviewed and approved. It was the hometown of a Cargill sales rep. The smile didn’t leave his face. You could tell he was very proud. They sat us in the front row, and it felt like there was 20 set of eyes on us the whole time. Again, very, very hot, so the pictures show it. I was able to go up to the stage to hand out gifts to the children. Some toys, and then M&Ms that somehow didn’t melt during program.
After the ceremony we went out for lunch in the small town. Food of course was amazing again, and a lot of it. The pictures will show how rural the area was. Rice fields everywhere, along with fish and duck farms. Also saw a bunch of water buffalo which I thought was pretty cool. These are used to help pull the farm equipment. Some of the pictures show what looks like a hay hut. These are used to grow produce such as mushrooms. One picture shows what looks like grain on a cement slab. We saw many houses, in what looked like a poverty area, have these huge concrete driveways. I found out that they lay their rice harvest out on these slabs so it dries out. They get both white and brown rice from this grain. 
After lunch we went back into town and did some shopping. This is where I finally bought a set of chop sticks with a stand after looking at a bunch of places. Who knows if they will actually get use at home, but still look cool. After shopping, we headed back to airport. It seemed we did a week worth of activities in just a day and a half.
After returning to Ho Chi Minh City we went out for a nice Vietnamese meal. It was Fred’s last night in Viet Nam, so we had to send him off. Saturday was first real tourist day in Ho Chi Minh City. I went to the War Remembrance museum. A coworker said she lasted less than 30 minutes before having to leave. I realized what she was talking about once I got there. What really got to me was all of the pictures of the effect/result of the poisons that were used in the war. My history isn’t the best, so I need to get back with a colleague; I went by myself the first time. I also felt very strange being an American walking through the place. There a lot of Caucasians, but mainly European, or Austrilian. From the museuam I went and did more shopping. It is nice that everything here is so cheap, as long as you stay away from the hotel.
History Lessons Learned
I’ve never considered myself a history buff. There’s a lot that I don’t know, and didn’t learn in college during all of the programming classes. As we’ve worked on this project I’ve noticed that the people on the team where using Viet Nam instead of Vietnam. I learned that the people here only use the spelling Viet Nam. It was the U.S. that combined into one word. The term Viet Cong was also created by the U.S. army during the war.
One more week left. Hope to be able to go out and get more pictures.
