day 10

Wednesday, May 16th

(Sorry for the delay in posts - I kept falling asleep in my clothes while trying to blog for the last few days of the trip!)

Today we did not have any classes :( Instead we had three company visits! First, we visited Saigon Newport Company, which is the state owned port authority for Ho Chi Minh City. They are managed by the Vietnamese Navy, so I was surprised that we were allowed to see the control room! With shipping containers (almost) as far as the eye could see, it was impressive that they kept track of where each was in order to move on to its next location and run the Cat Lai port efficiently. After that, we had cà phê sữa đá (iced coffee with milk) and lunch at UEF, and relaxed on the couches in the canteen for a few hours.

Following our break, we went to Quang Trung Software City. It is very similar to VSIP, which we visited on day 3. However, QTSC is owned by the government. Because the government wants to support software and information technology, they offer tax incentives to companies which choose to locate themselves within the software park. Additionally, QTSC has on-site housing, training facilites, restaurants, and more. Seeing all these industrial parks and planned out development areas in Vietnam almost makes you wonder why we don't really see that in the United States (or at least, if we do have it, I'm not aware of it), but I guess it's because the US is already very developed, and most land is already in use, whereas in Vietnam development is occurring rapidly, and these things speed and ease the process.

Within QTSC, we visited TMA Solutions. TMA is an outsourcing company which develops software for other companies around the globe - and the largest software outsourcer in Vietnam. We were allowed to tour a few rooms where we could see employees working on developing mobile solutions, and were then given a presentation on the company. One of the things that has started to concern me is that so much software development seems to be happening overseas now - and the employees are definitely not making the same pay an American would get in the United States. Since my intended major is Computer Engineering, I worry that by the time I get into the job market, there will be low demand for software developers within the United States.

Tonight, we started with dessert! We went to a street vendor to get ice cream, which was vanilla with peanuts and fruit. I wouldn't have ever thought to put peanuts in ice cream, but it was really good, and I tried to make sure I had a peanut in every bite. Another interesting thing is that when we say "street vendor" here, it doesn't necessarily mean a truck or cart on the roadside. In many cases, there are open storefronts with tables in them (the ones tonight were tiny) and you sit down and order, and the food is brought to you. It definitely was not what I would have expected. After our delicious ice cream, we went to Kichi Kichi Hot Pot for dinner. This is a Japanese buffet restaurant, where there is a sushi bar, and a moving conveyer belt of food items to cook in your individual pot of soup. The broth in my soup was extremely spicy, and apparently it was only the medium spice! Nonetheless, it was fun to pick out the food and cook it myself :)