Eye of Modok

I finally got some of the wedding pictures back from my trip to Vietnam. My oldest friend (in duration, not age!) Chris Wold asked me to participate in his wedding to a Vietnamese woman named Tu Anh. His family were all tied up and couldn’t come so I represented him in front of over 350 guests. It was a great experience! This was my first trip to Vietnam and I’ve fallen in love with the country.

Before the wedding in Ho Chi Min (Saigon) I spent a few days just south of the notorious “China Beach” in the ancient village of Hoi An. While the beach was nowhere near as nice as the ones in Thailand, the city itself was a pleasure to explore and I left feeling I’d gotten a taste of the traditional ways.

Vietnamese weddings are quite different from any I’ve yet encountered. The wedding takes place at the home of the bride. Those of us representing the groom arrived bearing gifts.

We’re recieved by the bride’s entourage wearing beautiful ao dai (pronounced “ao yai”) and big smiles.

The wedding takes place inside the house in front of the family altar. First Chris prayed to her family’s shrine. Then I read a letter to the family from Chris’s mom expressing her regrets that she was unable to attend and giving her blessing to the wedding. Chris then greeted the elders of her family and offered them water from a small pot which I poured into the cup for each of them. Once the elders accepted him Tu Anh came down. They prayed together at the family shrine.

Then they exchanged rings.

They’re not actually officially married until the bride’s mother puts an earing in her ear.

There was a huge celebration later with over 350 guests.

Wow! What an experience. They really made me feel welcome. In a sense, they’ve accepted me into their family along with Chris. Now that I have a base in Vietnam, I have a feeling I’m going to be getting to know this country much better. My business aims of consulting in energy management programs and renewable energy technologies will suit Vietnam as well as China. In fact, the place I’d like to build my research center is in Yunan, China, making it even driving distance from Ho Chi Min City, or Saigon as most of the people I met seem to call it. I’m delighted with the prospects. Maybe an eco-village in Vietnam?

[tags] vietnam, vietnamese, wedding, vietnamese wedding [/tags]

One of the coolest places I’ve ever been is Capadocia in Anatolia, Turkey. The rock formations are made up of mostly sandstone and lend themselves readily to carving. The people there just started digging and came up with some amazing homes. One of the most impressive features I encountered was a unique spiral staircase that you climbed using all four limbs. It was basically like a DNA double-helix going up the wall of vertical tunnel. You just put your hands and feet in the right spot and started going round and you ended up on the next level. You could do it with your eyes closed, or as was my case, in pitch black darkness. A little alarming to begin with but quite safe when you actually used it. Ingenious!

They were surrounded by the cutest little vinyards, orchards and fields. I rarely ever saw anyone tending them. I was traveling in early autumn and couldn’t help but avail myself of some freshly sun-dried raisins off the vine. I also discovered an odd bush that had some strange looking spine covered fruits. When I used a rock to crack one open, I was surprised to discover what looked like a raw almond inside. I popped it in my mouth and it tasted like Amaretto! So sweet! Hiking that day was absolutely the most enjoyable ever.

This is my last post for 2005. I hope the New Year brings you all you desire!

Peace,

+ Modok +

I just got back from a short trip down to central China, Hubei Province. Took a 20 hour train ride down to Shiyan, home of Dongfeng Motor Corporation, the second largest auto manufacturer and unique in the fact that it is located in such a remote location. All of the other car manufacturers are located on the coast, where it logistically makes sense. Mao Zi Deng made sure that Dongfeng was secure in the mountains and all of the separate parts factories were isolated from each other for a reason - to prevent a catastrophe if the Russians decided to fly planes down and bomb their assembly line. Now, most manufacturing has been moved up to Wuhan, which is still fortunate for Hubei as I didn’t see much else that showed much potential for revenue generation.

My partner, Ernie, and I gave a presentation and availed ourselves of the opportunity to investigate the potential for a nice juicy contract. Our presentation was very well received and they’d at least like us to keep coming back and giving them presentations. Not exactly the system we’d like to get in place but a positive step forward. So, the stage set, we experienced “business trip, Chinese style.”

Dongfeng is a large, state-owned enterprise and the first thing we noticed was that the hotel we stayed in was owned by Dongfeng. The only restaurant in which our host allowed us to dine was also owned by Dongfeng. The reason for this became apparent once we realized that all he had to do was sign the dotted line and all would be taken care by some dutiful account clerk at Dongfeng. This seems like a great arrangement until faced with frustrating responses to what appear to be simple requests. For example, we were told to expect 80 participants for our presentation and prepared 20 extra copies of all handouts, just to be on the safe side. Once we arrived, we were told that there could be as many as 120 attendees. Fine, as long as we can get extra copies. Unsure how to interpret the pained grimmace on our host’s face, we pressed until he revealed that copies would be very expensive as they would have to go through the official Dongfeng printer, who charged about 20 times per copy what we paid in Beijing. Maybe not as bad as the $10,000 hammers purchased from US Defense contractors but a similar racket, it appears.

No Chinese business trip is complete without the obligatory dinner with expensive fresh seafood flown in from the coast and endless rounds of “ganbei” where you must drain the contents of your glass. The meal was great but if I’d had my choice I could have thought of other ways I’d have liked to have spent the money.

After dinner it was on KTV! There are many forms of karaoke in China, from innocent KTV booths to outright brothels. It was with relief that we found ourselves at the former. Our ears were put to the test as the top manager belted out rousing renditions of communist favorites, played to an emotion-laden backdrop of proud soldiers, citizens and tanks. He tackled a few more modern selections with equal fervor until at last we escaped, eardrums still relatively intact. Fortunately, Ernie had an Ace up his sleeve with a Chinese pop song he could belt out and we were enthusiastically accepted into the Dongfeng family of partners.