The song of this week

I had this song on repeat mode this week, so thought to share it with you:

Living in the happiest nation in Asia

I was reading some report and have stumbled upon this interesting chart:

Now you definitelly have a reason to visit Vietnam:) Hapiness guaranteed :)

Good genes

As you can see, there are some good genes in the family (he is my brother's son, not mine):Posted by a proud uncle and godfather :)

The CFA Challenge

Yesterday night I have successfully registered for my Level I CFA exam for 7th of June 2009. If you wonder what CFA is, well it is supposed to be the gold standard of professional credentials within the global investment community.

I guess this is one of the biggest educational challenges for me... but also excited about the fact that I am back to learning again. Why is a challenge? Check the pass rates for this June for the different level exams:

Level I Pass Rate: 35%
Level II Pass Rate: 46%
Level III Pass Rate: 53%

But i like the challenegs and I am looking forward to get my books to study :):):) It requires lots of discipline and sacrefice, but I am really hopeful that I will get it and I am looking forward to your support in doing so.

Planning my Christmas trip :):):):)

So happy that I bought my ticket back to Europe this week for Christmas/New Year :):):) I have been home last September and I really look forward to go home this winter, especially that I haven't been home for Christmas since 2004.

Here is my brief plan:

20th of December - Fly out from Saigon to Vienna

21st of December - Vienna

22nd of December onwards at home

2nd-3rd of January - Hungary/Budapest

3rd-4th of January - London

4th of January - Flying back to Saigon from London

I am also happy that this time I fly with Qatar Airways, should be cool with them... Still not Singapore Airlines... but hope that next year I will get back to flying with SQ again....

I plan to spend my new year's eve in Romania/Hungary so I if you have any cool plans for an awesome party, then please let me know:):):) The ideal would be to have all my friends in one place and throw a big party but that is hardly possible as all my friends are all over the country:(:(:(:(

Yah, one more thing, I booked ticket for one person... so no Vietnamese girl joining me, okies? No more teasing! :)

Simple things that make me happy

I am happy that I discovered a shop here in HCMC where they sell all kind of imported foods (introduced to me by a client from Singapore!!!). Now I can buy stuff that have no MSG in it and brands that I can't find in supermarkets. I just bought Hungarian salami, Gouda cheese from Netherlands, Hungarian champagne, French pate, etc :).

But the bonus for me is that I found my favourite choco drink: Nesquik :):):) I used to always bring to Singapore from Romania, but now no need for that anymore. I paid an incredible 11 USD for a pack of 450g....but now I am slurping my chco drink and I am happy :):):) Sometimes simple things make me happy and life enjoyable. Today that simple thing is Nesquik!!! What is yours?

I feel hunted

A lot of things work very differently here in Vietnam… One example is who asks who to get married with whom. I always thought that usually the guys ask the girls whether they want to get married with them or not. Here I am asked fairly frequently whether I want to marry her by the girl (or her friends). Of course this happens only to white guys. I feel hunted down….

One typical conversation I had yesterday with a girl in the elevator:

Girl: How are you?
Me: Fine thank you, and you?
Girl: I am ok too. How old are you?
Me: 28 … and you?
Girl: 24… so are you married? (asking with a very shy voice and looking down to the floor… I already know where this is leading as I have been in this conversations a couple of times… so I enjoy the moment)
Me: Not yet (she suddenly has a big smile and sparkling eyes, bright face)
Girl: And do you have girlfriend?
Me: Not really (even bigger smile on her face and already I feel that she is ready to jump on me)
Girl: Do you want to marry Vietnamese girl?
Me: Why not, if I find a nice Vietnamese girl like you (playing to the tune)
Girl: oh…. I can marry you if you want (Realizes that she is in trouble now as she exposed her thoughts and laughs, becomes shy again, looks down and she is relieved that the elevator door opens and she can run out)

I would have not written about it if it would not have had happen this conversation at least once a week…. I already know the flow of the discussion as it is the same each time. They are very direct in this matter and they have a flow of questions, doing market research professionally. :)

Another typical situation I get in is when one of my Vietnamese friends/colleagues invites me for coffee, drinks, dinner. Most likely then not, totally "unexpectedly and unannounced" one of the female friends/cousins/neighbors just happens to join, then somehow always gets seated near me (it is funny how they always make the arrangements in a way to ensure this).

And then after the meeting comes the evaluation part when I am asked by the friend/colleague whether I liked her or not, if I got her number, if I want to take her out. This questioning also comes with a sales pitch on how nice she is, what qualities she has, why she would be a good wife/girlfriend. Now it is easy if it is about a nice girl, but I am fairly embarrassed when I have to politely tell that she is ugly and there is no way I am going to go out with her.

With all these offers on hand, I still won’t get married for a while, don’t worry about it. Especially that I am super busy and getting even busier in the next couple of months…. but at least I can assure my mom that there is hope :):):) hahah :)

Superchallenged

Beware of what you wish as you might get it... says one of the Metallica songs (a bit more poetic is the expression that they have in the song).

I wanted challenge and I got it. The most extreme of it i guess.... I am superchallenged personally, professionally, physically, mentally, culturally, etc... Whatever area you name it... I am superchallenged in it. When I think that I am on top of the things, then comes another challenge... even more different, even more stretching.... Every day is a new lesson for life and it is so intense that I feel like I am living in one day as much as I lived in one year previously.... every hour spent here puts me in a situation which is new, which requests quick decisions on what to do, how to act, what to say, how to behave... it requires me to figure out what is behind every gesture, word, blink of an eye, smile, letter in an e-mail.... As one of my friend said... it's the feeling of cluelessness of a baby in a topless bar (not the best metaphor I guess but at least it makes you think how that feeling might be, which can be a challenge itself) ....

I go to sleep now, as tomorrow is another day when in spite of all the preparation I will be superchallenged again... it is the way of life here and if you want to change your life and challenge everything you were and you knew before, then you can join me. :) Things will never be the same again!!!

Evolution of technology in emerging markets

Sometimes countries like Vietnam can be a big surprise in terms of technology. Because when you do some infrastructure investments, you start basically from scratch as there is nothing built yet, so you can deploy the latest technologies. There is no much worry about replacement issues, compatibility between old and new, costs, etc. That's why sometimes technology in these countries can be more advanced then in western Europe, at least its usage can be wider. It is interesting to see that while certain technologies are so backward, others are so up-ro date. So if the country can change its infrastructure fast enough, it can gain better competitiveness then the west. Of course there is the human capital issue as well.

One example in this sense is our company office check-in/check-out system. We just moved to a new building as the company was extending too fast and there was no capacity in the old building. So we bought this building and there is no card system at all, but we check in and out with our fingerprints. Suddenly having a card around your neck is so old fashioned. Of course, being a financial institution, it is important to have secure facilities and to know exactly who is in the office, when and why, as there are lots of confidential information handled by people.

Now while it is very good for the company, it is very bad for people who like to sleep in the morning, as any delay from work is registered.... you really can't give your fingers to your colleague to check you in before 7.30..... as we start work at 7.30..... you can't skip work either... but it feels very high tech, and in a country like Vietnam, where there are so many challenges, it is refreshing to have high tech things around :):):):)

It's damn hard huh?

An article from "The Saigon Times Daily":

"National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong proposed bolstering legislative cooperation to contribute to furthering the relationship between Vietnam and Romania. He was speaking at his talks with President of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies Bogdan Olteanu in Budapest yesterday following a welcome ceremony given to him on his official visit to the European country."

I think the vietnamese media knows something... that some people from Romania would like to have Budapest as the capital instead of Bucharest:):):):) But I am sure this kind of articles are not really "furthering" the relationship, hahaha.

This one is just another story besides the ones where flight attendants announce the landing in Budapest instead of Bucharest (3 times on the same flight), or people actually landing in Budapest instead of Bucharest....

Good Morning Vietnam

This ship is taking me far away…
You might wonder what have happened to me that I did not write on my blog for such a long time… well…. I have moved to Vietnam…. And besides that I also changed my job and industry…so basically I kind of changed completely the way I have lived and what I have done… it is pretty bold change so to speak, scary and exciting in the same time…

Just after New Year’s Eve I have mentioned that I foresee a major change in my life and I was actively looking for it. And I think it is fairly true in this case that those things happen to you that you want to happen… Just like Jack Sparrow’s compass in the Pirates of the Caribbean…. It shows the direction where your heart wants to take you…

This ship is not DHL ship and not anchored in Singapore…
My time at DHL was definitely full of learnings. Even if there were ups and downs, just like working for any company, I can say that there are lots of learnings that I took away and I use now in my day-to-day job. And looking back now, there are lots of learnings from the downs as well, not just from the ups. In a very weird way, I felt nostalgic of leaving, even if it was my decision to leave. 3 years is a long time and you kind of know everybody, you have lots of friends, you know the system… it is somehow comfortable and there is a link that keep you tied. I am also loyal in my nature, so probably that’s why I felt a kind of sadness when I actually had to pack and leave the office. Of course in the same time I knew why I was leaving and I was excited to start my new adventure.

I felt quite bored with Singapore and I was waiting to leave the soonest possible. I did not feel anything, until Friday (left on Sunday morning), when I met one of the most important (non @ related) persons that made my Singapore stay special. Then I actually realized that I am leaving the country and I will be a tourist… and I will miss the people I have met there. Singapore became my home and after being there close to three years, definitely a part of me will remain always there. I can say that I miss quite a lot of things from there. Beside my friends I guess I miss the most the clean air, the east coast (and the coffee bean there) and the endless possibilities of doing sports).

Bottom line is that no matter where you stay for a longer period of time, you will always leave a piece of you there and you will always miss that place, however life goes on and new places wait to be discovered by you and those new places will conquer a piece of your heart as well. This is the essence of the nomad life, goes on in a circle until the whole world is your playground and you feel home everywhere.

Back to blue…
I have to say that I am very excited about my new job here in Vietnam. Since day one I started to work effectively and started to produce…I have joined the securities arm of Asia Commercial Bank as account manager and now we are in the process of becoming a full-fledged investment bank. My role is to reorganize and improve sales in the institutional clients arena and sell the full range of investment bank services of our organization.

I learned in three weeks more about finance and macroeconomics then in my whole four years of university… While in DHL I managed to have a good overview of the movement of goods around the globe, here I have a very good overview of the flows of money and how an emerging market economy is developing, coping with the pressure of globalization and how financial markets contribute to this development. It is fascinating to feel the pulse of the economy so close and understand all the small nuances of each decision, move of the market and the whole interaction between global and national markets…. Really fascinating… suddenly all the theory about these becomes so simple and so obvious when I see it in action… see it in reality…suddenly the articles from The Economist talk about things that I can relate to, suddenly economy books become understandable… Now a 100-page report about the macroeconomic review of Vietnam sounds exciting and with each day passing I can connect more dots of how elements of the economy influence each other. This steep learning curve and this discovery process is what I was looking for and learning every day something new makes me very happy… I missed this intellectual challenge….

It is also interesting to meet people who manage millions of dollars and can influence the stock market, the destiny of companies, it is exciting to meet CEO’s of different companies and discussing their development plans and financial results.

Vietnam and Saigon
V for Vietnam:

Until now I did not manage to see much of the city or the country. I worked from very early in the morning till very late, and after that I was looking for a house to live in. So not much time left. I was also busy in the weekends as the company was celebrating its 15th year anniversary and lots of sport and other activities have been organized. This weekend I have also been to an investment seminar, so not much time left to go out and explore.
Now I am in ACBS colours and playing in Vietnam, not in the ESPZEN League in Singapore for DHL. Back to Blue... to the @ colours :
So far people seem very nice and very eager to learn and do something with their lives. There is a lot of drive in the people and a big desire to succeed. But in the same time there is also a kind of relaxation and coolness as well. Some things happen with the speed of light and other things just take so much time. I guess this is the case with every development country more or less.

I guess I don’t have to emphasize too much that Vietnamese girls are extremely beautiful and sexy :) Not much of going out yet, but I just see in our company and in the companies I have meetings and I have to say that this place is much better then Singapore for the eyes (and not only), but of course there is a lot of Asian-ness here as well. The connoisseurs know what I mean...

The food is great in terms of taste and diversity. I have only two problems with the food. First of all the size of the portions is very small, I always have to order two main dishes. The other problem is that sometimes might not be prepared the most hygienically and this sometimes gives some trouble for my stomach… but besides that I love the tastes, the spices and the fact that it is fairly healthy with lots of vegetables. I love that you can find nice bread here and good bakery products, which is very rare in other Asian countries. Some good thing that the French left behind I guess is the influence in cuisine.

I almost forget one of the most important things: I bought a motorcycle :) I got myself a Yamaha Nouvo and in this hectic traffic of Saigon, it is a thrill each time I go for a ride. There is no other way to move around the city then on a motorbike. During the day I use the company car to go for the meetings, but it can take 3 times more with car then with motorbike. The downside of the motorbike is that you inhale lots of gases from the other bikes and that it can be fairly dangerous. IF you have ever played computer games, then riding a motorbike is like one of those games, where things are coming towards you from all directions and you have to avoid the. Just that there is no margin for error here…. It takes time to get a hang of it and to develop the peripheral vision needed for safe cruising. At the beginning it can be frustrating when cyclists take you over, but you need a couple of weeks of practice to be able to go faster then 20 km/hour :)

It looks like that this coming week I will move in my own apartment, and then I will be able to settle down more and explore the city more. I hope that I will also have some more time to write and blog and I can share all the exciting things that happen with me.

So far I feel good and happy that I am here. And of course, from next week onwards you are more then welcome to visit me, as I will have a nice house where I can host you :):):)
(My favourite song for this week: Muse - Starlight)

Two songs on repeat mode

There are two songs that are on repeat mode for me for the past two days, listening them again and again:

Paul van Dyk: Let Go




Linking Park: Shadow of the day

(the link is the original clip, the embedded one is just the music with some text)



The 2 songs are very different, in terms of style and feelings but I really like to listen to all kind of music as each type of song covers a paret of my complex soul. I like the lyrics a lot as well.... On youtube you can find couple of interesting remixes as well, so you can really enjoy different versions and you can't really get bored with them.

Special Report about Vietnam

The Economist made a special report in this week's issue about Vietnam. Very interesting and for me very exciting... these days almost everybody is talking about this country and wherewer I go and whatever i do I stumble upon some interesting thing about the country.

Enjoy:

http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11041638

Changing world :)

The world is changing and some things that were unimaginable couple of years ago are now a reality. It is amazing how things transform and how people adapt to it. My parents just bought a computer and connected to the internet through cable and they have also a webcam. It was an interesting feeling to receive the first e-mail from my father and being called by my mom on skype. Both of them have no computer knowledge and they never used one before.

They got excited when at Christmas time the whole family had a video conference through the internet as we could not gather in the same country. Because we all live in different countries, they decided that they want one and from now on they want to use this method to keep in touch with us. It is funny that they now consider phone and old school thing when couple of years ago we could hardly convince them to get a mobile phone.

I know how many argument we had with our father to convince him that agriculture is not the future and that having cows and pigs is not the way to go. And now the same man instead of doing that kind of stuff is surfing the net and keeping in touch with people through e-mail. I really admire my parents for being so open at the end of the day to these things. They were always liberal in thinking even though in the same time they were extremely traditional. I am like that as well, extremely liberal in some matters and extremely old school boy in others.

Now we can conclude that if THEY have internet in a hidden city in the middle of Romania, then internet is now a commodity and a must have for everybody. It is just like food and clothing!!!

Jakarta – a city of nice people

I got an invitation to visit Jakarta (JKT), so I booked a ticket for the Chinese New Year holidays and was looking forward to explore one of the most controversial cities of South East Asia (SEA). And I labelled it controversial because the people who I talked with about Jakarta either said that it is the worst city, either said that it is the best place to be in SEA.

After spending there 4 days or so I must say that I love the city and I do it so because of its people. I guess the fact that I had one of my poshest holidays ever also helped to come back with a good impression.

About the posh part: I stayed in the Central Business District in a 5 star hotel, I had a car at my disposal with a driver, hanged around in the coolest clubs, restaurants, spas and bars, and met some VIP category people from JKT while I was playing golf on the same course with the president of the country. Thanks for my lovely hosts for that :)

It was raining quite a lot while I was there so I did not do much of sightseeing, however I interacted with lots of local people and also managed to get a bit of insight of how rich people live in that city and also what makes that city tick. If you have a bit of money in JKT then you are a king and you can have a lifestyle that you can see only in the movies. I must admit I had a hard time to adjust to it though. For example the driver was always jumping out the car in order to open the door. At the beginning I always opened the door myself, however he perceived this as a failure for him for not being too quick to open the door for me, so next time he always tried faster to jump out of the car and open the door before me. Tried to communicate with him, but he was not the best English speaker, so he did not understand that no need for him to open the door and that I can do that myself. After a while I just gave up and let him to open the door and the smile returned to his face when he managed to do so and I did not open the door myself. Very funny experience.

Wherever I went, it was always the same thing, huge smile on everybody’s face and everybody was doing his 120% just to serve you. I guess Singaporeans should learn how to serve people and manage customers. Of course there are flaws in their processes of serving the customers, but the attitude and the willingness of serving you it is just amazing. I have never met such nice people in SEA as in Jakarta in terms of how they treat you as a customer, as a tourist, as a friend, as a person. Haven’t seen so many smiling faces in a long time and that was very refreshing. It felt somehow like being on a Singapore Airlines flight for four days. And this is somehow in so much of a contradiction with the bombings and terrorism and extremism in the country...

People in Jakarta are very friendly and very curious to learn from foreigners. I went to play golf with couple of guys I did not know and we became such good friends. I really felt that these people are very close to me and they were so open to share their lives, their thoughts and they gave so many insights about living in Jakarta, how Indonesia functions, how the economy is, how the society is. They also were concerned to make sure that I go all the right places and try all the good things and they were giving me lots of advises. Great people and very humble in their way!!!

Jakarta is not really a pedestrian friendly city; there are no pavements and boulevards to walk. You have to go with car/bike to everywhere. Public transport is quite bad and therefore if you are a backpacker tourist, then you will have a hard time to visit JKT and have a good time by doing so. The traffic is bad because everybody is driving an SUV, however I still think is not worse then Bangkok, Manila or Bucharest for that matter. Actually the city in a way is similar to Bucharest in a sense that all the good places are all over the town and if you want to explore the real stuff, then you need a local to show you around and take you to all the cool places. Otherwise you won’t get a real picture of the city, you don’t get a real feeling of how it is to live there and be there.

With 14 million of people or more in the city, you see all that it can be seen in terms of living standards. Of course there is poverty and dirt and criminality and all the consequences of being in a developing country with 200 million people. But I also admire the fact that people are still happy and smiling and helpful and try to make a decent living. It is hard, corruption is high, you have to “tip” for everything, most of the things are held by some oligarchs who control everything and are damn rich. There is lots of money in that city and you can see it.

Somehow all the street musicians standing at street corners and at traffic lights playing for couple of bucks add a good feeling to the town. You can see street vendors mixed with these musicians and you just feel good roaming around the city. If you are stuck in a heavy traffic jam, then you just listen to the music of these guys playing for you. In some countries these guys clean windshields, sell newspaper. In JKT they play music for you:)

Speaking of traffic, they introduced a regulation that makes the presence of at least 3 passengers compulsory on certain roads in peak hours. So what is really happening? You have guys called jockeys standing at the entry of these streets and at the gates of the office buildings and you can pick them up for that part of the road for 1 dollar or so. They travel with you for money, so you can use that road. Congestion problem of course has not been sold, but some people earn couple of bucks. This example shows how this country works I guess. There is always a way around to beat the law which is somehow good for everybody to on the very short run.

I have been toured around the clubs and bars as well and I have to say that JKT has a fantastic nightlife!!! These places are must tries: Red Square, X2, Nu China, Dragonfly, Tabac, Eastern Promise and a couple of other bars I can’t remember in Kemang area. The parties are wild, girls are absolutely gorgeous and friendly, drinks are cheap and the atmosphere is phenomenal. It worth going down there just for some good parties.

I also managed to havea peak into how people from indonesia treat their women with double standards, even educated and important people (or they do it even more?). I think it is quite hard for being a housewife there and being a women. I guess it is coming from the still very strong religious influence, but don't want to offend anybody with this topic. It made be a bit sad, but it explains a lot in how the society functions.

Food is also great in JKT. A bit too much oil used there as well, but otherwise absolutely delicious. I have been also to couple of malls down there (very posh holiday indeed, hahaha) and they are much better then the ones in Singapore. They are bigger and less crowded, so you can actually walk around and buy stuff without stressing out yourself. But I still did not buy anything, hahahaha

Yah, due to the rain I did not do much of sight seeing and I did not have a camera either so I have no pictures to share. But then again, this can be an excuse to go down again and enjoy the hospitality of the nicest people. I am very happy with this trip and who knows, I might end up living there once.