5/16: Shipping off to Cat Lai

Today was a very long, hot day. We started with an early start and got on the bus to head to Cat Lai Terminal. None of us were assigned this site visit so we didn’t research it ahead of time. This meant we didn’t know exactly what to expect. The Cat Lai Terminal is a shipping port. They receive chipping containers from either a boat or a truck and transfer it to another boat or truck. It was definitely cool to see the containers being moved around because who knows what products could be inside, I’m sure I have used or consumed items that have been through Cat Lai.

We learned a lot about how customs work at Cat Lai. Every shipping container that comes into Cat Lai has to go through customs. Each container is marked beforehand as blue, yellow, or red. If a container is blue than is goes through customs without needing documentation. I would imagine this would be containers like ones coming from VSIP that have already gone through customs. If a container is marked yellow than it needs all the proper documentation. We saw people in the lobby waiting with their documents for customs. We also learned that big companies like Coke will hire workers specifically just to go through customs. Containers can also get marked red. This means they need to have all of their documents and also be inspected, this is first done with an x-ray machine. If they see something that doesn’t look like what you declared is inside than they open up the container and search the inside. Sometimes they only search 5 or 10% of the container but in extreme circumstances they will search 100%.

To keep track of all of the freight coming into Cat Lai, they use a software program. They enter in a container number with what’s inside as well as a truck number. Each container is also given what she referred to as an “address” and it’s a bay, row, tier, etc. This helps to quickly find crates when someone comes to pick them up. We got to see the control room of Cat Lai which was interesting because we could see them using these addresses and locating containers and calling people. It was really cool we were allowed the option to see that.

Cat Lai is in a prime position in Vietnam. It is close to Ho Chi Minh and also allows access by sea to many different countries. Cat Lai is the largest port in Vietnam. An interesting thing she mentioned was that they used to import more than they export but now they export more. This is significant to Vietnams development and their decreased reliance on other countries.

After Cat Lai and after lunch we visited the Reunification Palace. The palace seems to represent a place of peace for Vietnam and a promise to each side of the country that they are unified as one. During the war it was the home of the president of South Vietnam so it was most likely a strong landmark for them about them standing strong. When the tank crashed through the gates the South Vietnamese knew the war was over.

Overall, while the palace was very hot, it was beautiful and the tour was interesting.