We finally got to visit the company that Hiwot, Lili, Claire, and I are researching for this trip: The Cat Lai Terminal. I was very impressed with the terminal, considering this is just one of many of them. When we first walked into the room to listen to the company’s presentation, there was a huge layout of the Cat Lai Terminal on the table which was interesting to see how the layout of the terminal can be outlined in just blocks.

This terminal uses containers to store the imports/exports. It was very fascinating to hear about all the companies that receive imports/exports using this terminal. The tour was also so insane. The terminal is HUGE and there are so many areas that do different things. I thought it was cool that there is a checking area that alerts the terminal if a container needs to be looked through manually. I definitely wish we were able to see more areas of the terminal because it was so big. I still have so many questions for the company as well. The biggest countries that Vietnam works with for receiving/delivering the imports/exports is China and the US. I’m curious to know how Vietnam manages to maintain these relationships with these countries in order to do business with them.

To conclude the afternoon, we went to the Banh Thanh market which was defiantly an experience. I got some souvenirs for my family/friends which was very good because I was needing to do some shopping. However, the market was quite overwhelming. I felt like I couldn’t touch anything without being asked if I wanted it. It was also kind of fun bargaining and seeing how low I would be able to buy something for. This experience is nothing like shopping in the US. Usually in the US, I will get asked once if I need help finding anything and then I go my own way. It was nearly impossible to shop in peace in this market. However, this one shop in the market that Lili brought me to was completely different than the other shops. The women running it was so sweet and did not pressure me into buying anything at all, which actually made me really want to give her business. She was genuinely the sweetest lady ever and I am very thankful I was able to support her.