Today was day 1 in Ho Chi Minh City. I was shocked by the welcome reception we received when we arrived to the University of Economics and Finance. They started off by throwing a flower necklace over us and then performed karate stunts. We then spent time at an opening ceremony where university executives and government officials joined us. What caught my eye the most was the number of cameras. There were no fewer than 6 cameramen, and they accidentally stole most of the attention moving around trying to get the best shot/angle. Along with this, every person with an official position was given a full introduction, and their full titles were listed out multiple times. It seemed a bit unnecessary and theatrical, but I assume this is a culture where titles and being given proper attention for your position are highly valued. I also realized how rare the handshake was in Vietnam. When introducing myself and offering a handshake to a few of the Vietnamese students, the female students would grab and rub my hand, and the male students would only shake my fingers rather than my whole hand. A handshake is essential to conducting business, so this is something I expect to get corrected over time as more and more foreigners and foreign companies move to Vietnam. I also found it very interesting to see that every student has an adopted English name that they prefer to use over their given birth name. The students insist that you use their English name rather than their real one, and I found it odd that they are willing to change their identity to “fit in” better with the Western business arena. On the flip side, I was very shocked and impressed that every restaurant meal is at least 2 courses and served family-style at the table. The food is incredible and can be the itinerary for a trip itself. I am a bit disappointed that I don’t know the names of any of the dishes we ate because they would only tell us the rough English translation of the dish’s name, rather than the actual dish name in Vietnamese. Despite great national pride, I see a disconnect in their desires to bottle up anything related to their nation’s language when interacting with us tourists.

Collectively, as a group, we all agreed it was amazing that the Vietnamese people have such tremendous pride in their nation. There are photos of Ho Chi Minh on every corner of the city, along with the Vietnamese flag and the communist party flag down every street. Additionally, during every photo opportunity, they made us stop and say “I love Vietnam” and “I love UEF.” Fun stuff and really gave us a sense of their national pride.

During our city tour, I noticed that in the posher sections of downtown Saigon, all the businesses had changed. There were no longer any local or Vietnamese-named shops/restaurants, but rather European ones. All the designer clothing stores and restaurants were European-based. The city tends to market these higher-end areas for tourists and any foreign investor, not the everyday Vietnamese population.

At dinner, we were again presented with a 2-course meal, but this time we had some UEF students seated with us to teach us how to properly consume the food. It was fun, especially after a group of us decided to eat some of the peppers as a dare. Safe to say I have learned my lesson and will not be doing that again! The UEF students made sure we were alright and informed us on how the food was prepared, and also told us places to check out, like the Bui Vien Walking Street in District 1, where many tourists and locals go to have fun. I was very surprised that they have such a unique way of preparing their food. For example, fish sauce is simply the juices left behind from a rotting fish that gets left in the sun for anywhere between 2 and 4 weeks. Tasty. And the beef we were served at dinner had a fake bone going through it that was actually something similar to our green onion that gets inserted in the meat to enhance its smell.

All in all, today’s biggest lesson that I learned was that the Vietnamese are very comfortable and willing to adapt their image to appeal to money-spending foreign tourists and businesses. I think it is incredibly smart to be able to realize that positioning yourself more familiarly to what foreigners are already comfortable with will bring in more foreign investment and overall boost the economy. They are utilizing their tourism industry as a way to educate and convince foreigners to want to invest in what Vietnam has to offer… and it works. I can 100% see the appeal of Vietnam and am extremely excited to see what else Ho Chi Minh City has to offer.