Oct 30

Ho Chi Mihn City, VIETNAM

Woke up around 9 am to watch the bat make its way up the river to the city. It was low tide so it was taking us longer to get to port because it was so shallow. Arrived at port at 12pm and went to the diplomatic briefing just to be called out to leave for my 1 pm FDP to the MIKE plant for Kaplan’s class. Drove an hour out to the plant. Got an impressive power point presentation by someone from NIKE about the company and its international operation as a whole. Shirley talked about where Nike’s plants were located and the relations with the community and what products NIKE is known for and produces. Next we had the Taiwanese manager of the factory and talked to us about what kinds of things the factory does specifically. Everything was very informative and it was hard to ask questions when they were done. Next we got a tour around the factory. My group was toured around the running building. Each different section of what NIKE produces is in a different building. I have never seen so many people concentrated in one space before. All throughout the buildings were all the different stations/parts of making a shoe. Everyone was working at a different job and it was a race to make the quota for the day. It was crazy. Loud noises, people rushing everywhere. I got to see the entire process of making one shoe. I had no idea a shoe could be so complicated. The factory isn’t a distributor so we couldn’t buy any shoes but so glad I got to see it. I wont be complaining about how expensive a shoe can be, a lot of work goes into them .Got back to the boat, waited for Sara to get back from the Chu Chi Tunnels. She got back and was so dirty from crawling around the underground tunnels. She showed me pictures of all the contraptions of the system. The wholes were so tiny I don’t know how she fit in (she’s an athletic girl built skinny but even these holes looked to small for her). There were pictures of the tunnels and the secret holes that the Vietnamese hid in and ambushed the US soldiers. There were also secret drop ins that had huge spikes sticking up. I can only imagine the mayhem and tragic deaths in the area. We both got ready and went out to the night market. Grabbed some street food, which was DELICIOUS and then browsed the market getting ideas of what to buy. Tons of fake bags, sunglasses, shoes and so much more. I was holding off to save money for the last day but did buy a Louis Vouton duffle bag to pack up for the weekend. Headed in early because was leaving at 5 am for Hanoi.