Vietnam Journey - Day 3 - from Phan Thiet to Saigon (Sept 25, 2007)

Had a good sleep on the 2nd night and woke up at 10am when Denis was already out for swimming already. Joined Denis and Qing in the beach but I didn't swim. After that, we checked out, had some food and then boarded thew bus departing for Saigon.

Unlike the Saigon-Mui Nei bus ride - which was a loooong journey, this return journey looked like a pretty short one. The driver pressed his horn every other minute, meaning that I heard a few hundred times throughout the ride. I guess all passengers were annoyed. But this is normal 'cos as an Australian passenger said to me 'Vietnam is a fun place but when it comes to traffic, there is no rule'.

We boarded a taxi and sent Qing to her friend's home and then settled in a noddle shop nearby. Tried for the first time in this journey authentic Vietnamese beef noddles - Pho. We also ordered some more food and drinks + desert. Everything altogether cost us VND80000 - which is around HKD40!!! Yes HKD40!!! Very good food indeed!

After dinner, we took a taxi and randomly found a hotel for tonight. Bought some Durian and Mango and have just finished them off. Pretty tired now ... About time to go to bed in preparation for the last day of this journey.

Beijing Olympics 2008

During my stay in Beijing, I experienced the impact of traffic jam myself.

From Aug 17-20, Beijing Municipal Government conducted a trial-run of a measure to control the number of vehicles to half of the normal number. On the day when I arrived Beijing (which was Aug 19) as well as on Monday (Aug 20), I felt that the traffic in Beijing was pretty good 'cos I could hardly see any traffic jam in the streets. But then my colleagues told me not to be that happy right away 'cos that was a result of the trial-run. I should be able to witness the seriousness of traffic jam the next day. And yes! I experienced that myself when I was on the way to a meeting in a remote area outside of the downtown. I was stuck in the road for an hour without moving ahead for even 1 meter. Of course finally I (and my colleagues) didn't attend the meeting (actually a visit to a logistics centre of dangdang.com - the largest online shop in China) and went back to our office in city centre as soon as the driver found the way out as I needed to catch my flight back home. Traffic is one of the top priorities to be resolved before the Olympics next year.

Another issue to be resolved is the English language skills of the citizens in Beijing, and particularly taxi drivers. I casually talked to a taxi driver (actually to warm myself up to speak in Putonghua in the meeting I was going to attend) and asked about the English language skill issue. He said all of them are taking English classes to learn basic English. Of course we can't simply hope that these 1-year course will help them much ... but at least it helps.

There are really a lot to be done ... in preparation for the Olympics.