HOT HANOI

Hello everyone,

I've been looking forward to writing this as I do like it. I really only discovered that I enjoy writing when I started doing Financial Due Diligence in my mid 30's. I like the journey; the rhythm  and pace of the words, and the choices that you have at every sentence.I also like the fact that sometimes everything flows really well which makes you feel good, and other times it's a struggle. Just like golf or tennis or any pastime that involves learned skills I guess.

So it's really warming up here , and will stay hot 'till the end of August I'm told. This last week the minimum has been about 33 degrees, and on a couple of days it was 40 . But its the humidity that gets you (and we are advised that this will get worse). I've had a linen suit made, but really wish I could wear shorts to work.

Back to the transport here. The cost of cars is staggering. I read an article examining this and it used a Hyundai Santa Fe as an example. In the US it costs about 25k USD. Here it's about 70k USD and the difference is all tax (lots of different taxes actually). I know we are living in a fairly affluent part of Hanoi , but there are so many really expensive cars around.. I'm talking Bentleys, Rolls, Audi Q7, big Mercs etc. etc. And they all have blacked out windows. The model with a higher market penetration here than in the UK  is the Porsche Cayenne, which personally I just can't fathom as aesthetically it has no charm at all (in my humble accountant's view).

So to a contradiction. On a day to day level we have found the standard of personal honesty and integrity really high. I have overpaid by accident several times (so many noughts on the notes is really confusing), and the money has just been given straight back. But on a formal level, the amount of 'facilitation' payments that have to be made  beggars belief. And it's quite normal. At a workshop I went to there was a powerpoint slide of all the Ports in Vietnam, with columns for the average number of days to get goods in and out of the port. And the final column was the percentage of companies using those ports who respond in the affirmative that they make facilitation payments to expedite the processing of consignments. And guess what? The lower the number of companies who will make payments, the higher the number of days to process the goods. And getting my work permit was an education which I will keep to myself.

It's a society at 2 economic levels; the western and the local. Here's a small example. 3 of the audit managers took Karen and I out the other night. We went to an Australian bar (as I had bet them that they couldn't drink a pint of Guinness......I know that sounds stupid but it was good idea at the time), and then they took us to a local bar/cafe. In the Australian bar one beer cost the same as 5 beers in the local bar. And if you made me do a blind tasting of Heineken against Hanoi Beer, it would be a matter of luck if I knew which was which.. So I'm happy to stick with the local beer every day of the week.

Finally to a food story. In our first week here we were in a supermarket and bought a packet of pork spring rolls. We were slightly disturbed when we got the shopping home and saw that one of the ingredients was 'Cats Ears'. Well we thought , 'when in Rome etc etc', cooked them and they were great. We didn't buy them again though. Anyway we have just learned that Cats Ears are in fact mushrooms, which look just like.......Cats Ears.

So to the photos;

1) We are thinking of getting our house remodelled like this one just over the road............

2 )This is our bamboo sofa being delivered.....DFS could save on petrol costs if they used this method......

3) Friday night in the local bar.....the yellow stuff is deep fried sweetcorn.....delicious

Cheers everyone