Vietnam Trip Day 2

On Day 2 we took a 2-hour drive to Hoa Lu which was Vietnam's first capital. Since everything was still new for us, it was so interesting to drive through the rural areas and see the people and the homes.  There were rice fields everywhere.

One thing we kept seeing along the road were these little cemeteries - just a few headstones grouped together here and there.  They were family burial grounds.  Our guide told us about the interesting tradition for the funeral and burial of the deceased.  One thing you should know is that the Vietnamese (80% Buddhist - and this may be a Buddhist tradition) worship their ancestors.  When someone dies, the family keeps the body at their home for a day and a night while friends and relatives come to pay their respects.  The family members wear white robes and headbands.  The deceased family member is then buried in a coffin.  After 3 years the family member is dug up.  Prior to the digging up, a fortune teller is consulted who tells them exactly when to dig the family member up, based on the birth date of the deceased.  The family has about an hour to wash and dry the bones and put them in a ceramic urn and rebury them.  Three or four people usually help the son with this process.  If there is not a son, then the family member is not dug up.  A ceremony then takes place in the family home, where multiple generations live together.  Our guide told us that he did that with his dad.  Very interesting.

The scenery around Hoa Lu was really beautiful but the day was so overcast and it was rainy.  We would have had some beautiful pictures had it been more clear.  In this first photo taken at Hoa Lu, you can see fishing nets in the middle of this little lake.

We visited the temples dedicated to Emperor Dinh Tien Hoang of the Dinh Dynasty (968-80) and Emperor Le Dai Hanh of the Le Dynasty (980 - 1009).  Two separate temples.

At the entrance there are usually two posts with one of their traditional symbols, the unicorn, on top.

In every temple there are one or more Buddhist statues where they worship and make sacrifices.  In the one below, you can see fruit (a very typical sacrifice) and if you look closely in the bottom left corner, you can see money.  It's not actually real money.  They buy this fake money to sacrifice and then it is burned.  Several times, while walking down the street, we saw people burning something in their yard.  Our guide told us it was the fake money that they were burning as a sacrifice.

Here is a copy of the traditional shoes that these emperors wore.  We saw actual photos of some of the more modern emperors in their traditional dress wearing shoes like these:

At the same location, there was the ancient Hoa Lu Citadel (Palace) which was mostly destroyed.  At one time it covered 3 square kilometers (or 1.89 miles).  Huge.  This was all that was left....we looked down into this deep hole (excavation area) to see basically just a few stones remaining.  There were some original dishes and bowls in a glass case around the big excavation area.

After viewing the temples we went to Tam Coc Town, had lunch, and then had a boat ride in this waterway surrounded by large limestone karsts that jutted out from green rice fields.  The boats were called sampans, but they were basically rowboats.  Here we are at the starting point waiting to board our sampan.

We could see these little statues along the way:

Really pretty and so calm and quiet even though there were a number of boats on the water.

We went into about 3 of these caves.  It was really dark.

We would see a few homes along the waterway.  We could also see people working in the rice fields.  We even saw some mountain goats on top of some of the karsts.

Of course, at the end of the waterway when we turned around, there were the ladies in boats selling souvenirs.

 

Here we are in the boat.  I didn't get a good photo of us.

After the sampan ride, we went to a local market.  So interesting.  The red fruit in this photo is called Dragon Fruit.  We saw it everywhere.  The inside fruit that you eat is white with black dots.  Very interesting texture.

Meat is just laid out there on tables:

And they really do eat dog:

Our guide told us that the market is really busy in the morning and the afternoon.  People go to their gardens and fields very early, pick their produce and then bring it to the market.

Or they catch what they sell.  I think these eels were still alive:

After the market, we had about a 2 hour drive back to our hotel in Hanoi.  Again, a really nice day.

Love to you all!
Karen

Vietnam Trip Day 1

We had a wonderful time on our first trip to Vietnam.  I posted a lot of pictures on Facebook so I'll try to include a few different ones here.  Technically our first day was a travel day and since we got to the hotel so late and didn't have time to do anything but go to sleep, I won't count that day.  We arranged our trip with a company called Exotissimo.  They specialize in trips in Asia.  I highly recommend them as everything from the planning stage to the end of the trip was fantastic; very well organized and executed.  If you want to see a lot in a short amount of time, this is the way to go.  We had a driver and a tour guide the entire time (except when we were on internal flights).  We started in the north of Vietnam in Hanoi and worked our way south.  Our guide and driver met us at the airport each time and transported us to our hotel.

Vietnam is a communist country.  After a few days, we found out that Facebook was blocked in Vietnam.  Our guide told us that it had been blocked for about a month or so.  Interesting with all the turmoil and unrest going on in countries around the world. They must be worried about something....

We woke up pretty early our first morning in Hanoi as Sakhalin is 4 hours ahead of Vietnam.  We walked around our hotel a bit and this the first photo I took.  It was so interesting to see the very tall skinny buildings side by side and the people on the street.

Our driver and guide picked us up and the first thing we did was to see the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, who is the father of modern Vietnam.  We actually saw his body in this heavily guarded mausoleum.  We were told that the school children out front were there as a reward for good performance in school.

 

Next, in this same complex, we saw the presidential palace.  I can't remember if Ho Chi Minh lived here or not, but if he did, it was not for very long.

  

Ho Chi Minh lived the longest (as president) in his next residence.  It is in the same area as the mausoleum and the palace. 

Finally, he moved to an even smaller home near his previous one.  It was very simple with just a few rooms and no bathroom.  He had to go to the above home to use the facilities.  You can see this final home in the background of this picture of Max and our first (and favorite) guide:

You can also see it in the background across the pond of this photo of Max and I:

 

It was cool and a little rainy this day, as is typical in the north.  You know who wore shorts the entire time.

Next up was the One Pillar Pagoda.  This is a very famous Buddhist temple where people go to pray.  It is standing on just one pillar in the middle of this pond.  Again, it is all in this same area.  This is a little different view from the Facebook photo:

The people going up these very steep steps see what's in the photo below.  You really can't go in:

Next up was the Temple of Literature.  This was Vietnam's first university and was built in 1070.  The entrance and gardens were very pretty.  

 

Vietnam has four very important symbols.  The dragon which symbolizes power and nobility, the unicorn (different than what we think of a unicorn) which symbolizes intelligence and goodness, the tortoise which symbolizes longevity and perfection and the phoenix which symbolizes peace.  You see these symbols everywhere including on top of the entrance to the Temple of Literature.

In the Temple of Literature, the names of the scholars who passed their exams were written (or carved) on the tablets with the base of the tortoise.  There are many of these tortoise tablets in the temple.

Next, we saw these ladies playing traditional Vietnamese music on instruments I had never seen or heard before.  It was so interesting. 

After that it was finally time for lunch.  We had one of our best lunches at this little local place.  It was so cheap..only about $1.00 each.

 

After lunch we went to the War Museum.  This museum wasn't specific to the Vietnam war, but to all of the wars that Vietnam has been involved in.  This country has been involved in a lot of wars, especially with China who occupied Vietnam for a while along with the French who occupied Vietnam for a while.  You see the Chinese influence with the Buddhist religion and the French influence in a lot of the architecture.

We climbed to the top of this tower which was just some old fortress in the city, but part of the War Museum.

In the picture below you can see in the courtyard a lot of vehicles, planes and helicoptors from mainly the Vietnam War.  Interesting that in Vietnam they call it the American War.  At the top of the picture you can see a display of a lot of bombs used in the war.  Beside the bombs is compilation of planes that had crashed.  Not all from the Vietnam war, but a lot.  Around the courtyard are buildings with exhibits from other wars.  There are more airplanes in another section.  

What we didn't know at the time that we took the below picture, was that Max was standing in front of the actual tank that crashed into the Presidential Palace gates in South Vietnam on the final day of the war in 1975.  I'll point it out when we get to the south in a few days (or posts) from now.

Our next event of the day was a Water Puppet Show which is specific to Northern Vietnam.  Very interesting.  The puppets are wooden and have long sticks attached to their backs along with strings that control their arms, mouths, etc.  The people operating them are behind the screen.  Traditional music was played by the band.  Very interesting and entertaining.

Our guide met us after the puppet show was over and took us on a walking tour of the Old Quarter of Hanoi.  We really loved it there.  The streets are narrow and crowded and people are sitting on the sidewalks selling everything from souvenirs to food and fruit.  Most people live in the tall houses above their shops.  They stay open from 7:30 in the morning to about 10:00 at night.

Finally, our guide took us to a little corner place as we wanted to have one of the local beers.  It was so cheap with beer only about 25 cents a glass, I think.  Everyone in Vietnam sits in these little plastic chairs, too.  They are everywhere.  Along with the motorbikes.  More about them later.

It was a great first day!

Love to you all!

Karen

Outpost Learning Event and Kuala Lumpur

The Outpost Learning Event (LE) in Kuala Lumpur was really great.  I learned a lot about Outpost and had a wonderful time, too!  My fellow Outpost volunteer, Kay, went with me.  This blog is quite long as we did so much and I have a lot of pictures I want to share.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday afternoon. The hotel was beautiful and I had a fantastic view of the Pertronas Towers.  Here are a couple of photos taken from my hotel room window on the 24th floor.

The view was so beautiful at night.

That first evening Kay and I walked to the mall located at the base of the towers.  There were a ton of stores, but we spent most of our time walking around a supermarket in the mall.  Coming from Sakhalin where the choices are somewhat limited, a supermarket with some western products and a lot of things we weren't used to seeing was so much fun for us.

The LE started on Sunday at noon when we had to set up our stalls.  Each Outpost location had a stall that represented their country and the products and services offered to the Expats at that location.  I think there were at least 35 countries represented.  Some countries have more than one Outpost location.  We also had to develop a poster that describes our services.  It hung on the wall behind the stall.  We shared a table with the Moscow Outpost.  Here is Kay behind our table.  You can see the table pretty well in this picture. 

Here I am.  We had  a slide show of  Sakhalin Island and brought some souvenirs to give away, as did everyone else.

Once the booths were set up, the LE started off with a celebration of 15 years of Outpost and a kickoff of the new Outpost Handbook.  A lady who was instrumental in the start up of Outpost spoke about it's history.  The were other introductory type speakers and a speed networking coffee session where we were able to meet fellow Outpost volunteers from around the world.  It was so interesting to talk to people from Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria, etc.  The girl from Egypt was evacuated when the demonstrations started there.  She heard all the gunfire, etc.  The family of the girl from Bahrain was evacuated while she was with us in KL.  The final speaker of the day was a very energetic girl who runs a website entitled Expatwomen.com.  She was very inspiring and had a lot of ideas and stories about how women with successful careers, who quit their jobs to follow their husbands, reinvented themselves. 

On Sunday evening there was a cocktail and hors d'oeuvres party at the Dutch Ambassador's home.

 
The food was fabulous and just kept coming:

The overall theme of the LE was communication.  How to communicate with your clients, how to communicate with your team and how to communicate with HR.  Monday was focused on communicating with your clients (or the Expats). We had a workshop on services we could provide to clients such as Career and Development workshops, welcoming services, etc.  There was a panel of clients who gave their opinions and suggestions and answered questions about Outpost, a session on written communication and other networking exercises.

 There were so many different nationalities represented there.  It got confusing as you couldn't associate someone's nationality with the country there were representing because everyone was an expat.  The Chinese girl was representing Holland and the Australian was representing Malaysia for example.  There were even a couple of guys there.  Here's a photo of the meeting room:

 
The conference center provided lunch every day.  It was a huge buffet including many kinds of hot dishes, sushi, salad, desserts, fruit, cheese, bread, etc..  Anything you could think of.  There was a coffee shop where you could get latte's all day long.  It was all so tempting.  I seriously gained 2 or 3 pounds that week.

On Monday evening we walked to a local Malaysian restaurant for dinner.  It was nice and relaxing.  Since the program was so full and some people wouldn't have any time for souvenir shopping, the organizers of the event arranged for some local artisans to set up their wares at the restaurant.

The third day of the LE (Tuesday) was focused on communicating with your team.  As focal point, my job is to manage and motivate the team of volunteers.  In Sakhalin we have a 10 member team.  There was a cultural awareness session including a role play about perceptions.  I played the selfish, demanding American women who thinks money can buy everything.  (Interesting how the world perceives Americans).  We learned about an online tool used to track clients and their arrivals, questions, etc.  It has a library system, too.  I want to start using this for our location. 

On Tuesday evening, we had a formal sit down dinner at an old governor's mansion turned into a hotel.

We had cocktails outside on the patio and there were traditional Malaysian dancers for our entertainment:

Dinner was really good.  During the dinner there was a slide show presentation on Malaysian history.

The final day of the LE was Wednesday and focused on communication with HR.  When I took on this focal point job, I didn't realize how much you really do have to work with HR.  We get our funding from HR, so there are budget proposals to prepare, status reports, monthly meetings and minutes, etc.  I seriously feel like I have a full time job again.  The final session of the day was a "Cracker Barrel" session where hot topics that had been submitted throughout the days of the meeting were discussed.  Final thank you's and presentations of gifts were made and it was over. 

Wednesday evening, we went shopping at a really huge mall and then to dinner at a local restaurant.  Shopping in KL is fantastic.  There is shopping mall after shopping mall and the prices are really good.  Too bad I didn't have room in my suitcase or I would have bought more.  Max was happy I didn't have any extra suitcase space or weight.  A lot of people left on Wednesday evening, but we stayed an extra day to do some sightseeing and shopping.  Not really any sightseeing as KL is just a huge, big modern city.  No problem, we really just wanted to shop anyway.

There was a really cool bar on the 36th floor of our hotel, called the Sky Bar.  By day it is a swimming pool.  By night it is a bar.  It was hard to get a good picture of it, but I think you can see how close the tables are to the edge of the pool.  On the one side there is only a small wooden deck to walk on.  There are windows along the top and you can see the reflection of the Pertronas Towers above me.

Thursday morning, Kay met a friend for coffee and I went to the supermarket.  I bought spices, Malaysian curries, vanilla extract, salted nuts for Max and Kraft Free Zesty Italian dressing - all things you cannot get here in Sakhalin.  We had to check out of our room at noon, so we packed and stored our luggage at the hotel.  Then Kay and I went shopping at some of the malls again.  It was so much fun.  We met some of the other ladies who stayed on at a local Malaysian restaurant for a final dinner before heading to the airport.  Our flight left at 11:30 Thursday night so our taxi came at 8:30.  The hotel was so nice and offered to let us shower before we left that evening.  They supplied soap, shampoo, everything.  We got back to Sakhalin on Friday around 1:00 p.m.   Great trip!  Now to put all the knowledge I gained into action!

Love to you all!
Karen

Sakhalin Island Outpost

I haven't had much time to blog lately due to my taking on the Sakhalin Island Outpost Focal Point job.  Since it has recently been consuming my life, I thought I would devote this blog to telling you what Outpost is all about.  It is a sort of long post and may be boring to some, but there are a few links you might find interesting.

Outpost is a Shell sponsored global network that provides information and services to Shell expatriates and their families all over the world.  There are over 60 Outpost offices in 35 countries around the world.  We provide information and help people find answers to questions relating to everyday life in their new or potential location (both pre-departure and during settling in).  We also provide information, advice and guidance to help partners meet their career and development needs. This includes providing information on employment, personal development, self-employment, voluntary work and educational opportunities.

Here is a link to the Shell Global Outpost Website.  Every green dot represents a Shell Expat/Outpost Office location.  If you click on the Sakhalin Island dot, you will see our location's information, including a link to our local website.  I'm not listed as the focal point yet as I have to sign a confidentiality agreement.  Red dots are locations where Shell expats are, but no Outpost Office exists.  Shell Global Outpost provides guidance, marketing information and consistency to all of the local Outpost organizations.

Here is the link to our local Sakhalin Island Outpost website.

Including myself, there are 10 Sakhalin Island Outpost volunteers.

Some of the services that our Outpost provides include:
- An Online Team who answer emails from people who are contemplating a move to Sakhalin or are actually moving here.  We provide them with an Inside Guide that includes information such as can I import my car, how do I bring my pet, what should I pack in my air shipment and my sea container shipment, banking information, airport information, description of the housing, school info, etc. - everything that a person might want to know about Sakhalin Island before they move here
- A Meet & Greet Team who welcomes each new family, answers their questions and takes them on a shopping trip.  A food package is placed in their house prior to their arrival, as people are tired, don't know where to shop and don't have a pass to get on and off the housing complex.  An information pack is provided including a welcome letter, information about setting up their internet, a map of the complex, a bus schedule, a phone list, and a very detailed Guidebook that lists places to shop, restaurants, services, recreation, etc.
- Wednesday Coffee Morning where spouses/partners of working expats get together to network and visit.  Every third Wed of the month prior to Coffee Morning we have a Newcomers Information Meeting.
- A Supermarket Shopping Tour and a Local Products Shopping Tour. (I'll have a separate blog about these tours.)
- Organizing cultural events, such as museum visits, tea ceremonies
- Outpost Library with books related to Expat Life, books on travel and career development
- Showing people around who come to Sakhalin on a familiarization visit
- Monthly Outpost newsletter
- A recently launched Outpost Sakhalin Facebook page.  We have an events calendar, polls, and a classified section....all new, so not being used that much yet.
 - Projects in work such as a Career and Development Guide and an Outdoor Guide (Guide to all of Sakhalin's wonderful outdoor activities).

The Focal Point (me as of March 1) has to keep up with all the above (and more), plus:
- Make sure all documents mentioned above are kept up to date
- Interface with the Shell Global Outpost
- Have monthly meetings with the local Sakhalin Energy HR representative and write a report of the meeting
- Hold monthly team meetings, write minutes, keep an action item list
- Keep track of all newcomers and their housing (harder than it seems) and notify the team of their arrival so they can arrange the welcome and food pack
- Keep track of expenses, do expense reports
- Motivate the team (plan team lunches/dinners, provide gift certificates annually to the team)
- Write an annual report to Global Outpost
- Project future activities and expenses and prepare an annual budget (next one due April 1, 2011 for 2012)
- Keep procedures up-to-date
- General office stuff (buy paper, toner, make business cards for team, keep internet account topped off, etc.)
- There is a lot more, but I'm sure you're bored by now

Here are a few pictures of our Outpost Office.  We don't actually spend a lot of time there and it's only officially open for 1.5 hours a week.  The Outpost Office is in a building called The Hub.  It is sort of a community center of the Zima Housing Compound where we live.  It has a restaurant, a pub with pool tables, a library, conference rooms and the Outpost office.  The Hub is going to be renovated starting this month and the Outpost Office will likely move to a different location in the building.  This is hopefully a good thing as we really want to redecorate the office to make it more inviting.  Of course this is more work for me as I have to figure out where to have coffee morning, what to do with the equipment, etc. 

For the past few weeks I've been meeting with the current Focal Point a lot, trying to learn as much I can as she left a few days ago for a month long holiday in Australia.  Thankfully, she's staying on the team as online member, but I'm on my own for the next month.  In some locations, the Focal Point is a paid position.  With as much work as I've been doing lately, I may look into this for our location.

Once every few years, Global Outpost holds a Global Learning Event.  This is a conference where representatives from all of the Outpost offices come together to learn about ways to provide better services for our clients, work with team members and our local HR.  This year the conference will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Maylasia, and it starts next week!!  I'm very excited to be going to this conference with another lady from our Outpost.  Max teases me and says that he has been here for a long time and actually works for Shell (succumbed to Sakhalin Energy) but hasn't been on a business trip (from Sakhalin) yet.  I've only been here a few months, don't even really work for Shell, and am already going on my first business trip.  I've also spent a lot of time the past few weeks preparing for the conference.  We've had to develop a large poster describing the ways we work with our clients, team and HR.  We also have a table at the conference to present our location so we've had to shop for decorations, etc.

I'm really excited to be the Focal Point of the Outpost team.  Even though it has been a lot of work, it's also been a lot of fun.  It's great to be able to meet and help so many people.  I'm really looking forward to the Kuala Lumpur Learning Event!  I'll definitely be sharing my adventure with you soon!

Love to you all!

Karen