Bottom Line Article I | CBS Thailand-Vietnam 2003 Study Tour

CBS Thailand-Vietnam 2003 Study Tour Official Homepage

Beth Rehman and Kimberly Leighton

It began with a seven-hour plane trip to the Anchorage, Alaska airport where we wandered around for two hours staring at display cases filled with stuffed Alaskan wildlife, next, a leg from Anchorage to Taipei, another layover and a flight to Hong Kong. We endured yet another layover in the Hong Kong airport and after a trip to the Starbucks stand and after about as much duty-free shopping as we could stand, we were on the last leg of the trip! A grand total of 28 hours after our departure from New York we finally arrived in the vividly busy and inimitably charming city of Bangkok where we were greeted by our fabulous tour guide and two hostesses who bestowed each one of us with garland of lotus flowers.

There was no time to waste. Unlike the song, we had three nights in Bangkok, but that was still not enough to truly discover this wonderful city and so the moment we stepped off the plane we made our first visit-a trip to the Nike factory, we just did it! That night, exhausted but happy we enjoyed a lovely dinner cruise down the Chao Praya River, the main river that runs through the center of Thailand. A few dancers kept us entertained with some traditional Thai dance while Patrick fell right asleep at the table (Beth got a great photo of him!). The next few days were jam-packed with tourist activities and educational visits. We visited Buddhist temples, went to the floating market, and caught a sighting of the Queen of Sweden who was coincidentally visiting the Thai Royal Palace at the same time we were.

The weekdays consisted of meetings with local businesses like Thai Farmer’s Bank (Nate’s future employer), foreign businesses, such as Thai Acrylic Fiber company and McKinsey, The Thai Chambers of Commerce and government officials such as the Deputy Minister of Finance and the Deputy Prime Minister. It seems companies in Bangkok have conflicting views regarding the extent to which Prime Minister Thaksin’s policies encourage the development of businesses in Thailand yet, according to the deputy minister of finance, many firms are just whining because they do not want to pay taxes. Funny, this seems to be an international phenomenon.

John told Beth that she had used up all her questions for the week after the second company meeting, but she could not seem to stop herself from asking a ton more. She did not have the opportunity to ask any, however when we met with the Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, who delivered a twenty-minute ad-hoc speech in which he claimed that the US decision to trade currencies internationally instead of goods was the primary impetus that brought on the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Several of us were slightly taken aback by this assertion but we were reminded to keep open minds and remember that one’s perspective is heavily dependent on one’s environment.

In fact, we were reminded once again of the importance of perspective when we reached our next destination Hanoi, Vietnam and were given a tour of the War Museum with an accompanying lecture regarding the War Against the Americans. We were shocked when we learned during a question and answer session with a garment manufacturing company that a pair of Gap shorts that retails in the US for $39.50 costs approximately $1 to manufacture. And we were all amazed when we saw that the streets were packed with motorcycles and mopeds on which two or three people would sit but with barely any cars. A few members of our group were brave enough to rent motorcycles and explore the streets of Hanoi. Thankfully no one was seriously injured.

From Hanoi we flew to Saigon, where we visited the tunnels in Cu Chi where the Vietcong would hide during the war and had the opportunity to crawl through two of them. Several of us were drenched in sweat afterwards due to the physical challenge of fitting into a space that was approximately three feet high and the hot, humid weather. Since we found the climate in the jungle warm and sticky in the dead of winter, we could only imagine how uncomfortably it must have been the middle of summer. We also took a ride down the river to the Mekong delta in groups of four, on small boats through muddy waters.

The concept of “equitization” vs. “privatization” entered into many of our discussions during our visits to Vietnamese companies and chambers of commerce. Of the nineteen companies traded on Vietnam’s stock exchange, the government still maintains the majority stake. The overall lack of access to capital markets to the general public seemed rather foreign to us as students at an I-banking school.

The pace of the trip was truly rigorous; on a typical day we were awakened at 6:30am and finished dinner at around 10pm, but this schedule did not stop the hard-core partiers from going out at night. It seems some people can get by on only three hours of sleep a night. On the other hand, several of us supplemented our sleep by way of taking naps during our many hours spent riding on the tour bus.

After two fun-filled weeks in Thailand and Vietnam, twelve of us decided that we hadn’t had enough yet. So we moved onward to Cambodia. We arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia and after a “traditional” lunch (actually, some of us ordered french fries), we headed to the National Museum, Royal Palace, and Silver Pagoda. As if we hadn’t seen enough pagodas already!

Many foreigners only visit Angkor Wat on a trip to Cambodia, but we were lucky enough to visit the capital as well. We had an informative tour guide who told us all about the Khmer Rouge, which held power from1975 to 1979. We had a very interesting visit to the Toul Sleng Museum of Genocidal Crime and Cheung Ek Killing Fields--depressing, but definitely worth the visit!

After two days in Phnom Penh, we had to rough it on a six hour boat trip to Siem Reap. Some of us sat in the sardine-packed bottom cabin, which made the 28 hours of economy class flight to Bangkok look comfortable. A few of us decided to sit on top of the boat instead and proceeded to get the worst sunburns of our lives. However, the pain was well worth it since we outside and passed through all the riverside villages.

Once we arrived in Siem Reap (the gateway to Angkor Wat) we toured one of the temples and were very impressed with the intricacy of the carvings. We also spent ample time trying to figure out what were the Seven Wonders of the World. In the next couple of days we visited Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, Terrace of Elephants, the Rolous Group, and more. One of the highlights was our visit to the Jungle, where the trees seemed to grow through the temples. This was also the site where we ran into the most famous dude in Cambodia. As we were walking through the temples, Sejal spotted the guy from the cover of the Lonely Planet Cambodia book. We got photos and autographs, and bought some of his hand made wood instruments (which were pretty cool, we might add).

There is so much more to say about this trip and one can only give a taste of all that we experienced in an article. We are so glad to have had the opportunity to get to know each other! Thanks so much to Nate, the Asian Business Association and the Chazen Institute for making this amazing expedition possible and to our faculty chaperone, David Beim and his lovely wife Elizabeth. This trip will go down in history as one of the best ever!