Poem: Exquisite Adaptations in Nature

You are inscrutable. Bottle-sized glasses give you a disarming look, but I knew at once not to underestimate you. 

You're introverted, sure, but you've surrounded yourself with extroverts, becoming unpredictable. Charles Darwin would be proud but unable to categorize you; perhaps you fit his observation that "wonderful metamorphoses in function are at least possible." 

Long giraffe legs give you feelings of being imbalanced, but to the casual observer, if you wobble, it is because you do not yet see your strength. 

I am no scientist, but know this: I already miss the island species that once sat with me, gently tranquilizing me without firing a single shot. 

© Matthew Mehdi Rafat (2018)

Interviews

Interviews

John Adler in California (2010): The Good Doctor

Asian Games' Wrestling (2018): Wrestlers

Fazal Bahardeen in Singapore (2018): Muslim Travel

Alain van den Bossche in Jepara, Indonesia (2019): Belgian Expat in Indonesia

Ellen in Cebu, Philippines (2018): Single Mom, Three Degrees

Matteo of Gelato Matteo in Semarang, Indonesia (2018): Came for Business, Stayed for Love

Lan Haiwen in Silicon Valley (2008): Ultizen: Developing Games with Chinese Creativity.

Noman Md Ariful Haque in Kuala Lumpur (2018): A Muslim Engineer in Japan 

Derrick in Katy, Texas (2018): Old Katy Coffee on good coffee 

James McRitchie in San Francisco, CA (2016): Shareholder Activist 

Sara Mendelsohn in Hanoi, Vietnam (2018): Personal Trainer and English Teacher 

Ayu Nuarida in Semarang, Indonesia (2018): A Woman for All Seasons 

Bruce Nguyen in Saigon, Vietnam: (2018): Third Wave Coffee. 

Marco Paulo in Cebu, Philippines (2017): Influencer 

Sulistiansyah Rahmadi in Palembang, Indonesia (2018): Indonesian Traveler

Auron Tare in Tirana, Albania (2018): Albania's Bill Bradley    

[Statements have been edited for clarity and condensed.] 

Fitness and Adventure in Hanoi, Vietnam: Sara Mendelsohn

Not many people go straight from Reno, Nevada to Hanoi without a few pitstops in between, but Sara Mendelsohn, all 26 years of her, packed up one day and left for Vietnam without looking back. Here's her story: 

Q: Have you always been so fit? 

A: No, I used to be insecure about my body. I was a runner, and one day my ex-boyfriend took me to the gym, and I realized I couldn't do any pull-ups. It was very frustrating, because I've always been super-competitive, even if it was just with myself. 

Then my ex-boyfriend went away on a business trip and suddenly I had a lot of "alone" time, so I did a lot of research on YouTube workout videos. By the time I went to visit my ex-boyfriend, he was amazed at my transformation. 

Q: Do you play any sports? 

A: No, but I compete in National Physique Committee competitions (NPC). My first competition was in Scottsdale Arizona, where I placed 5th out of 20 women. My second show was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I placed first in my class and first overall. 

Despite my success, six months after the Oklahoma competition, my ex-boyfriend and I broke up. It was a horrible breakup, and after we broke up, I started focusing on myself a lot more, and I started my Instagram and my blog.

Q: How did you go from winning American bodybuilding competitions to moving to Vietnam? 

A: I realized I can do so much more. I can teach English, I can be a personal trainer, and I can do some combination of different activities. Maybe I'd only make 500 USD a month, but in the end, I'd be in a position to make a difference, not in a small town like Reno but in a big city like Hanoi. 

Q: What was difficult about going from a smaller town like Reno to a large city like Hanoi? 

A: I've only been here about 6 days. I wouldn't say anything has been difficult. I don't like two things: people littering like it's nothing, and people smoking everywhere. At the same time, everyone's much more laid back, and there are fewer rules. People don't seem as entitled. 

Q: Vietnam has a one year visa for American citizens. Is that how you were able to re-locate here?

A: I'm currently here on a three month visa... but I bought a one way ticket. I'll figure out how to extend my time. 

Q: I notice you have a lot of interesting tattoos. 

A: Yes, I have one on my arm that's a devil in disguise. The man with the beard is related to 420, and I have several more, including on my back. I like hanging out with artistic crowds, and my tattoo artist is Tony Medellin. Tony is a Reno local, and he just got selected for the Ink Master show. 

Q: I want to return to something you said earlier. Why was your breakup so difficult? 

A: [laughs] He cheated on me and knocked her up. He married her five months after our breakup, and he and I were together for four years. 

Q: You look very young. How old are you? Tell me about your family. 

A: I'm 26 years old. My dad is a P.E. teacher, and my mom makes uniforms for public schools. I have three younger brothers. 

I've been very lucky. My dad has always been very supportive of me. For example, when I started running, my dad said, "Oh, I want to run with you," and he did. We did 5Ks [marathons] together. When I wanted to join a gym, he got both of us a membership at the same gym. 

Q: Where do you want to be 3 to 6 months from now? 

A: I'd like to have my own apartment in the Tay Ho [the Lake district], and I'd like to live by myself. I'd like to be teaching adults, but I'll probably teach kids, and that's okay. I'd like to be more active on my blog and IG and post at least two times a week. 

It might sound corny to say, but I feel like I can make a difference just by being me. Maybe I'm not making a ton of money, but I get to live the life I want to live. 

Q: What are you scared of?

A: I'm scared that something [unexpected] will happen, and I won't like it here, and I'll have to go back to Reno, and I'll be a disappointment. 

I really want to be here. I like the culture, and the people here want to learn English, and they're really nice. I picked Hanoi because of its culture. I researched a few blogs, and I knew I wanted to live in a place that wasn't touristy, which meant  Thailand was out. It was either Cambodia or here, and I chose Vietnam. 

Q: If you could go back and tell your insecure teenage self something, what would you say? 

A: I would say, "You are so beautiful in your own way." 

Today, I look at other women my age or younger, and they're so preoccupied with wanting to be someone else, they don't realize the very person they admire wants to be like them. 

Hanoi, Vietnam

Hanoi, Vietnam was exactly what I thought it would be. As the victor of the “American War of Aggression,” I expected an expensive, highly developed city, and that’s exactly what I found. I did not expect to find the best vegetarian food in SE Asia, including an incredible taro pecan soup. 

Ưu Đàm Chay restaurant

I did not expect to see so many foreign embassies, all guarded by congenial military personnel. I did not expect to find a store selling Iranian saffron and saffron green tea. 

I just wanted to show off the only shirt I own with Vietnamese words, bought in Los Angeles from the Chinese-Vietnamese founder of America’s famous hot sauce. I did not expect to see zero bottles of his sauce in Vietnam, which reminded me how trade agreements limit consumer choices arbitrarily. How did another country end up benefitting from the hard work and culinary genius of one of its natives while his birth country is unable to widely export or import his Vietnamese-inspired product in Vietnam? 

Every immigrant’s story is one of luck, hope, tragedy, and the opportunities—sometimes realized, often missed—inherent in accepting strangers on your shores yearning to share their wisdom, experiences, and ways of living. Today, I sit in a chair that every statistic, every expert, and every survey in 1950 would have said the Huy Fong Foods founder would be 99% more likely than me to be sitting in. 

And yet, here I am. It is sweet to win wars and even sweeter to escape them, but even when you win, you can still lose. The founder of one of the most popular products in the world should be sitting here but “Humans plan, and the universe laughs.” Let’s hope it’s laughing with us, not at us. 

Bonus: I just walked past the Hanoi Stock Exchange (www.hnx.vn). A bull reminiscent of the famous NYC Wall Street black bull is outside its front door but smaller and more understated. So-called Communist Vietnam is interesting.

Hue, Vietnam: a Disappointment but Worth One Night

I loved Saigon but my trip to Hue, Vietnam--a city I expected to be bustling with museums and culture--turned out to be the exact opposite. I wouldn't say "Hue" is Vietnamese for "tourist trap," but one night is all you need to see all its sights. 

I'm disappointed because Hue's tombs, citadel, and natural scenery are beautiful, but the city center feels like a frat house surrounded by neglected artifacts. 

So much potential

Tomb of Khai Dinh

English translations are minimal and when they exist, fail to provide information in context. Mind you, Hue has major historical value. It was the capital of the Southern Kingdom under the Nguyen dynasty. It was part of 1968's Tet Offensive. Yet, the city emphasizes its generic bars and restaurants with bland food and cheap beer, as if there's no money to be made from tourists above the age of 26 or anyone interested in cultural tourism.

The traveler in me weeps for the lost potential but the businessman understands: you give the people what they want, and sometimes people want cheap beer and bland food. I just never thought nonprofits, universities, governments, and NGOs would allow themselves to be made irrelevant through inaction or a lack of imagination. 

Miscellany: 

1. If you're looking for a hotel, I had a great experience with Holiday Diamond Hotel. 

2. The tourism gods taunted me with these two book entries I randomly found at Cafe Sach Huong Tu Bi, my favorite cafe in Hue. (Second favorite? Cassette Cafe.) 

The Romance of Vietnam, by Thai Quang Trung

3. One of Hue's best sights is XQ Embroidery Museum, where paintings are done with traditional embroidery. 

No paint--just embroidery.

Interview with Vietcetera Cafe Owner Nguyen Bao Lam Bruce

I love coffeeshops, and I found Vietcetera while on my usual 3 to 6 mile daily walk in Saigon. The owner, Bruce Nguyen, was on-site, and ten seconds after meeting him, I knew I wanted to pick his brain. 

Bruce Nguyen

Q: How did you come up with the cafe's name? 

A: I didn't come up with the Vietcetera name. We're linked to an online magazine--they hate it when I call it a blog. They cover "new Vietnam," which could be anything from cooking, music, poetry, coffee, cocktails. We post about what's new. 

Q: Tell me about JAMLOS, which I see behind me on the wall. 

A: The cafe allows space for local brands. Their main location is a few blocks from here, and the owner makes accessories. Her most popular bag is a "pizza bag," a bag shaped like a pizza. We allow local businesses space and advertising. 

JAMLOS

Q: You live in Seattle, Washington but own three cafes in Saigon. How did you manage to get to where you are today? 

A: We're now in the first cafe, our D3 [District 3] location. My wife and I moved here around two years ago, and she came six months before I did. 

Let me back up. I was born in California but moved to Seattle. I've been a sheet metal fabricator for 17 years. [Me, looking surprised.] Yeah, I'm a little older than I look. I'm 38 now, and after 17 years of experience, I'll call myself a master metal fabricator. My wife was working in corporate at Nordstrom's. We made a decision to move here a few years ago, and her younger brother actually moved to SE Asia 10 years ago. He moved first to Vietnam from Seattle, then to Singapore. When he heard we were coming to Saigon, he quit his well-paid corporate job in Singapore so we could work on projects together. He decided to open an Airbnb right above this cafe. 

Before we opened this cafe, we were learning about coffee in Seattle, the home of Starbucks. A lot of America's coffee knowledge came out of Seattle, so it's easier to learn the trade there. I got certified as a Barista Level 1 SCA [Specialty Coffee Association], but just because you have a certification, it doesn't mean you're good. At the same time, the certification helps create a consistent standard about what makes good coffee. 

I opened this cafe in 2016. This is my wife's grandfather's house, and this is where he used to hang out. My brother-in-law got the idea to use the bottom floor for a retail business. We had local connections in the construction business who already knew the governmental authorization process, so we were good on that side. 

Q: I studied law, so I always ask about permits and legal processes. In America, opening a small business can be difficult because of overlapping jurisdiction. For example, your office might be in Bellevue, but if it does business in Seattle, it might need two permits or more. It's very difficult for a layperson to figure out. It sounds like in Vietnam, the process might be easier--as long as you have local connections. 

A: In the U.S., it's so much harder to run a business than in Vietnam because of all the regulations and different permits. Here, it's easier but they have regulations, too. They do stuff like health inspections. For instance, on our bathroom, we had to install a mechanism to make sure the germs from the bathroom wouldn't reach the kitchen. I didn't think it was necessary, but it's good the government cares about health. 

Q: Is it fair to say it's easy to do business in Vietnam if you have local connections but not if you show up alone? 

A: You're outgoing, and if you were to start here right now, you would just go to social gatherings and popups and create a helpful network. I'm not technically local. They have a name for people like me: "Việt Kiều" which means foreign Vietnamese. I was born in Hayward, California. 

Q: Earlier, we were talking about how entrepreneurial Vietnamese culture is. 

A: The Vietnamese are heavily influenced by the Chinese. My mother always said, "Of course they're good at business--they're Chinese." My wife is Chinese-Vietnamese, and I'm full Vietnamese. Remember: China was here for 1,000 years, so almost all Vietnamese have some Chinese in them. A good portion of the Vietnamese language is Chinese, similar to the way English has Latin roots. 

Q :Do you use robusta or Arabica beans? 

A: We're trying to be local 20% Vietnamese, 20% Ethiopian, and 60% Honduran. As of right now, we won't serve 100% Vietnamese beans, because the Vietnamese are just not there in quality. There are some quality suppliers, but it's not stable. Speciality coffee is very new to Vietnam even though Vietnam has a humongous coffee culture. When Airbnb selected us to do a local experience, we chose to do coffee. On our tour, we show people different styles of coffeeshops, and we explain the different production methods. If you really want to know Vietnamese culture, you have to know the coffee here. Our tour goes to all kinds of coffee shops, everything from popups in alleys to white collar places. 

Let me tell you about First to Third Wave. Third Wave is the newest trend in coffee, and First Wave is the older coffee-making method. In America, First Wave is like 7-11, or percolated coffee. Second Wave is more like Starbucks, and Third Wave is the cutting edge of coffee where every detail from seed to cup is emphasized. 

Let's say I want to introduce a customer to one of my pour overs. I don't expect them to say, "I taste chocolate and floral notes," but the very first thing I hope to hear as they drink my coffee is, "Wow, that's not bitter at all." We're trying to bring the best flavors out of the coffee. We do it through education, starting from the farmers, making sure they're using only the ripest cherries and the best methods. Third Wave is QA through a collaborative process. You don't have to like specialty coffee. I don't drink wine, but I appreciate a good sommelier. Coffee is the same thing. QA matters. 

You know, Vietnam is number one in exporting bad coffee. A lot of people in the world like cheap coffee, which tends to be bitter, but that's okay--Vietnam is fulfilling a need. Most of your instant coffee has Vietnamese beans. If it sounds like I'm talking trash, I'm really not. Vietnam supplies the world with what they want. 

Q: Do you serve cascara coffee here?

A: Yes. Cascara is the skin of the coffee cherry. Outside the coffee bean is a legitimate cherry. I consider cascara more of a tea than a coffee. 

Q: You now own three cafes in Saigon. It must have been more complex opening a cafe without grandpa's house to ease into, right? 

A: Actually, it got easier. People approached us and wanted to collaborate. I want to be sure I don't take credit for everything. I have a great management team: me, my brother-in-law, my wife, and our general manager, Tuong Nguyen. Our D1 location is also called Vietcetera, but we're sharing space inside Le Saigonais Concept Store. What happened was a clothing designer opened a store and wanted a cafe inside her place. We liked her style, and when we came in, it was a lot of fun. We demolished a lot of stuff [to create the perfect space]. The cafe is in D1 behind Ben Thanh market. 

Q: One of the things entrepreneurs tell me is that it's very difficult working with your spouse and your family, especially because of the risks involved. How have you managed that process? 

A: I'll say this first. I think it's certain type of people [who have problems]. Me and my wife never really argue with each other. We might bicker but we never fully argue. I love working with my wife. Does it mean I like working with her every second? No, and she'll say the same about me. I think there's a sensibility all three of us have, which is try not to let too many emotions get involved in business. Can you cut out emotions fully? No, but we do our best to respect each other. We try to speak calmly to each other. I take this approach with everything in my life. 

Q: What was easier or harder about opening your third cafe? 

A: It got easier for us, because at first, we weren't used to working with local construction guys. We have connections with local contractors, and I have a background in construction, so I know the standards [but the issue is that] Vietnamese and Americans have different mentalities. I think it's Communism in Vietnam back in the day, when the mentality was, "Get it done quickly and move on to the next one." In America, we have more pride in ownership, whether it's something you're building or fixing. In Vietnam, they just don't have the right experience, and I have yet to meet a construction contractor who's good at what he does. I was [also] a foreman back in Seattle. I'm used to hiring people and delegating work. Here, I'll draw out what I want, and they still can't get it right. 

Q: And you speak Vietnamese. 

A: I speak Vietnamese, but I don't speak Vietnamese construction. I can have a conversation but my skill isn't at a level where I am able to get into exact terms in Vietnamese. And Vietnamese is spoken differently here than in America. 

Q: What do you think about Saigon's future? 

A: Every single time I look at Forbes' and The Economist's lists of economies booming in the next 10 to 15 years, they've got Saigon in the top ten. From the mid-1990s, Vietnam got out of the Communist approach and opened up to foreign capital. 

I was in Hong Kong two months ago, and it's like the NYC of Asia. I've wanted to see Hong Kong since I was a kid because I grew up watching Hong Kong movies, and I loved it. I thought to myself, "How can Saigon compete with this metropolis?" But I meet foreigners all the time and they love Saigon. Hong Kong is pretty damn modern, but when you're walking around Saigon, you're standing in a cross-section of time. You'll see people wearing old rice farmer hats outside modern Michelin-star restaurants. In Saigon, you're standing in a moment of time between the modern and the ancient. 

Interviews with Asian Games' Wrestlers in Jakarta, Indonesia (2018)

Hiroe Minagawa

Mohammad Ali Geraei

Katsuki Sakagami

Hassan Yazdanichariati