Day 3: About rain, more rain, delicious phở bò and who in Vietnam needs Starbucks?

Day 3:
About rain, more rain, delicious phở bò and who in Vietnam needs Starbucks?

Well, what can I say about today. It was raining like there is no tomorrow. Someone here once told me that they sometimes drive to work by motorbike in the morning, and in the evening when they want to get home... well, they have to swim. I thought he was joking but I know better after today. Even though the statement might have been a little exaggerated, if the rain is as strong as it was today, it won't drain off the streets if it continues for a long time.  For me, however, the rainy weather was a good excuse to really catch up with some studying. Therefore I spent the whole morning after breakfast to get together the discounted cashflow model from corporate finance (thank you Mr. Kustner).

Fried egg with a super tasty baguette
and iced coffee

By the way, breakfast today was a full success as I got my long desired baguette with eggs! As I spent my morning with some cashflow calculations I do not want to bother you with that too much. The people of my class from Switzerland will have to deal with it in the near future anyway.

During a short break I had an interesting conversation where the waiter from the hotel restaurant showed me some pictures of traditional Vietnamese clothes and told me that the next King Kong movie which will be published in 2017 was filmed on some Islands in Vietnam. 

He also told me that last year there was actually snow in Hà Nội (north of Vietnam). 

Furthermore he answered my question from yesterday whether the food from the north is generally less spicy than in the south. Turns out it is not the case as it can get quite cold in the north and the people are then eating even spicier than here in the south.

Phở bò

At lunchtime I decided to get some  Phở bò which is a traditional Vietnamese dish. It is a noodle soup with beef and some bean sprouts and other delicious herbs. The woman also served me some kind of pastry with it. I did not know what exactly to do with it as the soup was very delicious already. So I just bit some off and thought it was a little tasteless. She passed by my table two times and was shaking her head. At the third time I guess she couldn't take it anymore and came to me and broke the pastry into small pieces and put them into my soup and was talking something really fast in Vietnamese. I guess it could have been something like: " I don't know how you can eat that just like this... Isn't it obvious that this stuff needs to go into the soup?". But I'll probably never know. In the end I have to agree that it tasted mutch better within the soup than on its own and was a perfect fit. 

As it was still raining after my lunch I decided to find a nice coffee place where I could also do some studying. In Switzerland it would be obvious that you'd go to Starbucks if you need wifi, a proper table and a nice atmosphere (those of you who know me also know that I don't like Starbucks but I have to admit that there are little options in Switzerland if you want these criterias to be met). Well this is most certainly not the case in Vietnam and I could probably write a whole blog on itself about the Vietnamese coffee culture. I'll give you some facts first before I go into my personal thoughts.  

First of all, Vietnam is the second largest café exporter in the world as you can see in the graph below. 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/268135/ranking-of-coffee-exporting-countries/ 

It's actually pretty surprising that not more Vietnamese coffee is consumed in Switzerland but I assume this could be due to the fact that the coffee is usually consumed cold here. I am very sure, however, that it would not lose any of its deliciousness if it was consumed hot. 

Anyway, the Vietnamese coffee is of an outstanding quality (even though you can actually chose which quality you want to have). Some of the finest qualities sell for as much as USD 500 per kilogram in London and New York.
(http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/74625/starbucks-revenues-in-vietnam-exceed-target.html).

I guess with these information you get the point. Now, back to my thoughts. Vietnamese coffee is the best I have ever tasted in my life and I have been to quite some places mentioned in the above  graph or have at least had some coffee from those countries. But it is not only the taste of the coffee which makes it so special. It is the whole culture around it. Ho-Chi-Minh City (and also other places throughout Vietnam) are crowded with coffee shops. Within the city you could get a coffee every 50 metres. These places almost always provide a good wifi (which is by the way available almost everywhere for free     even in the smallest soup restaurants where they have only two or three tables), very friendly staff, and a cosy environment which no Starbucks I've ever been was able to provide. If you order a cà phê sữa đá you will get an iced coffee with condensed milk which gives the coffee a very sweet taste. If you are more of a "I don't like sugar" person you can also order it black (have a look at the breakfast picture) or if you ask for, in any other form that Starbucks would also serve you. Furthermore, you will always get served some tea (without sugar) to satisfy your thirst. 

As you might have already guessed I am not a big fan of Starbucks. I was wondering whether Starbucks has really tried to get a foot into the Vietnamese market. And guess what... Of course they did which is not surprising when we take a look at their mission statement: 

"Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time." 

http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/company-information/mission-statement 

I don't want to go into details about Starbucks and the sense of this statement which basically implies that Starbucks is for everyone who can hold a cup, lives in a neigborhood and has a human spirit. And  I am well aware that after this blog I will most probably never get to work for Starbucks. It is not meant as an offense to Mr. Schultz (CEO of Starbucks) whom I actually highly respect for his enterpreneurial spirit.  

Gcoffee in Ho-Chi-Minh City. One out of thousands of charming
coffee shops... and 3 Starbucks in this City

What I really want to say is, that a country with such a rich offering of different coffee qualities (a medium quality coffee costs around CHF 2.-) where you can enjoy your coffee at so many places in a really nice atmosphere does not really need another coffee chain. For me it seems a little bit like an American Fondue chain
( e.g. https://www.meltingpot.com) trying to push into the Swiss market which would of course be kind of cute. But just cute and not really to be taken serious... 

Okay... Now I REALLY stop with the whole coffee situation. Sorry this got out of hand a little bit but at least some of you know very well that coffee is a serious and emotional topic:) 

I'd like to close today's post by saying that if you are a coffee lover and want to taste different coffees around the world, Vietnam should defenitely be on your to-visit list. 

And I am sorry for the different font types and sizes but it turns out that blogspot is not as user friendly as one would expect it to be...