Meetings and What-not

I've been quite busy here in Hanoi. Luke, Perry and I have been working hard and meeting a lot of policy makers from VEPA, in addition to other NGO's etc. It has been a lot of fun, but also very exhausting. The first day was spent participating in a workshop on eco-labeling, sponsored by OK International. It went quite well I thought. There were quite a few stakeholders in the room so it was good exposure for the battery eco-labeling project we've been working on. We had a different meeting today with some influential folks in the Vietnam EPA to determine a strategy and policy on lead battery recycling. It went better than the previous day's workshop because it was less formal and more interactive. A lot of Q&A going both directions. It is exciting and humbling working helping VEPA develop a lead battery policy. We'll see if anything comes out of it.

Hanoi is quite nice. The culture and food is great. The people (who are not selling me something) are quite friendly. I saw the Hanoi Hilton yesterday and I had a chance to talk with my Vietnamese academic partner's father who was a anti-aircraft gunner in the Vietnam war. I didn't sense any hard feelings. I asked my partner if there were any lingering negative sentiments and he said that most Vietnamese from that generation recognize that it was a war between political groups, not individuals. Definitely interesting being here.

I still feel like I'm getting ripped off around every corner and the Vietnamese are relentless when it comes to overcharging foreigners. I got my first barber style shave today (although is was a seat on the sidewalk). I forgot my razor and tried to use the cheap disposable with warm water. That was far too painful. Everyone around me getting shaves made sure they didn't show me what they paid. I'm sure I paid at least double. One really good thing here is the coffee. It is about as thick as maple syrup and, with enough cream and sugar, tastes and feels like Hershey's chocolate syrup. Excellent I might say. We went to a coffee shop last night and I was wondering why there were about 10 very attractive women hanging out there (while there were no men to speak of). We found out real quick that these women were working girls. Really quite sad. When the sun goes down the illicit behavior comes out.