In Which I Speak To Schoolchildren
November 26, 2023
The next few days were a blur–my daylight hours were spent with the genial Khoa Lam, a local from our recruiting team, who guided me to my speaking arrangements at local high schools.
At each school I gave a TED-style-talk on what ChatGPT means for education and how it and other LLMs (large language models) work. The goal was to show how understanding the details of the technology help to understand its ramifications. The audiences were generally very engaged, and I even had the pleasure of some extra teachers who heard the first few minutes and decided to stick around during their breaks.
The schools were International Schools, that commonly send graduating students abroad for higher education–so a good fit for promoting the university.
After each talk, Khoa would take me to a new vegetarian or vegan restaurant. The crispy rice snack depicted below was my favourite dish!
My nights were all about walking around the city!
Since I last visited Vietnam (20 years past), the country has significantly upped the level of infrastructure. There are now meaningful numbers of traffic lights! Crossing the road is still an experience as the lights are in some instances treated as more of a guide. You cross when there is an apparent slowing of the traffic flow, and you trust the many motorcyclists to route around you.
I spent some time in the central city squares of District 1, which were filled with locals engaging in a variety of activities. As I walked along lots of folks were doing public karaoke, while kids played with light-up toys, dogs were set to play with each other, and even the odd snake made an appearance.
I also had a good time checking out the shopping (much of it counterfeits) at the Ben Thanh market and surrounding kiosks.
Late into my walk, I also made it to the tourist party street of District 1–quite a sight and a racket!
Among the interesting scenes, was a group of people dancing to “Heveinu Shalom Aleichem” (a traditional jewish song), rearranged into a heavy electronic dance track!
Eventually I wandered into side streets far from the touristy areas. I received a few strange looks, and soon found myself lost in the labyrinthine alleys. Took me a good few hours to walk home.
One thing that struck me was the change in density between the touristy areas of Ho Chi Minh, and the more residential areas I walked through. The touristy areas had exceptionally wide streets, and a constant bustle. In contrast, the side streets were narrow, filled with children playing, and a buzz rather than a roar. People packed into small spaces made life happen, as just outside the walls of each enclave, thousands of motorcycles zipped by.
In Which I Return to Viet Nam (and this blog)
November 23, 2023
We’re off again! MEL->SIN->SGN.
I’m now a Lecturer (read: Assistant Professor) at the University of Melbourne. And my current assignment–travel to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) to speak to high school students on AI. Hopefully some of these students will then choose to apply to us!
The trip began with a flight delay on QF35 from Melbourne to Singapore. Unfortunately as I had booked my connecting leg separately, when I subsequently missed my connection in Singapore, airline staff told they could not rebook me.
Cue racing to the transfer desk. At the desk I was told my flight was non-refundable and I was no show. Oops. It was also already too late to book the only other flight out for the night.
Stuck? Not quite. I booked a flight out the next day and skipped off to the gate to ask the gate agents to shift me onto the departing flight. Unfortunately after waiting for the gate to open–1 hour pre-take-off– I was told I could not proceed to the gate desk without a boarding pass… yet without the gate desk I could not obtain a boarding pass!
A literal sprint back to the transfer desk. New story: they can change my flight, but only for 150 SGD cash. Now a sprint to the nearest ATM and madly try to withdraw cash. Back to the transfer desk, sweating pouring down my glasses. After a brief panic looking for my required flight details out of Vietnam, my new boarding pass was issued.
One last run back to the gate, and by now I really needed a towel, and jump on the plane just as the doors were being closed.
Landing at around 10PM, my first stop was immigration. Let chaos reign! Half the desks were closed, hundreds of passengers were waiting, and there was no separation between tourists (who took a long time to process) and locals.
Sporadically the crowd would notice a new booth about to open. Cue stampede.
In one such stampede I managed to get near the front of the line, and exit to meet a driver from the hotel.
Thirty minutes later, I arrived at the Liberty Riverside Hotel to find that I had been booked into the “Executive Suite”, complete with personal butler, laundry service, and goodnight chocolates.
(Ver quick snaps before I exhausted myself from my phone).
Goodnight Saigon!
Macau: Majesty, Music and Money
July 22, 2019
Our ship docked late morning in Macau, a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. Macau, a tiny province, connects by a land bridge to the Chinese mainland and was formerly a Spanish colony. Interestingly, the CCP transferred a portion of the mainland to Macau. The CCP designated this land for the University of Macau, where we were staying and would later perform. With only one day in town, and an afternoon blocked out for performances, the glee club raced off sightsee.
The biggest tourist attraction in Macau is the Ruins of St. Paul’s, a large catholic cathedral destroyed in a fire. All that remains is a glorious stone facade.
The path up to the ruins was just a short hike but, in hot weather we were all sweating by the top!
Lunch
Next was the quest to find lunch. Macanese cuisines (like many of those we encountered on tour) fit poorly to my dietary needs. I opened up the “happy cow” app on my phone and found an interesting looking vegan restaurant not too far away. Hope Brindle, one of the resident vegans on tour accompanied me on a short adventure away from the tourist center to find the place.
After about 30 minutes of walking, and getting lost a few times, we found the restaurant. Being a local place, there were no English menus and no staff who were able to translate. Luckily tables were shared, and we soon found a community to help us!
The meal began with a bucket of hot water placed in front of our table settings. After sitting confused for a few moment, Hope and I were assisted by our entire table. One lady mimed that water was not for drinking, but for washing our utensils. After more confusions, she showed us how it worked.
Ordering was fun too! Hope and I initially picked items off the menu by picture, but the others at our table looked convinced we had ordered the wrong things. They took over the process, arguing with the waitress over what we should eat. We didn’t understand a word, and were unsure what food would be coming by the end.
Fortunately, the meal was delicious and Hope and I left satisfied and delighted with the experience.
More Sightseeing
Hope and I returned to the touristy area, walking our way through residential areas and finding little seen sights.
We climbed to the top of the mountain, higher than the ruins, and into the Spanish fortress that overlooks the province. There we met Ben Banker, a good friend and member of the Penn Pipers.
Unfortunately, this was all the sightseeing we had time for. We raced down the mountain to the bus waiting to take us to the University of Macau. On our bus, Sandy, our local contact, enthusiastically explained a little about Macau and its history. She explained how the majority of Macau’s GDP is derived from the gambling industry, frequented by wealthy Chinese. As gambling is illegal in the mainland, and Macau is just a short trip away it serves as an easy hub for Chinese punters to get their fix.
The Glee Club loved the enthusiasm of Sandy’s explanations, and her occasional expletive infused exclamations. She received an uproarious toast in thanks.
Music
That evening we performed for Macanese dignitaries and the families and friends of the University of Macau Glee Club. While the performance hall itself did not have the best acoustics of the venues on our trip, it was an interesting chance to interact with local students. One peculiar number performed by their choir was “A Little Jazz Mass”, a very odd reimagining of a traditional Latin Mass by Bob Chilcott.
Following the performance, much of the Glee Club (including myself) dressed up to visit the casinos and experience what most come to Macau to see.
The Parisian
A Glee Club alum who had made it big in the Macanese gaming industry directed us to his casino: The Parisian. The casino was built to mimic Viennese architecture and included gondola-bearing canals.
While many in Glee Club were (fortunately) too young to gamble, we did hit up a casino bar. I had a great time chatting to Tomoki and Hannah who I would learn to appreciate greatly over the course of tour.
While I paid the tab for the fifteen-odd glee clubbers drinking, hoping to be paid back, some mysterious accounting left me $300 short. Thankfully as always the Glee Club came through and made up the majority of the shortfall. How such a small crowd purportedly consumed 14 Long Island Ice teas, on top of twenty other drinks, I will never understand.
Next, a few of the older folks went down to see the gaming floor. The Glee Club pooled a small sum to place on roulette. All for one bet: Red. Unfortunately the game came up black and we all lost our money. A lesson well learned.
In the wee hours of the morning, it was back to the university for a few hours sleep before our next destination: Taiwan!