Blogs from Jupiter

It’s the first time I literally ate brain food. I mean, I ate fried pig’s brain. Nothing unusual, it’s just that it felt like I ate one massive block of butter with the texture and feel of durian in the palate. Just imagine the loads of cholesterol in it. Then I felt something funny behind the back of my neck… uh oh… that thick feeling on the backside of your neck when you ate something really bad. So I ordered another bottle of still water, and drank it strait. I felt a bit dizzy after a few bites but after drinking two bottles of 350 ml water, I was back to normal. Never will I try that again.

I’m in Saigon, Vietnam. I arrived yesterday from London. My boss, a staff and I were there for a series of meetings with friends from the maritime transport press. Most of the big league transport publications are based in London. We regularly hold these series of meetings in Manila, Hong Kong and Singapore. Nothing serious and hardcore; just a relaxed, nice chit chat with good old friends in media who have been covering ICTSI for ages. This was the second time my boss did something like this in London, and the first time with her whipping boys =). The last time she did the blitzes were 12 years ago. Most of these editors we met were just correspondents and staff writers then. Now, they are editors and publishers. It was nice to meet them, exchanging insights on the course of the global transport industry especially that of sea ports, and comparing notes between London traffic and Manila traffic… still about transport, of course! Modern day pirates off the coast of Somalia were a special interest during conversations because a British oil tanker was the latest victim, and most of these hijacked sea vessels employ Filipino seafarers. And of course, we shocked them that we operate a port in Madagascar, a country not far from Somalia.

We left London Saturday at the brink of sub-zero temperatures. I was so enjoying the cold weather but -5 degrees is a different story. I had this dream that I died of sleep due to cold weather in Iceland. Well, it was London and not Reykjavik. But still, it’s creepy because it’s a cold weather death premonition. But I do love cold weather, and if I die because of hypothermia, most likely, you would see a smile on my face. And probably by that time, I would have lived a very fulfilling life.

By Sunday in Hong Kong, my companions went back to Manila, while I took the flight to Ho Chi Minh City. This was my second time in Saigon. The first time was in 2001. Saigon is still Saigon, except for the traffic jams and more tourists. The traffic jams are good because its traffic brought about by economic boom: road diggings to improve water pipes and sewers, construction of high rise buildings, and more cars on the road. The last time I was here, all you see are scooters and bikes. Now, you have nice cars and taxis, inching their way against a throng of bikes.

I’m here to assist our executive vice president with his paper and presentation on the prospects of ICTSI becoming a regional port operator in the light of the upcoming ASEAN economic integration by 2015. We’re off to become another EU in this part of the world.