My friend, Haan came with 3 other Malaysians to Vietnam for traveling. Haan became my friend since we studied together at USQ, Australia.

I'm in Sapa right now and I was ... watching fog. Right, it started having heavy fog since yesterday and that was the day I arrive. Everything is covered in white. We took a lot of effort taking photos...

Today we decide not to go anywhere so we spent the time dining. At 10:30am we had breakfast. Then we had more breakfast at Bagette & Chocolat restaurant at 12pm. We had a wonderful lunch at 3pm.

Our lunch consists of over 2kg of BBQ village pork, lots of stir fried green veggie, a beer and some white rice. It's special because it's the first meal I made everyone so full... We have 5 people dining over 2kg of meat... The amount of fat intake made my head aching till now.

We had some nice trips, so I'd write about them soon.

For now, all I care is that everyone who knows, and who I know, and everyone else, have a nice Xmas.

On my side, I will be on a night train from Sapa to Hanoi, so I don't know if that's fun or not.

That's all now, see you after the holidays.

Embarrassing Encounter

I've came to know Dai Viet Vision Join Stock Company since 20 April 2008. That day, I was in Hanoi and received a call from my father asking me to go to a conference. This is how I met Dai Viet Vision's owners and attracted with the company. And this is how I decided to join the force.

I went to the conference and realized that it was the opening ceremony of San Thuong Mai Dien Tu edv.vn. I was so embarrassed when everyone else was wearing formal clothing. Men were wearing shirt, pants, and leather shoes. Women were wearing Vietnamese dresses. What was I wearing? I was wearing short Jeans, t-shirt, and sleepers. On top of that, I was the only one who wear a big black backpack, which I used as my seat.

Everyone was looking at me as an alien!

Initial Chat with Dai Viet's Owners

Mr Tinh Van Han, which is CEO of Dai Viet Vision, happens to be a good friend of my parents. That's the power of relationship. Thanks to that, I could talk to him, and the vice-director Hai Huu Han, who is his nephew. I was very surprised uncle Tinh is a CEO of such a IT company. He should be old and more traditional?

Mr vice-director Han knew I graduated IT from Australia. He immediately expressed his will to have me work and invest in his company. He seemed to truly appreciated my Australian degree, even though we just met for the first time.

Join or Not?

The next few days, Hai called me and openly asked me for opinions on joining the company. I hesitated at first, so I spend few more days investigating the business and current Vietnam e-commerce status.

On 29 April, I visited Hai and other staffs of Dai Viet Vision in Hanoi, right at the head-quarter. I joined the company's party pre-holiday. 30 April is the Vietnamese Day celebrating the day of gaining freedom.

Join as Investor?

Vietnam is developing, and Internet commerce is one of the biggest, fastest growing business model. I want to make something like edv.vn for so long, but never had a chance to start it. Now is the chance, someone already made the company and the site. I only need to improve it (I hope).

My father disagreed to invest at first. He couldn't understand the business model. However, my mother agreed. She use Internet everyday and she believe in it. My girlfriend also disagreed at first. She worry I lose the money and time for a risky business.

Join as a worker?

That's what Hai offer me. He tried his best to bring me to work for the company, with or without investing money. I couldn't decide quickly because I'm only temporary in Vietnam. My future is in Australia, not here. On the other hand, it's a good way to gain more IT experience and prove my ability to make big projects successful.

I have too many ideas haven't implemented. My talents have not been used for long, and this is a chance for them to shine again. With my qualification and skills, I want to be a manager. I don't want to spend whole day on coding something that is designed by someone else. I want to give ideas, and manage people to implement those ideas. This way, I can contribute more of my skills, knowledge, talents, at the maximum productivity to contribute to the company.

Decision to Join

Join as a Worker

After doing enough analysis, I decided to join the workforce of Dai Viet Vision. At the moment the standard salary of Dai Viet Vision's personnel is still low. However, with my degree and real skills, I requested twice the current highest salary. I also requested a managerial position where ideas are important, not labor force. My request was accepted without any hesitation and conditions.

Join as an Investor

I also decide to buy from 10% to 20% of the shares of Dai Viet Vision. This is for me to gain more authority and ownership. It's important to be a owner. That way, I will be more responsible and work harder. I will be part of the company, and the company will be mine. However, this will not be too soon. I still need more time to be sure it works.

I've been to many cities and towns between Hanoi (northern Vietnam) and Quang Nam (center of Vietnam). That journey make me so tired. I had not enough sleep and rest.

I will be answering emails and questions from today.

This woman, whose name is Binh Thi Nguyen was kept as a slave in a family right in the capital of Vietnam. She was tortured and forced to work hard for 13 years since she was only 11 year old. She was still fortunate enough to get rescued by a neighbor.

The compassionate neighbor who rescued Binh is an 70 year old woman, also called Binh, Binh Thi Ha.

The news article states:

It was a case that outraged a nation: for 13 years a Vietnamese couple abused and tortured a young woman they kept as a virtual slave, until she was finally rescued by a compassionate neighbor.

When Nguyen Thi Binh, 24, emerged from the family-run Hanoi noodle shop that had been her prison, her tragic story and the scars covering her body triggered outrage at the perpetrators -- and anger at officials who did nothing.

Source: Maid's ordeal in Vietnam highlights domestic violence

And another article just for the rescuer:

The Ha Noi People's Committee has awarded a certificate of merit to Ha Thi Binh for her role in helping Nguyen Thi Binh, a domestic servant, escape thirteen years of abuse at the hands of her employers.

Source: Woman honoured for blowing whistle in Hanoi abuse case

My take: I can't believe their is still enslavement in the modern society. I worry this is not the only case that happen in Vietnam. And I think in the world there are countless much-worse cases.

Note: Please bear with the naming confusion.

• In Vietnamese the name is in order of Surname > Middle name -> First name,
• while in English it is First name -> Middle name -> Surname.

I'm writing in pure English so it is the second case, while the news article write in half English so it's the first case.

What's next?

I found this news article from Google Alerts. In fact I have have alert everyday with the keyword "Binh", so from now on I will spare sometimes posting news about the other Binhs around the world. What do you think about this idea?

As always, please feel free to say your opinion in the comment form.

JohnChow.com, the first reviewer for rssHugger did sign up himself for the first spot. He was the first, and so far the only paid member on rssHugger. Undoubtedly he got the number 1 position and... perhaps he may keep it for very long till Shoemoney.com or some other big blogs come into the competition.

I, myself is proud to be one of the very first takers and I recommend you to do the same. It's not an affiliate program so you can take my words for it.

The program is absolutely free and I'm sharing the secret out: be one of the firsts and enjoy the flood of traffics. The last day yesterday it grow from 20 to 83 blogs listed. The number of new RSS feeds are making me worry, everytime I refresh I see the count increase.

What's next?

Don't forget to check out how RSS on rssHugger looks like. I will be reviewing more blog directory as I go along, so don't hesitate to subscribe to my RSS feed for latest posts.