To Vietnam, With Patience

From the pool looking out onto the beach that touches the South China Sea

Things in Vietnam are done on Vietnam time.

We're staying at an internationally-branded resort 50km from Danang in central Vietnam, and we have to wonder if the poor service is because that's the way the people are, or they have not been trained properly.

Overall the staff are very nice people, they smile and say hello. Most of them know some basic English, but if a request is beyond their responsibilities, they don't know what to do and either ignore the request or may try to find someone who has better English.

This morning we got a wake up call at 5.30am -- 24 hours ahead of schedule. We wonder if it's the girl who called that was very anxious to make sure we got up, or the young man who discussed the wake up call with us and then wrote down the time wrong.

We also wonder if the driver was also up at this ungodly hour as well as the person who was supposed to prepare a breakfast box for us to eat in the car on the way to the airport.

Then today just before lunch, we requested a Vietnamese meal and a phone call was made to the restaurant we were going to eat at.

But when we got there, drinks were ordered and served, but then nothing else happened. We waited and waited... until our host asked the server and through her body language we could tell she knew nothing about our special request...

The foreign executive chef had to come out and apologize, saying someone had dropped the ball... but minutes later the food did arrive and we were too hungry to admire the food and take photographs.

In the end we ate very quickly thanks to the chef hustling the troops. But typically eating here is a long-drawn out affair. What would take an hour and a half or two hours in Hong Kong takes at least two and a half hours here. The service is really that slow, not only front of house, but in the kitchen as well.

There's a cultural gap in understanding foreign guests expect things quicker because they are not used to waiting for things. Granted it's a resort where guests are supposed to relax, but surely we should not have to wait so long for dishes to be cleared and utensils set up?

This afternoon we went to the spa and there were seven of us who were booked for treatments. However, when two of us arrived, the spa staff insisted we had to share a room even though we asked twice not to...

Other than that the massage was excellent, but at the end we were wiped down with a lukewarm cloth...

So in some cases things have to be completely spelled out, others it's because of a lack common sense.

Also many of the staff carry smart phones and seem to be looking at them -- even when they're on duty...

Nevertheless, these are small but vital details that can be improved upon.

Vietnam is very much like China, where things we think are obvious are not something they have picked up while growing up or their trainers have assumed understanding.

It will take time for Vietnam to develop further -- which is why the patience of Job is required.

Eventually the pay off will be big, but it'll be a while yet...

Avian Flu Fears Hit Hong Kong

Hong Kong has its first suspected case of avian flu, a new strain called H7N9 after a girl showed flu-like symptoms after coming to contact with birds in Shanghai.

So far six people in China have died of avian flu, from 16 cases that apparently started in Shanghai and spread to Jiangsu province, Nanjing, Zhejiang, and Anhui. The latest fatality was a 64-year-old farmer from Huzhou, Zhejiang.

A few days ago Hong Kong was already on a heightened state of alert, though at the time Secretary for Food and Health Ko Wing-man advised the public to be vigilant, but not scared.

However, with this girl's case, the city is going to step up measures, particularly in monitoring poultry and taking people's temperatures in the airport and border.

It is frightening to hear about this new strain and how we have to be careful about where we go and what we eat.

Already the poultry industry in Hong Kong was hurt by previous avian flu outbreaks over the years and now another one will make things difficult for poultry farmers yet again.

But also one has to wonder what Beijing is doing to monitor the situation, if at all. Much like the milk powder scandal in 2008, nothing substantial has been done since then to tackle the serious issue of how milk is collected and then processed and packaged.

It's also scary to hear it took Chinese officials a while to confirm the avian flu cases because they weren't sure... where is the education and expertise? Perhaps the government also had a hand in covering up the news and only wanting to release information if it was indeed positive...

Time is of the essence here; while the Chinese government has improved significantly in terms of dealing with these kinds of health issues, it still needs to speed up its response because lives are at stake, not to mention the economy.

And also education. This is my repeated refrain -- the Chinese public need to be educated on basic hygiene -- not just that you should wash your hands with soap, but why this is necessary.

Then there needs to be education and regulation on how people rear and keep chickens in China so that we can keep better track of them. It's just like the 16,000 pigs floating in the Huangpu River in Shanghai; because there is no regulation, officials still haven't figured out where exactly they came from and how they ended up in the river.

In the meantime Hong Kong people will probably think twice about going to China on leisure trips now, as well as eating chicken for a while because they come from across the border (unless you eat at a French restaurant and have chicken from Bresse).

I say we promote eating turkey instead -- it's imported, has much more protein and tastes better too!

Developing Danang

Surrounded by a pack of motorbikes at an intersection in Danang

I'm now in central Vietnam, about 50km away from Danang.

Last week Dragonair started direct flights from Hong Kong to Danang and it's been interesting to watch the evolution of this tourist destination that was formerly known as China Beach to American soldiers during the Vietnam War.

I first came to Danang 15 years ago when one of the first international resorts there opened, called the Furama Resort Danang.

Since then that strip has expanded to include many other resort properties, but when I came back again almost three years ago, there were many half-built buildings, because these projects ran out of money thanks to the financial crisis in 2009.

A sign promoting a development that has yet to come

In the last few years some of those outstanding construction projects have been completed, while others are still like skeletons standing on an otherwise stunning beach front property.

Two years ago Danang opened its new airport -- the previous one was basically like a warehouse and passengers had to deplane by walking down the stairs onto the tarmac before entering the terminal.

We heard that when the new airport opened, no one knew about it. And it was only when they got to the old airport did they know there was a new one. Luckily it was next door, but people had to schlep their luggage to the new building.

The resort that I'm at now, is about 50 minutes from Danang; its a large complex that includes an 18-hole golf course designed by Nick Faldo, and so acquiring 250 hectares means having to get land farther away from Danang.

A traditional Vietnamese fishing village

All the roads leading to this resort are relatively new, including a tunnel through a mountain that is 6.28km long. It can take a while to get through the tunnel not only because of the distance, but also it's only one lane going each way and vehicles are not allowed to pass the one in front. The speed limit is also only 50km...

So the pace in Vietnam is much slower than Hong Kong, but things are definitely happening here... as long as you're patient...

Apple's Kowtow

The glowing Apple icon signals the store is at ifc Mall in Pudong, Shanghai

It took some time, but Apple finally gave in.

In a long, grovelling apology on Apple's Chinese website, chef executive Tim Cook apologized, in which he admitted the company had "much to learn about operating and communicating in China".

"We are aware that owing to insufficient external communication, some consider Apple's attitude to be arrogant, inattentive or indifferent to consumer feedback. We express our sincere apologies for causing consumers any misgivings or misunderstandings."

The campaign started on consumer rights day two weeks ago when CCTV had a TV special accusing companies like Apple and Volkswagen of treating Chinese consumers unfairly.

The show claimed Apple offered lower levels of service and charged for replacing back covers of fault iPhones, while in other countries it was done for free.

Then someone up above orchestrated other state media to join in on the chorus to drag Apple down, but the campaign backfired when Taiwanese actor Peter Ho apparently posted on Weibo what was supposed to be his own critical view about Apple, but at the end of the rant it said, "Publish around 8.20pm."

He tried to defend himself by saying his Weibo account was hijacked and he never wrote the message...

But back to the main point. A reporter from Fortune went through the warranty terms between China and the US and found that they were exactly the same.

"Although the language is different, I couldn't find any policy differences between them," reported Philip Elmer-DeWitt. "Both offer 14-day returns with full refunds. Both offer one-year warranties that either, at Apple's discretion, 1) repair the defective or refurbished product, 2) replace it with a new or refurbished product or 3) return the customer's money. Both guarantees replaced or repaired products for 90 days or the life of the original warranty, whichever is longer."

But what China really wanted was Cook's kowtow to potentially the biggest market in the world.

It wanted to show its citizens that China could make anyone -- even Apple -- beg for forgiveness even though it had technically done nothing wrong.

This is a subtle reminder to the mainland Chinese that their motherland is powerful and not a force to be reckoned with, even on the world stage.

But what about domestic companies?

Firms, particularly state-owned enterprises are the worst when it comes to customer satisfaction. These include telecom providers, banks, railways, and electricity and water suppliers.

On social media, users weren't afraid to make scathing remarks.

One wrote: "Everybody is eating cooking oil recycled from gutters. No problem! Everybody is drinking poisonous milk powder. No problem! We drink water filled with dead floating pigs. No problem! But when you change the back cover of iPhones for foreigners but not for us, that is not okay, that is far more serious."

Exactly. Get a grip, Beijing. There are far more important issues your citizens are more concerned about than warranties on Apple products.

And people are going to continue to buy Apple products anyway, so Chinese ones lose out anyway.

We hope this is the last we hear of China complaining about a fruit everyone loves.