Skip to main content

Read Rule Number One Again


“Goooood morning Vietnam!”

As the clock on the wall strikes 6:00 a.m. we’re ready to leap into another day. This is not a radio program being transmitted from the rice patties of Central Vietnam but (my hope) a humorous travel log from our Cenergy Power company retreat in November of 2019.

How do you possibly begin with so many unique and vivid experiences rolled into a ten-day trip in Asia? Well, it’s best I think, if we start with the rules we adopted early in this trip for safety, comfort, and a wide variety of extraordinary travel experiences.

The rules were simple:

Rule #1 - Always follow Doan Hyphuoc Vo (Dr. Vo)
Rule #2 - If you think you are right, read Rule #1 again

Why you say, well, sit back and allow me to share the story of our adventures in Vietnam.

Dr. Vo is the team lead (and our personal guide) for Cenergy’s Electrical Engineering Operations. He was born in Saigon in the early 1950s. This blog post could be a complete biography of his life growing up in Vietnam; dodging the Vietcong as a young boy, being captured during the Vietnam war, attending University to become an electrical engineer, and immigrating to the United States in 1981.

However, my objective with these posts is to document our travels and extend my heartfelt thank you for his eternal optimism, patience, planning, and persistence. It was simply uncanny how he was able to corral a frantic group of 22 people while arranging top-notch accommodations, maneuver bustling airports, overcrowded streets, open-air markets, a variety of recreational activities, excellent local foods, and quite frankly the ability to accommodate each individual's needs. No tour guide could possibly be as flexible or accommodating.

After 20 hours of travel from LAX on EvaAir (Taiwan based) via TPE, we arrived on Friday, November 21, 2019.

Luggage, oh my - as a group we schlepped - 8 large cardboard boxes, 2 checked suitcases per person, backpacks as carry-ons, cameras, caged chickens (just kidding), you name it we had it. We looked like a circus had just dropped from the sky into Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).

Now imagine the challenge of passing through customs, a group this size approaching with carts loaded to the brim. Large X-Ray machines loom ahead with the prospect of having every box, bag, and backpack (after an exhausting flight) unloaded and reloaded one-by-one on to the rolling carts was absurd. Just minutes earlier our entry into Vietnam was routine, simply hand your passport and visa to security at customs. We were home free, (we thought) however there was one final checkpoint after collecting all the luggage.

So, how do you handle this? It’s simple - for Dr. Vo.

He walks casually to the head of the group and motions to the security guards running the X-Ray machine, “Would you like to see my passport?” He says in Vietnamese.

Suddenly, as if by magic we wheeled all those huge boxes and large heavy suitcases around the X-Ray machine to the exit with one stipulation, “Please place your backpacks on the conveyer.”

“In Vietnam what’s illegal is legal,” he would say to me many times during the upcoming week around the city.

Little did we know we had effortlessly passed through customs by following Rule #1. This would occur many times during our whirlwind travels.

But wait, its approaching Midnight and were still at the airport.

If you’ve never traveled to Asia here’s what you can expect. As you exit the airport, there is a barrier with hundreds of people waving placards, jabbering on cellphones, taxis, buses, scooters darting in every direction - in short, mass confusion. But there among the masses was Dr. Vo's man in Vietnam, Quach Bao. He calmly lead us off to the side and had taxis' ready to load that pile of stuff and our group of weary travelers. What a relief.

That night, headed for the hotel, we received our first lesson navigating Ho Chi Minh City,

“You see these cabs with the VinaSun logo they are legitimate, many of the others are not. In Vietnam what’s illegal is legal.”

Without incident, another potential nightmare handled with ease and comfort.

So remember, when in doubt - read rule number one again.

And we haven’t even started yet, stay tuned . . .

Comments

Most Popular of All Time

We Need Awe More Than Ever

In this episode, Why We Need Awe More Than Ever Yesterday morning, I slipped into the cool stillness of my backyard before dawn. The air was crisp, the silence deep—broken only by the faint rustling of leaves and the familiar calls of birds waking early. Then I looked up. A thin crescent moon hung low in the east, with Venus just above it like a shining jewel. The sky was clear and full of stars, and for a moment, I felt something I hadn’t in a long time: Awe! For thousands of years, the heavens have carried on their steady dance, untouched by human noise. No ruler, no election, no breaking news has ever changed their rhythm. And yet here I was, tempted to reach for my phone—to trade the eternal for the urgent. Instead, I stayed. I watched the moonrise, the sky slowly lighten, and the world around me stir. Ducks passed overhead in a loose V, hummingbirds zipped past to visit their feeder, pausing mid-air as if curious about me sitting so still. Little by little, the static in my mind f...

The Birth of a Cubs Legend

In this episode, The 162-Game Exhale — and the Birth of a Cubs Legend There’s a hush in the baseball world on Game 162 — a collective breath drawn in and slowly released. Scoreboards stop flipping. Dugouts empty. For six months, the game has been our steady heartbeat, pulsing from the cherry blossoms of Tokyo in March to the crisp, playoff-charged winds of late September. And now, as the regular season exhales, baseball fans everywhere pause to absorb the story we’ve just lived. For me, that story has been deeply personal. This season unfolded in the rhythms of my daily life. It was the summer soundtrack echoing beneath the constant turmoil of politics and sensational headlines. It was a handful of carefully chosen ballpark pilgrimages stitched together with countless nights in front of MLB.TV. And at the center of it all, for a lifelong Cubs fan like me, it revolved around one name — a young center fielder who turned hope into history: Pete Crow-Armstrong. The 2025 season didn’t begin...

The Silent Grid–Part Two

In this episode, The Silent Grid – Part Two Sirens split the night as Greenwood went dark. Marvin knew instantly—the blackout wasn’t an accident. It was a warning. In this quiet town, where life once unfolded at a predictable pace, a sleek, intuitive smartphone—a so-called gift from the future —has arrived. But it’s no tool for connection. It’s a silent force, erasing individuality and turning neighbors into something less than human. Marvin Gellborn, a man who values independence, sees the truth. His device isn’t helping; it’s testing him, watching him, and quietly embedding itself into the life of Greenwood. Welcome back to On the Fly . In this week’s episode of The Silent Grid , GridBot tightens its grip. After a hopeful community gathering, Marvin and his robot companion, Norman, notice a troubling absence—the very generation they hoped to reach has vanished into the neon glow of The Signal Box , a youth tech hub pulsing with digital obsession. When Greenwood’s lights vanish, Marvi...

The Pessimism Aversion Trap

In this episode, The Pessimism Aversion Trap Picture this: a room full of bright minds nodding in agreement as a bold new strategy is unveiled. The slides are polished, the vision is grand, and the future, we're told, has never looked brighter. Everyone beams—because who wants to be the one to say, "Um… this might not work"? Heaven forbid someone spoil the mood with a dose of reality. Better to smile, add a buzzword or two, and march confidently toward disaster. That's how the Pessimism Aversion Trap works. Even now, I can still hear the sound—a high-pitched shriek and a digital hum, followed by the slow, rhythmic clatter of data pouring from a 5¼-inch floppy disk. It was the late 1980s, and my makeshift home office (our living room) was dominated by what felt like a marvel of modern engineering: a used Tandy 1000 PC with not one, but two floppy drives. To top it off, we purchased a 'blisteringly fast' 300-baud modem—which, for the uninitiated, could downloa...