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Diary of the Trip to North Vietnam

Nov. 8 (Fri), 2002 〔The day before the departure〕 I was working at the Mongolian Agency for Standardization and Metrology (MASM) in Ulaanbaatar. It was the second year of my work as a JICA expert assigned to Mongolia. The conference of Asia Pacific Metrology Programme (APMP) was going to be held from November 11th to 15th in Hanoi, Vietnam. I had been asked to attend this conference as a representative of the Mongolian Government. The chief representative was Mr. Khurelsukh, the chairman of the MASM, and I was the deputy representative. Whenever we, JICA experts, go out of Mongolia, we are required to get the permission, not only from the JICA office in Mongolia but also from the JICA Headquarters in Tokyo. It is because JICA offices in other countries can support our safety and activities outside the assigned country. Nov. ９(Sat), 2002 〔To Beijing〕 We were to stay in Beijing for one night on the way to Hanoi because there was no direct flight between Ulaanbaatar and Hanoi. At a quarter to eight in the morning, Mr. Batsuri came to my apartment to send me to the Airport. We arrived at the Airport at 9, but Mr. Khurelsukh did not appear for some time. I began to worry about if he would arrive in time. At 9:40, he arrived saying, “I am late because we were having a send-off party with my friends in the morning to pray for my safety of the trip.” 〔Beijing〕 A flight attendant announced that the temperature in Beijing would be about ‐5 degree Celsius. It was warmer than UB by about ten degrees. There was a newly built highway between the Airport and the central part of Beijing. I had been Beijing several times many years ago. Beijing was quite modernized since then. In about 30 minutes we arrived at Keirin-Hanten hotel located near Tiananmen Square. The hotel rate was 120 USD per night; quite expensive. I asked Mr. Khurelsukh why we were staying at such an expensive hotel. He said, “It is not so expensive for me. If you have an official passport, you can stay here with 50 USD per night.” I had an official passport issued by Japanese government, but it was no use here. I already paid

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30 USD to get my visa for Vietnam, and 60 USD for China (two visas for both to and from Vietnam). However, Mr. Khurelsukh did not need Visa for both countries, because they had special agreements between those countries made when Mongolia was a socialist country. I was told by JICA office to visit JICA Beijing office. But the day we arrived was Saturday and the office was closed. I called Ms. Sugisaki at her residence, a staff of JICA Beijing Office. She said she was living near my hotel, so she would visit me at my hotel anytime. Nov. 10 (Sun), 2002 〔To Hanoi〕 In the morning, I called Ms. Sugisaki. She came to my hotel at 10 o’clock. We had a brief meeting at the coffee shop in the hotel. We exchanged information on China and Mongolia. After the meeting, I came back to my room and changed heavy winter clothes to light summer clothes. We checked out of the hotel at noon, and headed to Beijing Airport. There were only about 40 passengers in the plane to Hanoi. Among them, about 10 were Chinese group passengers. A Chinese lady next to my seat was reading an English newspaper. I said “Hello” to her. She told me that they were going to attend the APMP conference in Hanoi. I told her we two were also attending the APMP from Mongolia. We exchanged business cards. I knew the lady next to me was a High-class Professional Engineer, and the Head of the group was Mr. General Professional Engineer. They belonged to the Chinese Institute of Metrology. We arrived at the Hanoi Airport in the evening. We were welcomed by the people from Vietnam Metrology Institute. It was very hot and humid. The temperature must be 30 ℃ or more. They sent us to the individual hotels. Our hotel was Hoa Binh Hotel, the cheapest hotel among the hotels they had recommended for the participants. The representatives from the Philippines and India also checked into this Hotel. Although, the hotel looked very old, the room was nice and spacious, and the services seemed good enough. When we passed in front of the Café in the hotel, a charming lady smiled to us saying, “Please come to Café later.” I immediately decided to come for sure.

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Nov. 11 (Mon), 2002 〔To Hanoi〕 The APMP sessions started at 9 o’clock in the morning at the Melia Hanoi Hotel. Compared with the Hoa Binh Hotel, this hotel is new and luxurious. About 20 Japanese representatives are staying in this hotel. Mr. Khurelsukh attended the Technical Committee of the Quality System (TCQS), and I attended the Technical Committee of Electromagnetism (TCIM). After the meeting, all the participants of the TCIM were invited to a traditional Vietnamese Restaurant. The restaurant was located northwest of the downtown Hanoi, one and a half hours bus ride from the hotel. They served strange food like wild boar meat, and unusual soup. I could identify none of them. We drank locally-brewed sake from a big pot by using a long tube. The sake was strong and had a strange taste. On our way back to the downtown Hanoi, representatives from New Zealand sat next to me. I had been to New Zealand as an interpreter for our city’s friendship visiting group. In those days, three New Zealand girls home-stayed at our house. I talked about these stories to them. They showed interest and told me some recent topics of New Zealand. Nov. 12 (Tue), 2002 Mr. Khurelsukh and I attended the Developing Economies’ Committee (DEC). Attending this committee and making our appeal for assistance to Mongolia from the developed countries were the most important mission for us. I was relieved to know

Hoa Binh Hotel,

Meria Hanoi Hotel

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that the chairman of this meeting was Mr. Seta, who belonged to the National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ). I had met him when I visited NMIJ while I was on my paid leave to Japan. I felt a sense of completion when I finished my statement concerning the requirements of Mongolia. Because Mongolian members attended this meeting for the first time, the participants from Vietnam welcomed us very much, and the representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Germany treated us kindly, and showed understandings to Mongolia. I came back to the TCIM group in the afternoon. They invited us to the Vietnam Metrology Institute (VMI). The VMI looked a little larger than MASM. Like in MASM, there were old Russian-made instruments in most of the laboratories. We looked around the Institute very quickly, and then went to a lounge to rest. They offered us coffee, tea and soft drinks with snacks. We relaxed there, and talked about various things such as food, customs of individual countries. Vietnam people looked very serious in appearance, but I found that they are easy to get around and lovable people. In the evening, Mr. Khurelsukh and I went to the Lake Hoan Kiem for dinner. There were many restaurants along the lakeside. The fish food was delicious. But Mr. Khurelsukh did not look happy with fish. Mongolian people prefer meat to fish. Hanoi was very hot even during the night. The atmosphere reminded me of the other south-eastern Asian countries like the Philippines or Thailand.

DEC meeting

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After I had come back to the hotel, I visited the Café in the hotel. The hostess spoke English well, and I felt quite at home with her. Nov. 13 (Wed), 2002 All the attendants of the APMP were invited to join the symposium to be held in the morning. A staff of the Representatives of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) as well as metrologists from Japan, Germany, Vietnam and some other countries made presentations. Discussions, statements of opinions followed after that. All the members were invited to visit the Vietnam Metrology Institute (VMI). Since I had visited the VMI yesterday, I decided not to join the visiting tour, but to make a sightseeing tour in Hanoi on my own. At the reception of the hotel, I asked to call a taxi with a driver who can speak English. A guide appeared with his private car. He took me to the Lake Hoan Kiem, Hanoi Opera House, the Temple of Literature, the Lake Thuy, and the Lenin Park. Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Ho Chi Minh’s Native Home were in this huge park. Ho Chi Minh took command of the North Vietnam Army in this small house, the guide explained. He also explained that the Lenin Park was presented by the Soviet Union after the victory of the Vietnam War. Streets in Hanoi were inundated by motorbikes. Most of them were Japanese made bikes like Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, with a few Chinese bikes. It was extremely difficult for me to cross the streams of bikes, but local pedestrians were crossing easily hearing loud warning honkers. People use motorbikes as a taxi. Many motorbikes were waiting and shouting for passengers. When I called the JICA Vietnam Office on the first day of my stay, they cautioned me not to take a motor bike as a taxi, because they may turn out to be a robber. But motorbike taxis were very convenient, and I used them many times to reciprocate between Hoa Binh Hotel and Melia Hanoi Hotel. 〔Welcome Party〕 At night, the VMI threw a big welcome party at Melia Hanoi Hotel. More than 200 people attended the party. Every country was asked to perform singing or dancing of

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his or her own country. In Mongolian’s turn, Mr. Khurelsukh sang a Mongolian fork song and I danced a Japanese Bon-festival dance. It was no problems because no one knew Mongolian folk songs and Japanese traditional dances. I had a name tag on my lapel written as “MONGOL,” because I was a representative from Mongolia. Everybody except Japanese members identified me as Mongolian, and I acted as if I was a Mongolian. However, I felt embarrassed when I was asked, “Can you ride a horse?” or “Do you speak Russian?”, or “In which university did you study?” I sometimes had to confess that I am not a Mongolian, but a Japanese assisting Mongolian government as a JICA expert. Many Vietnam intellectuals spoke Russian because they learned in Russian universities. Mr. Khurelsukh also studied in Russia, and was able to speak Russian very well. He looked like a fish in water and was speaking Russian fluently with old Vietnamese people. I learned the Mongolian language for about 100 hours in total before and after I came to Mongolia. But my Mongolian was no use to communicate with Mr. Khurelsukh. Someone asked me if English is spoken in Mongolia because we were speaking in English. I replied, “Yes, sometimes.” General Assembly was going to be held tomorrow. The chair country of the APMP was Japan. Mr. Imai, the Chairman of the General Assembly asked Mr. Khurelsukh to make a speech tomorrow morning because Mongolia and North Korea were the new faces to the APMP. After we had come back to the hotel, we drank beer with Mr. Khurelsukh at the café. He asked me to draw up his speech for the General Assembly. I drank too much that night, so I thought I would make it next morning. Nov. 14 (Thu), 2002 〔General assembly〕 Early in the morning, I devoted to writing the draft speech for Mr. Khurelsukh. I showed the draft to Mr. Khurelsukh while we were eating breakfast. He asked me “What is this under the circumstances?” I said, “It is like under this situation.” He said, “circumstances is difficult to pronounce, so I would prefer situation.” “Will he be all right to make a speech today?”, I anticipated.

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The General Assembly started at nine led by the Chairman Mr. Imai, Secretaries of Mr. Seta, Mr. Usuda, Ms. Honma, all from the MNIJ. Dr. Ono also attended as a special guest for the conference. Mr. Khurelsukh sat at a main representative’s seat, and I sat at an observer’s seat. After the Chairman’s opening greeting, Mongol and North Korea were asked to make a speech. Mr. Khurelsukh made his speech with solemn dignity. That’s no wonder, because he used to be a communist cadre. At night, there was a party hosted by the Bureau of APMP. More than half the attendants had left after the yesterday’s symposium. About 100 members attended this party. Most of them already became acquainted with each other and the party therefore proceeded in a friendly atmosphere. I had a chance to talk with Dr. Iizuka, the former Chief Executive of the NMIJ, also Mr. Imai, the chairman of the APMP general assembly. When I told him that I used to work for EPDC, Electric Power Development Company, he said, he was involved with a project of EPDC when he belonged to MITI, Ministry of Trade and Industry. As he had contributed very much to establish the APMP organization, the Iizuka Award was set up to reward persons who did the noteworthy contribution to Asian Metrology. This time, a young female researcher of NMIJ and a young male researcher of Korean Metrology Institute received the awards.

Mr. Khurelsukh is making a speech

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Japan contributes about 70 % of the budget needed for the running of APMP. Travel expenses for a representative of poor countries like Mongolia and North Korea are paid by the Japanese government. Mr. Khurelsukh came here using the money given to Mongolia. I paid mine for myself. I was told by a member of NMIJ that two North Korean officials came to this meeting using the subsidized money for one person; they saved on the travel cost for another person, not taking the airplane, but taking the train all the way from North Korea to Vietnam. I felt an impulse to ask the engineer of North Korea about the abducted people from Japan to North Korea. It was good not to do so, because later on, I knew that the guy accompanied him was a special government agent to watch on him. Nov. 15(Fri), 2002 There was a closed meeting in the morning where only one member who represents each country was allowed to attend. Mr. Khurelsukh had to attend the meeting as the chief representative of Mongolia. However, I asked a secretary of the NMIJ, and got a special permission to observe the meeting. There were a lot of items to be discussed and decided. Most of the proceedings were quickly handled because attendants had got tired of the meeting. The general assembly ended at three o’clock, a little earlier than scheduled. Principal themes of the conference were the enhancement of the metrological level of Asia-Pacific area, promotion of the world mutual metrological agreements required by WTO (World Trade Organization), and many other important subjects. I understood that the metrological issues were deeply related to the development of the world trade. I also realized that the APMP is a very specialized organization composed of very special members, being quite different from the other international organizations like ISO (International Standardization Organization) or IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission). ISO and IEC are completely open to various industries and academic institutions. But the members of this organization are limited to the government officials and staffs of national metrological institutes from Asia Pacific countries. No one was from universities or manufacturers. I could participate in this particular conference because I belonged to the Mongolian Agency for Standardization and Metrology. Most of the participants were doctors. All the members of the NMIJ whom I exchanged business cards with were doctors. I was amazed to see that they communicate with

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each other in good command of English. One of the reasons I assumed was that they were involved in particular people in the very limited particular world. They have special languages including special acronyms like NMI, BIPM, OIML, MRI, NMIJ, NIST, APLMF, CIPM, CGPM, and so on. I was confused with these floods of acronyms because I was just a makeshift metrologist. After I had come back to the hotel, I visited the JICA Vietnam Office. Mr. Kume responded with my visit. We exchanged activities in Mongolia and Vietnam. He told me there is Daiyu Hotel nearby, and the souvenir shops in the hotel are very popular with Japanese visitors. After I had left the JICA office, I visited Daiyu Hotel and bought some souvenirs. Nov. 16 (Sat), 2002 Sightseeing tour We joined the sightseeing tour to Halong Bay arranged by the Vietnam Metrology Institute. About 40 members attended the bus tour. Halong Bay is located about 180 km north of Hanoi where, they say, there are about 2000 small islands and oddly shaped outcroppings in the sea. I sat next to Mr. Van, the Chief Executive of the VMI and the director of this trip. On the way to Halong Bay, Mr. Van told me a very interesting story. Many years ago, the God summoned the representatives of human beings, water buffalos, dogs, and monkeys. The God said to them, “I shall give 30 years of the lifetime to each of your tribe.” The representative of the human-beings said, “The thirty years are too short, we want longer lifetime than that.” The representative of the buffalos said, “We don’t want to work hard for as long as 30 years, the ten years are enough.” The representative of the dogs said, “We don’t want to keep the houses of human-beings for as long as 30 years, the twenty years are enough” Lastly, the representative of the monkeys said, “ we don’t want to display our unpleasant faces for as long as 30 years, the twenty years are enough.” The God said to the representative of human-beings, “I shall add twenty years from the buffalos, ten years from the dogs, and ten years from the monkeys, then you have got the 70 years of lifetime in total. The representative of the human beings was very pleased to hear that. But after that, we can enjoy only our original lifetime of 30 years, then we were destined to work for 20 years as hard as buffalos, and then we have to keep the house for ten years for our young family, and then, we have to display our unpleasant faces for ten years.

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I thought this story is very interesting. About three hours from our departure, we arrived at Halong Bay. There were innumerable sightseeing boats at the wharf. We could also see innumerable small islands and strange rocks standing out of the water. It was explained that they were created from the limestone washed by the sea waves for many years. We took a sightseeing boat and cruised among the islands. We landed on an island and explored in the huge limestone cave. There were many stalactites. The stalactites were explained as 「鍾乳」in Chinese characters. I told a member from New Zealand that this sign means “the stone of women’s breast.” Hearing my explanation, a Chinese guy nearby said, “No, it does not mean the stone of women’s breast, it means the stone of milk.” I cannot argue with the Chinese about the meaning of Chinese characters. I apologized for my wrong interpretation. We had lunch on the boat. They served very good crab food. Since Mr. Khurelsukh didn’t eat crab, I could eat two fresh tasty crabs. On the boat, I made some unskilled haiku, neglecting the season words.

・ 北越に異人集いて島巡り Hokuetsu ni ijin tsudoi te shimameguri ・ 朝靄に奇岩むせぶやハロン湾 Asamoya ni kigan museubu ya haron-wan

・鐘乳とは石のミルクとぞ申しける Shônyû towa ishi no miruku tozo môshikeru

・ 凪ぎし海に奇岩の影を重ねけり Nagishi umi ni kigan no kage wo kasanekeri

Halong Bay (from a web site)

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We came back to Hanoi at around seven o’clock at night. VMI offered the farewell dinner party at a big restaurant in the city. As we were well acquainted with each other, we spent the last night in Hanoi, in a very friendly atmosphere. All the expenses I paid for this sightseeing tour were only 30 US dollars. It was a cost effective trip. After we had come back to our hotel, Mr. Khurelsukh and I drank beer at the café. This time, Mr. Khurelsukh paid the bill for the first time. He was going to move to Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow. Nov. 17 (Sun), 2002 I said goodbye to Mr. Khurelsukh and checked out of the hotel. I got in the bus arranged by VMI and went to the airport. I got on board with the Chinese delegates. We arrived at Beijing Airport at around three o’clock in the afternoon. I took a private taxi from the airport to the hotel and paid 450 Chinese Yen. It was three times higher than the normal fare. After I had checked in the hotel, I called JICA Beijing Office. Mr. Sakamoto invited me for dinner at a restaurant located on the top floor of a tall building. I reported on the results of the conference and meetings held in Hanoi. The temperature was, he said, about ‐10 ℃. It was very cold outside. The Beijing cityscape has quite changed since I came to this city more than ten years ago. Quite different from those days, there were many fancy new buildings illuminated brightly.

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The medal and its certificate given by Mongolian Goverment

モンゴル政府から授与された勲章

Nov. 18(Mon), 2002 In the morning, I went to a shopping market to buy souvenirs. I bought a cold-weather coat there. As I forgot to ask a bargain, I knew later I paid three times more money. Beijing was an expensive city for me. It cost me about 600 USD in total for my transit stays. At 11:30, I checked out of the hotel, and went to the airport, not by a private taxi this time. Before five o’clock in the evening, I arrived at the Ulaanbaatar Airport. Three girls, Zulaa, Ulee, Anoo were waiting for me at the airport. We had a big party in my apartment to celebrate my safe return. The temperature at night was about ‐20 ℃. It was the first trip to go abroad from Mongolia. It cost me about 2,500 USD, but I was satisfied because it was a precious experience for me, and also I could make a contribution to some extent for Mongolia. On top of that, I was awarded later a special medal by the government of Mongolia at Mr. Khurelsukh’s recommendation. So it paid off enough.