After a long and exciting race battle in a truly international level in Thailand at the King’s Cup from November 28th to December 6th of 2010. The Jettribe Team USA Race Team, powered by Team Mean, packed our bags and took the earliest flight from Bangkok, Thailand to Saigon, Vietnam. Yes, Vietnam!
Tony Vo, president of Jettribe, a Core Watercraft Company based out of Southern California for over a decade, wanted Jettribe Team USA’s first trip to Asia to be special. And not just as seen from a race site in Thailand, but to see Asia from an insider’s perspective beyond the race site. If you think about it, race sites any where in the world look about the same. Tony wanted our team to experience and learn the diverse and rich culture that Asia has to offer and bring home not just an arm full of souvenirs, but a better understanding of Asia and build new relationships that will last a lifetime.
Our Jettribe Team USA and support staff was hand selected based on relationships and just for being down-right cool people. Jettribe Vietnam travel team included: Tony Vo “president of Jettribe”, John Cutright “Jettribe in-house photographer”, Louis Malone “Race Team Manager”, Jeremy Schandelmayer (Runabout Pro Racer), Derek Correll (Runabout Expert Racer), Christine Malone (Runabout Expert Woman Racer), Wilson Bing (Racer Support), and Linda
Schandelmayer (Team Mom). Unfortunately, Chelsea and Geary Schneider was not able to join us on this part of the trip.
Upon our arrival in Saigon Vietnam, we all knew that this would be a cool trip. Not only would we get to see a new country (mostly known only for the Vietnam War that ended close to 36 years ago), but also visit the Jettribe Vietnam facility and meet the faces behind the products. To the racer’s surprise the Jettribe Vietnam facility “Totally Rocks”. It was such an eye opener to see all of the Jettribe gear being built (from patterns, prototypes, to sewing and R & D). From what we saw, Jettribe has some very interesting products pending release for the next two years. But you did not hear it from us!
Nothing could have prepared them for the sites, sounds, scents, and friendliness of the Vietnamese people, and strangely the diversity of cultures in this homogenious society of Vietnam. The country and its people had completely moved on and forgotten about the “ Vietnam War”. More than half of Vietnam’s young population of 92 million was born after the war. So most people we mett had no recollection of the war, only by the brief history lesson from school. The only war time reminants were in the local museum. Saigon is buzzing with life and activities. There was no shortage of nice restaurants, coffee shops and lounges to hang out at for locals and foreigners alike. The local currently is “Don”, for $1.00 usd is about 20,000 Don. But any average meals is about 100,000 Don. For our group of hungry racers (like Jeremy), they spent over two million per day!!! It was fun to be local “Don” Vietnamese millionaires for the day!
The first night in Saigon, the group crashed at the Jettribe Vietnam office and slept in the conference room. Can’t complain - the floors were clean and we had a roof over our heads. The next morning we rented a bus with a driver and along with the local Jettribe Vietnamese staff headed north to a beach town called Mui Ne-Phan Thiet. This is a quiet resort place about five hours north of Saigon. For the next three days we ate nothing but local fresh Vietnamese food. It was much to our liking, and we thought that we would miss fast food, but not at all. Besides, Vietnam does not have any fast food chains other than KFC. Literally, there were no McDonalds or Carl’s Jr. hamburgers within a 2,000 miles radius.
Louis, our Race Team manager commented that there was so much diversity to see, from landscapes to the hustle and bustle of the City of Saigon with over 6 million people. During our drive along the coast, we witnessed rich tropical rain forests, soft white sand beaches, sheer high mountains, and the sand dunes of Bau Sen which looked like a scene from the Saharah desert. Amazingly, all of this was on one trip. We all enjoyed every part of the drive seen through our bus window of such different lifestyles and cultures that we as Americans remembered how lucky we are to live in the United States and how we can’t take our everyday amenities for granted.
What we experienced and have seen through our eyes was like something straight out of “National Geographic”. But this is not a cable TV channel that we can switch on or off, we are actually in the mist of it. One thing that Derek Correl, a long time friend and sponsored racer, said was “undescribable and thank you for having us here”.
The 5 hours drive up the coast seemed to end way too early, we wanted to see more sights. But once we rolled into Mui Ne-Phan Thiet a quite beach town where we are going to get some R & R for the next few days, we were excited to be there already. It was not a huge 5-star resort town like Cancun, but this place was better, much better! It had a charm of the unexplored and an innocence to it. Our team had a chance to experience it before the entire place gets too commercialized. There were numerous huge resorts nearly completed all along the coast. In the back of our minds we said to ourselves - this place is going to explode! Growth and progress is definitely good for the local economy for sure but us being selfish, we do want this place to change. It is so rare for us to be where there is no cell phone service, or internet connections, just quiet soft sand beaches and grass huts along the shoreline.
The resort that where we stayed was totally cozy and secluded and had an extreme survivor tropical feel to it, with grass thatch roofing and all. We had the whole resort to ourselves! Really! We mean there were nobody else there! Most of our time was spent at the pool during the day and hanging out on the beach. At night the team relaxed and believe it or not, we actually gazed up at the stars and walked along the beach at night. Within a blink of an eye and before we knew it, our bags were packed up and we were back in Saigon. We were now renewed with freshly charged energy. Most of us have worked nonstop for months before the World’s Finals at Lake Havasu, Az and the King’s Cup race. This was the down time that we all needed.
Our last day in Saigon was well spent, We had a chance to visit a temple where Tony Vo’s Grandma has resided for over 42 years. She is a monk by definition at 99 years young, she is as strong as can be. It was an honor and privilege to experience the true background of Tony”s family and his heritage.
The hours leading to our 17-hour flight on Cathy Pacific Airlines back to the United States was filled with so much emotion, excitement and sadness. The friendships that our Team USA made with the Jettribe Vietnamese staff: Karie, Ellen, Wendy, and the rest of the staff will last a lifetime and the warmth of their kindness will surely keep a special place in our American hearts. As our 747 picked up speed down the runway we could see through the window images of Vietnam scenery blur past us. Hearing the hydraulics retracting the 747’s landing gear we were pushed back into our seats. Saigon’s landscapes disappeared underneath us, we found ourselves feeling that we had left our dear Vietnamese friends behind and our hearts filled with tears and emptiness.
