Newsroom

Not a good start to the week.

Not a good start to the week. I still have a bad cold, and Arsenal lost 2-1 at home to Hull , a team just promoted to the Premier League. An incredible shock, but well done to Hull. Arsenal are playing a bit inconsistently – they were top of the Premier League before this and won 6-0 in the Carling Cup with a team of their youngest players. But football’s like life – you should always expect the unexpected!

Then I find on Monday morning, just before leaving Ho Chi Minh City for Can Tho, that I forgot to bring a tie with me when I left Hanoi. Luckily Deputy Consul General Andy Ziardis lends me one of his, and we set off to Can Tho – 4 hours drive and ferry crossing from Ho Chi Minh City. I have a call on the Chairman of the People’s Committee, meet the very active heads of HSBC and Prudential and meet various representatives of local business as well as the Can Tho Branch of the UK-Vietnam Friendship Association.

Things that I’ve noticed here in Can Tho – that it is a very beautiful and lively city, of great economic importance for Vietnam. The very active role played by women in the local business community. The high environmental awareness, particularly of the effect climate change could have on the Mekong Delta, which in turn would affect global rice production. The scope for cooperation on education and training, and also on agricultural production technology.

I was impressed by Can Tho university and the very active students participating in the Mekong 1000 scholarship programme. Some of them told me that their image of the UK was of cold weather, cold and vey formal people and a very expensive place to live. Modern Britain isn’t like that – just like Vietnam is very different now from two or three decades ago. I hope we can show people an accurate picture of both modern Vietnam and modern Britain. That’s the job of a diplomat!

Finally, there are a large number of geckos in my hotel. Geckos are one of my favourite animals, and I fell asleep listening to their distinctive noise. Next day I got a printed note in English from the hotel apologising for the inconvenience and offering to remove geckos from rooms if requested. Clearly some guests have been complaining. Perhaps they don’t understand how nice and useful geckos are. It reminds me of when I was a young diplomat in Brazil nearly 20 years ago. I came home one day to find my wife very afraid to go in the kitchen as she said there was a very frightening animal there. I opened the door not to find a tiger or a snake, but a gecko. As she had just arrived from Europe she had never seen one before. But once you know about geckos, you can’t help but like them. A bit like British people, I hope….

- Mark Kent, British Ambassador to Vietnam