Obama Time @ Christina’s Saigon
People often asked me, “Do you love Vietnam more, or do you love America more?”
I simply asked them back, “Do you love your mom more, or do you love your dad more?”
I am a Vietnamese American. I am 100% Vietnamese AND I am 100% American.
With President Obama’s recent visit to Vietnam, my identity is once again front and center.
I was born in Vietnam in 1983, moved to the United States in 1993, and came back to Vietnam in 2011. It took me a while, but in 2014, I started a social accommodation business. Today, Christina’s is the #1 ranked accommodation in Ho Chi Minh City and has developed into an exciting social travel brand.
Team Christina’s has been working day and night, seizing every opportunity to grow the company and contribute to Vietnam’s budding local economy. So instead of waiting by the roadside to snap some selfies with the President — we didn’t get tickets to the speaking events — we stayed in our office and worked up some suggestions for the President instead.
We didn’t get that far, and he never got on our motorbikes…unfortunately.
It was during this time that some of our team members decided to watch President Obama’s speech from the day prior in Hanoi. During his speech, the President spoke about a Vietnamese American who was born in Vietnam, grew up in the United States, and is here making it his personal passion to improve the lives of every Vietnamese. As the team turned to look at me, I felt an emotional rush that almost brought me to tears…but I pretended like it was nothing.
I am certain that I was not the only one who was overwhelmed by those remarks — two of my brothers, who served in the U.S. military, are also part of Team Christina’s, and many Vietnamese Americans were also present at this event. What the president put into words is core to the identity of many Vietnamese Americans of my generation.
Although President Obama did not apologize for the atrocities caused to the Vietnamese people during the war, he did offer reconciliation through a variety of partnerships and initiatives between the two countries, in the forms of national security, education, trade, and assisting the removal of Agent Orange — dioxin — from our land. Could more be done? Absolutely! But this is a good start.
As a Vietnamese American, I feel that I am also part of this offer of reconciliation. Every penny that was ever invested in me by America — a lot of pennies over eight years of public education, numerous summer programs, four years of private university, and all sorts of healthcare coverage — will now bear fruit in Vietnam to make up for what happened during the war. In other words, I will be fulfilling my American duty by contributing to improving the lives of the Vietnamese people.
Some of my fellow Vietnamese Americans have charted their own paths in different fields, such as education and finance. My brothers and I, along with Team Christina’s, have chosen to build homes for travelers visiting Vietnam.
Christina’s is our home and a home-away-from-home for travelers. Our locations encourage guests to stay in far corners and nearby alleyways of Vietnam where they can experience Vietnamese culture via the genuine hospitality of a local host. This is also why we chose Airbnb, which encourages travelers to “Live There,” as our primary travel community. By promoting the “local host” approach, we are enhancing travelers’ experience while at the same time developing hosts to become entrepreneurs with a passion for sharing Vietnam with the world.
At Christina’s, we recognize that it’s not purely about attracting talent, but also very much about developing this talent. We believe that a passionate young person + Christina’s = an entrepreneur and that this can be replicated throughout Vietnam, even in the countryside…or maybe especially in the country side, where micro-entrepreneurship can serve as a foundation for building stronger communities.
Due to this focus on development, Christina’s implements a strict requirement that every new host must go through the same basic training to provide a Christina’s experience to our guests. This includes spending the first 2–3 months cleaning rooms and making beds, using in-house technology to efficiently manage our operations, and ultimately welcoming guests into our homes so that they can experience genuine Christina’s hospitality.
Christina’s is currently available in Saigon, Hoi An, and Hanoi, with over 100 keys under management (UPDATE: 300+ keys, and also available in Nha Trang and Da Nang with Da Lat coming soon). Our Onetrip operation, which runs some Awesome Motorcycle Adventures, has also expanded to Hoi An (UPDATE: and also Da Nang). With the continued support of our guests and a passionate team that we have built, within 3 years, we hope to grow to 3,000+ keys throughout Vietnam, with Onetrip running a handful of adventures in each of our locations. When this is all said and done, we can then take a breath, knowing that we have contributed what we could to the local communities in Vietnam and those wishing to visit them.
President Obama said during his speech, “Today he’s here back in the country of his birth because he said his personal passion is improving the life of every Vietnamese.” I felt that he was speaking directly at me. I felt extraordinarily proud and lucky to be able to fulfill my American responsibilities while contributing to the development of my homeland with our work at Christina’s.
So Mr. President, next time, visit Vietnam and stay at Christina’s. We’ll show you how to take a proper selfie while crossing the street…Vietnamese-style!
And to all my fellow Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans, let’s focus on what unites us so together we can contribute to a better future for Vietnam, fulfilling our American and Vietnamese dreams and responsibilities of making the world a better place.
Let’s be a good host to our world.
That’s my thucents!
P.s. It’s really hard for me to choose…I mean, look at them!
The Sequel: To host is to be human
