Our official trip has officially ended. This morning, we got up, packed (which was actually pretty complicated), and headed to the airport. We got our last look of the surprisingly ordered streets of Yangon as we drove to the airport. Myanmar is a beautiful country that I would love to explore more of. I hope to be able to return one day to see the further changes as Myanmar continues to emerge and develop.
Our flight was uneventful which was a good thing. We flew to Taipei for a short extension.
This trip has been a wonderful experience – Big thanks to Ms. Pham for all of the work she put into this trip both before and during the trip. It really was a fun time and a great learning experience.
I love all of the real world experiences that we have had on this trip. I learned so much about how complex it is to do business in foreign countries that are just starting to develop and with very different cultures. I also learned quite a bit about other religions that I have had little to no interaction with. I learned how important infrastructure is and just how developed the infrastructure in the United States really is. Throughout the trip we learned about some of the companies that have come into Vietnam and Myanmar. For instance, Coke just recently entered Myanmar, but Pepsi has yet to enter. Coke just entered a year ago, but it is now available at a lot of places across the country. It was also interesting to learn just how quickly things can advance from controlled to capitalistic. For instance, Sim cards in Myanmar used to cost US$4,500 a few years ago, but now only cost US$2. It amazes me how quickly the economy and business can change. It was also great to learn about companies like Royal Haskoning who want to have locals run their business in the country after they have been given the tools. I also loved being able to contrast business and tourism between Vietnam which has been developing for a while and Myanmar which just started. I think that aspect provided an even better understanding of international business and marketing in other parts of the world. So many more lessons were learned over the course of the trip.