Day 5

Hey, I'm full of food and going to bed early. I was up till 2am last night and woke up at 10am so that cut into my tour time. Ideally I should be getting up at 6am as museums open at 7am. If I wake up at 10am that gives me less than two hours to hit a museum as everything closes at 12/1pm for the national lunch break haha. Plus I have to wake up Monday morning at 6:30am, eat, be at the harbour dock for 8am and board a hydrofoil for 8:30 and get into Vung Tau around 10:30am. I then go to Long Tan Cross and Nui Dat which was part of the Australian Aera of Operations (AO).

Today was good though, I haven't had a bad day yet. I woke up and hit a local restaurant for breakfest. I had banana pancakes and they were really good! I kicked myself for not getting breakfest earlier. I grabbed a moto and headed to Bien Hoa which was the base for the 173rd Airborne Brigade (the unit I re-enact) when they first  came to Vietnam. They were the first unit in Vietnam because the US needed security for Bien Hoa airfield. At the time the US only had Da Nang Airbase in the north and Bien Hoa airbase in the south to luanch strikes into North Vietnam and give aerial support to ARVN units and their US Advisors. Well the enemy knew the US only had these two airbases and would launch rockets, mortars and infantry attacks on it. The US sent the 173rd Airborne Brigade because it was the US quick reaction force for Asia and they were based at Okinawa Japan. If the US needed help in any Asian country the 173rd would act fast and because they were an airborne (paratrooper) unit they could drop thousands of troops in minutes using the sky to surprise the enemy. They were suppose to be temporary and the 101st Airborne Division would take over. The 101st were famous during WWII (Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan) and they did come to Vietnam, but the 173rd was so great that the 101st was used in another part of the country.

At first the 173rd was to be used for basic security and counter against enemy attacks on the base, but they soon started bringing the fight to the enemy before the enemy could hit the base. As other units were doing this too and it seemed to be working more troops were sent to Vietnam, reaching it's peak around half a million in 1969 when the US started pulling out. The 173rd left Vietnam in 1971 and was one of the longest serving American units in the war.

It's safe to say I love the 173rd Airborne, so seeing the area they operated in was great. I took a moto to Bien Hoa and made sure he was one of the $100,000d per hour drivers as I had no clue how long we'd be. We started trucking there and I got to see the outer part of the city. Construction! The city is booming and expanding. On one job site I saw 10 condos being built. I thought Vietnamese roads were busy but highways are kinda scary for me haha. There's two sets of lanes. One set of two for moto's and a second set of two lanes for transport trucks and cars. Sometimes they merge together and driving between two transport trucks scared the fuck out of me, but what could I do? I could only hold my breath and hang on. All along the highway was factories and construction equipment for sale. Sometimes you saw vendors selling water or fruit and once in a while there were mechanic shops. It was raining in Saigon but only spitting so I was fine, but on the highway it poured. My driver pulled over to get gas and we put on our ponchos. Glad I got to use my Vietnam era poncho in Vietnam :) After an hour we hit Bien Hoa, and I thought the distance on maps was small, but getting to Bien Hoa took a good while. I might have underestimated that in my planning. We got there and found the site of the airbase, but it's currently being used as a Vietnam People's Air Force Base so there's no way we could get close. My driver took the next right street so we'd get closer, but still away from the base. That's when I did something odd. I brought my knife and an empty water bottle and started stabbing the earth. Whatever came out I scooped it in my water bottle. I told the driver I wanted to take a piece of Bien Hoa home with me as a souveineer and we hit the road again. I wanted to go east of Bien Hoa to check out Gao Ho Nai which was a 199th Light Infantry Brigade (LIB) base. The 199th shared Bien Hoa with the 173rd and both worked the same area. The 173rd focused on Bien Hoa and the 199th focused on the Long Binh Complex. Long Binh was the biggest base in SVN. Units weren't allowed to set up camps in the city, so the US found a huge area of land and set up shop there. Saigon was the capital, so all those people who to be based in Saigon, like hospitals, supply units, police, aviation units, radio and the list goes on were sent to Long Binh and the base had over 50,000 troops living and working there. I wanted to drive down Hwy 51 to check out the area but my driver got lost. By the time we got back on the highway were were half way home and being happy with my mud, I just told him to go back into Saigon. There wasn't anyway to turn around anyways and I burnt my leg on the exhaust pipe of the bike

It made me realize that I'm okay not hitting every big town in SVN. What matters most to me is seeing certain places like where the 173rd served, national parks where I can legally hump through the jungle and not worry about losing my legs to a landmine and towns like Nha Trang, Hoi An, Da Nang, Hue and the demilititerized zone. Going through Bien Hoa town was good, but it's just like Saigon. I'm sure Vung Tau will be like Saigon but smaller, like Bien Hoa so I'm thinking of cutting some things out of my trip and just pass through towns instead of stay each day. With any extra days I bank up I could go home early and see if I can change my flight home, or spend more days in Saigon or another town.

On the ride down to Bien Hoa something came to mind... ILTFP! "I Love This Fucking Place!" It's awesome and I feel it's all that society needs. If you have a car, you're friggen rich, that's blinging. I now hate cars since I can cross the street no problem with motos, it's cars that stop me from walking across as motos go around me. A car goes through me haha. It also makes me want to buy a motorbike, it's addicting haha. This place doesn't need the frills we have in the west, all the things we take for granted. The people are great despite some vendors being annoying and there's just something about it. It's more alive then back home. I can see why some US troops stayed and chose not to come home after the war. Anyways I'm going on too long.

Once back in Saigon we passed the Saigon Centre which is a shopping mall. I wanted to check it out and it was full of stuff you don't need, like The Bay back home. Just fancy stuff that people don't need like funiture, and clothes. I did find a La Senza store though so I had to take a pic for Brittany as she works there in Ottawa. Maybe she could get transferred there? That or London haha. I hit Ben Thanh market and handed Sean's custom zippo design and as it would be a while I humped it to the small shop I saw yesterday selling US Army gear. I picked up 3 rucksacks: 2 mint condidtion ARVN 2 pocket rucks, one for Sam and one for Kirshin and a Lightweight Rucksack bag for Sean. Got them for $35 each even though i was told the LW ruck bag was $45. As I was nearby I went to Cho Dan Sinh (where else? haha) as they had a duffle bag to haul all my stuff. I also bought a grenade carrier and USMC first aid kit for Josh. I asked where the post office was and it was on the other side of the downtown core. I moto'd it there and asked how much it would cost to ship the stuff I picked up that day. I was told to do it by sea as it's cheaper and more accepting of large packages, as they normally carry CONEX (big metal shipping bins). I hit Ben Thanh market again to pick up the zippos and they came out alright. The one design of the 503rd infantry ( the regiment we re-enact) is complex so I can't fault the artist if he can't put somethign that hard on an inch of steel, but it has that made in country by some guy in a shop in Saigon feel to it, you know, since it was haha. I talked to the zippo guy and tomorrow he's invited me to his house to see his family. His son is considering on going to Canada for school. I know what you're thinking and yes, be nice to everyone you meet, but have a plan to kill them. This guy I don't think will give me roofies and use me as his sex slave but I'll be cautious. He is a nice guy but yes I'll keep my guard up. A common con is that some Vietnamese person invites you to their place for a visit and to practice english, and there's a poker game going on. You're told to play and they more or less win all of your money from you. I'm not playing poker haha and I consider him my first Vietnamese friend and I'm honoured to be invited to his house and family. He also said that next time I'm in town he'll have his friend over that lived in Toronto and is a Vietnamese history buff which would be cool.

I made it home, dropped my shit, had a shower, took a video of the shit I got today and went out for dinner. I hit a local bar and ordered onion rings and cihcken fingers. I didn't know their portions would be so big and the onion rings and two for one beers filled me up. The chicken fingers are as thin as chicken fingers but overall it was a good meal and did something else I wanted to do, have a drink while I'm in town! tomorrow I'm getting up early so I'll hit the rack. Have a good one :)