Crazy smokes and cheap books

I included Christmas in the title of my last blog, but I realized today walking around I didn't say anything about it hahahaha. Places all over Saigon are putting up Christmas stuff for the holidays. At first it was Diamond Plaza and the Vincom centre as the only people who can afford anything in there are westerns, everyday Vietnamese can't afford to buy anything from there. Now Christmas items are being strung up everywhere. Last night I noticed a local theatre is working on doing "A Christmas Carol" through December. I thought Vietnam was a Buddhist country but according to the CIA World Fact Book 20% of people in Vietnam practice religion and of that 9% is Buddhist and 7% is Catholic which is a shock to me as there's more pagoda's than catholic churches. I did assume Saigon would have a higher catholic population than Hanoi as catholics fearing government backlash in 1954 moved down to South Vietnam, while communists were to move up north. I think by now we know how that ends up haha. Anyways it still feels weird to me, being 34 degrees outside and seeing snowmen, ice, snowflakes etc.

It seems the earlier I try to wake up at, the later I get out of bed. I set my alarm for 7am, trying to get up early so that I'd be tired at night and maybe get into a good sleeping routine, get up earlier and get to do more before the 5pm rain. Speaking of rain last Tuesday when I trekked across town we didn't get any rain. Today is Tuesday and we didn't get any rain either! Considering it's the dry season now, it hasn't been dry and the people don't like it. It's like us getting snow in mid to late April, it's wrong! haha I had my breakfast and had no idea what I should do today. I decided to find the place with the sample pack of Marlboro smokes which came in the Vietnam War C-rations, US soldier's meals. It's called an accessory pack but it's little things troops needed, toilet paper, matches, gum, etc. Smokes were like Kinder Eggs where you never had a clue what kind you'd get but the range was Marlboros, Kools, Camels, Lucky Strikes, Winstons, Pall Malls, Salems, Chesterfields and Kents. The cigarette companies got to send trial packs to 500,000 soldiers, get them addicted and gain that many customers. Seems like the ones that thrived were Marlboros and Camels. I have no idea why but the stereotype is that black guys either smoked Kools or Camels and I know Camels are marketed towards African Americans but I don't know about Kools. On the Dave Chapelle show there was a game show with non-black contestants and had to answer questions on Black people. When asked "Why do black people like menthol cigarettes?" someone said "I don't know" and that was correct! Nobody knows why but apparently they do! Anyways regardless of race, you'd swap smokes with your buddies or up the ante and get in on some pound cake or sliced peaches with syrup haha. If you didn't smoke, and with the stresses of combat and a stress reducer in every day's supply of rations I imagine there weren't many non-smokers, you'd still get smokes, but you can hoard them up and trade them for better food, in case you got lima beans or almost any situation where money is required haha.

I bought a pack of Marlboros and they're actually a pack of ten, but still small and slim. I asked the lady and pointed to the sample pack. She went to get me a new pack but I didn't want it. She told me the box is empty and I told her it's okay, I want to buy empty box. She gave me a funny look and tried to sell me a normal pack. I told her I know they're empty and I want to buy this box, how much? She was confused haha and I had to pull out my last attempt for her to understand. I'm dinkydau. I buy this *grab the box* how much dong?" She died laughing haha and I joined her. I told her that I'm crazy and I want this empty box haha. I got it for $1USD haha and happily went on my way.

I was on Nguyen Hue street, and this is how most streets are suppose to work in Saigon, plus it's beautiful with palm trees and plant life dividing up lanes. There is two sets of lanes in the middle for cars, just like our streets at home. Two lanes going one way, two lanes going the other way. Then there's a curb blocking the outside of those lanes. There's two smaller lanes outside each set of car lanes and these are for moto's only. Altogether there's 8 lanes, 4 in the middle with cars, four on the outside for motos and the cars aren't allowed in the moto lanes as they won't fit, and motos can't get into the car lanes as there's no point, cars are slow and big. Honest to god this is how every street should be in the city, and one major road near my area, Tran Hung Dao, which I cross like twice a day is set up like this, but it's chaos. The moto lanes are just used as turning lanes or if there's too many moto's in the in the car lanes and it's faster to use the moto lanes. Crossing the eight lanes on Nguyen Hue street is easy, as it's two at a time. Tran Hung Dao on the other hand is chaos and a steady sea of motos. Too bad there isn't police to enforce the roads haha. Anyways I crossed Nguyen Hue because there was a snow storm in the window of a hotel. Alright fine it was styrofoam balls being blown around by a fan, but I had to check it out while I sweat it out in the 34 degree sun. I checked out a local street market to see if they had cases of water and they didn't. They did have the small 24 pack cases but I didn't want them as I'd go through three a day and have a crapload of garbage (yes here it's sadly garbage). Iè... wait... dammit, lost the ability to use apostrophes. I'm (yes!)happy with my 1.5L bottle.

Oh! I also went to a bookstore to look for grease pencils. Here bookstores have stationaries too but no such luck. I bought two Vietnamese books though. The first is a little kid's baby book but I figure it would be good to get my feet wet and it looked funny. I also picked up a North Vietnamese troops walking up a mountain, so I figure it's American War related. It's more advanced but big font and 200 pages and it's on something I'd be interested in so why not? Altogether my bill was $2.50CDN haha. Books are cheap here! I got home and had some time to kill before dinner so I played my tunnel rat game. I honestly might buy it just for fun. I loved the Viet Cong video games because of the tunnel rat action, and now they won't work on Vista or Windows 7. The other reason is that the reviews have been so bad for it, I kinda wanna find out how bad. My version I downloaded for free is in Russian, so I can't read any of the game menu screens or understand a damn word my guy says. It's funny though and from the reviews the character you play is crazy. One minute he's against the war and the next he screams DIE DIE DIE!!!!!!!!!! so I think it would be more funny if I understood it. He sometimes has flashbacks to his childhood and speaks every time you pick up a set of US dog tags, or rip off an enemy's ear for your collection back at base. The other cool thing is that you get to kill women as they are armed and Viet Cong as well! The one thing that's retarded is there's wire boobytraps where it's a grenade and a string of wire. If you hit the wire it pulls the pin out of the grenade and boom! They force you to disarm the grenade, which in real life isn't hard, but in the game it is. What they didn't think about though was... CUT THE WIRE and keep walking! The wire doesn't make it explode unless it's a falling grenade with the pin out. I still don't know how to disarm them so sadly I still have to walk through the wire I should be able to cut, but no, that's not hi tech enough.

I had a chicken quesadilla for dinner and it was alright, but a bit expensive, I went to Lotteria for ice cream since it's only $.75 instead of $3 at a restaurant considering I'm broke haha. I came back here, wrote this and probably watch a movie before bed. No point in saying what I'm doing tomorrow as I have no clue! Take care.

Christmas, politics and flags

Today I slept in till 11am, came downstairs and I got my 2 week bill from my guest house. I keep forgetting, they are a business, but as their a family they have bills to pay. Me being here for 2 weeks renting this small room is more than the amount of money a Vietnamese person makes, so I got my $3.7 million bill. I went out to get my fruit salad breakfast and check on my flag as it was to be finished today. I come in and it looked great, it just needed the seam for a flag pole and the sparrow tail cut and it'll be done at 7pm. I head to the bank and realize I don't have my credit card, my only source for cash. I come back and let her know I forgot my card, as she's waiting on me haha, she being the guest house manager I guess. She's the eldest here and head of the house. It's lunch so all the banks are closed. I had nothing else to do so I wandered down a side street to discover and I found a convenience store called "Family Mart". I walk in and the first thing I see is Jim Bean on the discount shelf at the front of the store and I just found it funny haha. It had a station where they could make you a hot dog, subs, pogos, etc. I found Danish butter cookies which I haven't had in years! We use to get them for Christmas so it reminded me of my childhood and for $1CDN how could I refuse (good song).

Bank opened and I got my cash and hurried home as I'm carrying enough cash to keep a Vietnamese person happily unemployed for 5 months haha. I was meeting up with some Vietnamese kids at the park. Yesterday they were wanting to practice English and learn about Canada and they wanted to meet up with me again. I suck at name haha but the one guy, lets call him Hotrod as that's what Stan Smith does. He was there first and he was showing me his school work. He has to read a heavy English book of all things, 1800's British English haha. He underlined words to show me and see if I knew what they meant. It's funny, I can use them in sentences and sound smart, but when ask to define them from memory it's hard as I don't use them. I can define H&I fire, but not exactly define swimmingly. I can use it in a sentence, but and have an idea from the other words in a sentence to define the context of the word, but it doesn't come up in my vocabulary at all haha. I tried to explain that there's everyday English, words people would use normally compared to more proper, educated English. It's still English but in the average North American day it's not used. Professor to professor or at a Royal Gala you'd speak like that, but taking it easy at home with the hockey game on and your friends over, the English is more relaxed. He wants to master English though so I told him he's on the right track using proper English, but everyday people don't use it with each other. I also explained that when I write, I use a more advanced form of vocab compared to my verbal English. On here I keep it real though, I just mean if I'm writing a paper on the Business ethics and the Colt M16 in Vietnam or DOW chemicals and Agent Orange and it's going to be marked or it's more important than blogging on what I did today haha.

We talked about politics. The one girl, lets call her Sue, read up on Canadian politics and knew of the Conservatives, Liberals, NDP and Bloc haha. I told her there's a saying, there's three things you don't talk about at a party- Religion, Politics and Money haha. I tried to explain it though and it let me ask about how it works here. In Vietnam you vote once every 4 years. You vote for the communist party as any other party is illegal which they didn't seemed bothered by. You go to the local communist HQ and your given 4 names. You don't know anything about any of them but you have to pick one to lead the party. You go home and get back to your life. I let them know that if I wanted to, I could run for Prime Minister in Canada (Forbes for 2012!) Whoever runs, they travel all across the country to talk to people and let them know what they'll do for the country. They tell them about themselves, like Canada's Prime Minister has two kids, he's from Calgary and is a Calgary Flames hockey team fan haha. I can find out what he did before running for Prime Minister and that things are more open. I mentioned that I have my local government representative on facebook, so I can talk to him about something on my mind, he takes note of it, if a lot of people are concerned about it he passes it up to his party, his party listens and will say "Canadians are worried about this..." or at least that's how it should work :)

We talked about the American War and they told me that the US didn't want Vietnam to be at peace and one whole country. I get they've been taught this so I didn't call bullshit. I told them the Western prospective is that the country was divided in two in 1954 and the Geneva Accords let each half become their own country, North was communist and the South was democratic and those living up North that wanted to be democratic were allowed to move to the south and vise versa for the Commies living in the South. After that period each country was free to do as it wished, the South wanting to have what Canada and the US had but the Viet Cong and the North were trying to stop what the SVN wanted. I also explained that from the Western view that Communism was seen as bad, that it was viewed somewhat like slavery, having the public work and get the same pay, while the government took most of the pay they made and if that was true the US wanted to save Vietnamese people from that. I kept it short as I was in public haha. I did end it by saying that now Vietnam is united and at peace, it's communist but the people are free to live their lives. I myself didn't say it was bad and I said we should talk about something else and made a joke "as I don't want to get deported or re-educated" which nobody understood hahahahaha. Luckily they didn't have tomatoes or the giant wooden hook to take me off stage at the Apollo haha.

I had to head out and was given bananas. I let them clean my room after I was sick, and they saw my medication. Now the mamasan wants to help me. She offered me medication last week which I had no clue what it was so I politely said no thanks. She made me try some funky fruit last night, I tried to avoid it but I tasted it and it was gross haha. I held it in, entered my room, locked the door and spat it out. She now has bananas for me. I think it's very kind what she's trying to do, but I don't want any of it haha. I got my fruit salad, I'm good! Not eating a $50,000VND breakfast for fun haha although it does taste good. The bananas she gave me look liked they bounced off a truck and got hit by motobikes and I snuck them outside for disposal haha. I ate dinner and it was really good, mozzarella cheese sticks and a bacon cheese burger which was amazing and cheaper than Carl Jr's which was too expensive. I had time to kill before I picked up the flag and hadn't had dessert so I walked to the new and nearby donuts and donuts! The sell coffee but I guess the concept of dunkin donuts was too foreign so it's donuts and donuts but with the same dunkin' colours and font. Customer service is kinda funny in Vietnam. I ordered a doughnut and at home I'd take it and sit. They bring it to me on a plate with a steak knife and a fork. I look around and everyone is eating them that way. Well with pride I picked it up, and showed anyone who watched how Westerners eat them haha. It was soon gone and I went on my way.

I took the long way and made it to the shop. It wasn't done yet but the guy hopped on the sewing machine and finished it in a few minutes. My flag looked good. They showed me the other side and then I noticed the mistake. The good side is here...

That's how it's suppose to be. But on the other side the "2" was moved to the other side, to the blank position on the good side. I let them know and luckily each side was done separately and then sewn together, so they just have to redo one side and not start all over again. If you stare at it, it's not perfect, but I can say with pride that it was made in Vietnam and then it's accepted at not being 100% haha. Honestly I'm just happy to see those numbers on fabric I can display with pride and in two days I'll be able to pick it up again for $25 as it was their mistake, not mine. Other then that I'm going to bed early. I'd like to get up at a decent time and I haven't heard from him, but I was suppose to go to Cu Chi tomorrow, so I'll pack for it and see what happens. If it doesn't happen I can still pick of Chris's e-tool, check out some maps and hopefully not spiders, pick up a case of water in bulk instead of spending $5,000 everyday on one bottle of water and pick up a pack of 60's c-ration Marlboro smokes. Until then, keep fit and have fun!

Well I started today at a decent time and beat my alarm clock. I got up just after 9am and got a free coffee with my fruit salad, I guess it's free because I showed initiative by getting up before 11am. After breakfast I went to the surplus market to buy Chris M1967 canteen pouches I had set aside for him a few days ago. I picked them up and forgot to load my wallet with enough ammo and I had to come back home. While I was checking other booths for gear I saw two massive rats scurry from vendor stall to stall. Freaky but that wasn't enough. I encountered another Monster Spider! This fucker was again the size of both your hands and it crept from under a table out into the open, walked about six feet and someone kicked it a little and it scurrying away. Now if you're read earlier, I have a fear of spiders. The ones back home I'm more than fine with now and will stomp on them or set their webs on fire as I have that technology to do, so I use it! It's an irrational fear of spiders thought to come from a past life if you believe in that stuff. 

So this is my past life I figure, or one of them and it explains stuff about my life. During Operation Crimp, while checking out tunnels a 173rd soldier turned tunnel rat died in the tunnels and it was claimed that it was due to lack of air. They tossed in frag grenades which when they explode pollute the air and makes it hard to breath. Tunnel rats carried DDT which was a pesticide in a tank, and when they encountered bats, fire ants, scorpions and spiders to kill them and they would live as they had gas masks on. I encountered spiders, I hit the DDT to kill them but my mask wasn't sealed on my face. It was hard because you're all sweaty and in the tunnels you bump your head around. I took a good dose of DDT and spider bites and I died in that tunnel. That's why I have such an interest in Vietnam, the 173rd, Cu Chi, being short and Tunnel Ratting. If anyone wants to prove me wrong please email me :)

Anyways that spider spooked me. Not in a scream like a little girl way, but a controlled slow and cautious withdraw from the area expelling a short, quiet "ahhh....". Do you know how I know it's irrational? 1) I got gators on and I could squish that muthafucka! The girl kicked it though since she knew if she stomped on it, it would be a big mess! 2) I know it's not real, but I envision those spiders everywhere now! For the next 24 hours I'm on a cautious hunt for spiders that won't be there, but I'll look because I'm fucking paranoid now in seeing another. I later went back to the market after I grabbed more cash and I looked more at the floor than military gear, waiting for another fucker to pop out and hopefully a vendor has an E-tool or something long to kill it haha. Afterwards I went to KFC and looked under the table for the monster spider which wasn't there. 3) Every time I think of it, I get a shiver down my spine. Something in my head's being a jerk though, because I think "Look out for the spider!" and then I shiver and check it out haha. My subconscious is being a dick!

At least I won't be as scared at next year's Fort Malden hahaha. I'll be welcoming the loonie sized Wolf Spiders and Garden Spiders compared to these fuckers!

Alright, I hit the market again to check out maps and M67 E-tools. I also found a USMC OD e-tool and carrier, so Josh if you lose the webgear auction I at least have a USMC e-tool for ya! Maps, I checked out a bunch yesterday and googled them as I could see town names and occasional highway but couldn't think "Hmm.... what unit was here?" or "Where the fuck is that!?" They had a lot of maps from Dak Lak, so if you like the Ban Me Thout area in the middle of no where, where most Americans units never touched then let me know and I'll hook you up for $5 each! I hit the pile of maps again having some info on which I wanted which I should rescue from my ruck (does that...) and found one of Bo Tuc which is clueless to me where that is, but it was dubbed "The Fish Hook" as Cambodia kinda curls into Vietnam like a fish hook (yea, now you're learning!). 

The Fish Hook was park of the 1970 Cambodian Incurring. Nixon was elected because he said he'd stop the war in Vietnam. He started pulling US Troops out of Vietnam, but secretly bombed Cambodia, another country, and shortly after sent about 30,000 US troops to invade Cambodia! I fucking love it hahaha!!! The reason is that Cambodia was "neutral" but the North Vietnamese used Cambodia as a place to store weapons, ammo, war supplies and the North would just run back and forth from Cambodia instead of marching all the way to North Vietnam for a break in the fighting, to lick their wounds, eat plenty of rice and slug it out again for six months with US troops. The US invaded and let the enemy know they're only going in 20 miles and wouldn't go further. This allowed enemy troops to drop everything and run. The US made little contact but took millions of bullets, thousands of rifles, machine guns, mortars, rocket launchers, medicine, included some donated by Americans (damn hippies) and misc items. The main reason why I got it was (oh you know there's a 173rd link in here somewhere!) Operation Junction City was in the area and the 173rd (there it is! :) ) parachuted on the Cambodian border because in 1967 it was illegal to enter another country, thanks Nixon! and the closest town was Katum which is where I wanted to go but settled on Tay Ninh for my dirt sample. I'd like to learn more about it and eventually be able to draw the battlefield and troop movements. 

The 2nd map I got was of Play Cu = Pleiku which was a major town and home to an Air Force base. It was the main base for the 4th Infantry Division and a place the 173rd Airborne Bde and 1st Cavalry (Airmobile) would visit. Speaking of which, the map is SW of Pleiku. Anyone know what happened here? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? (Ferris Bueller's Day Off). Give you a big hint. Hill 732, Chu Prong Mastiff, small dried up river in a valley, 1st Air Cav Division, Drang is the name of the IA=River. Lt. Col. Hal Moore... If you don't know this and you're in the group... Last clue. Mel Gibson....... We Were Soldiers, on history channel once a month. Yea I was going to pass on this map but then I saw it was SW Pleiku, saw the Chu Pong Mastiff and knew it was the Battle for Ia Drang Valley. First big battle with the US and the North Vietnamese and really a test to see how each other operates. Big battle, the US lost about 400 troops but the NVA lost more so it's all good, right? :)

The 3rd map was of Binh Dinh province which displays An Khe, home to the 1st Cavalry Division from 1965-71 and home to the 173rd Airborne 1967-1969. It also covers Phu Cat AF base which was the source of local fire from the sky, Qui Nhon naval base and supply base, Lane Army airfield home to the 174th Assault Helicopter Company - "Sharks", the hueys with the red and white shark teeth and one of my favourites, QL-1, section of the national highway kept secure by South Korea (fucking scary dudes to fight! Lets hope they scare North Korea!) and up north firebases like Uplift, Hammond, Duster Hill, 8-Inch (Artillery) Hill, Easton (named after Lt. John Easton, 1st/69th Armor, KIA 25Sept68), Bong Son - Home to the 173rd Airborne from 1969-1971 and LZ English, the 173rd's main base during that time. It's home to Happy Valley and An Lao Valley. I know the area intimately as I mapped it on google earth using Ray's map room online who served with 1/69th Armor in the same area with the 173rd. Sadly I know the bases better than anywhere else, and I have no info on the 173rd while they were in this area! Drives me nuts! haha.

Alright, it stopped raining so I just got some dinner. Before that I headed near Ben Thanh market because I saw a street vendor selling unfiltered Camels smokes with the old logo on it. Since their unfiltered the box is more square than rectangular like other brands. It even has an old and vague message saying the Surgeon General warns that quitting smoking NOW Greatly reduces serious risks to your health. It didn't before when we told you to smoke, but NOW it reduces risks to your health haha. They don't say smoking is bad, but if you stop smoking you can still die, but it reduces risks to your health. Thanks for the two-step JT International. Anyways the warning is on the side and blends in nicely, so if your looking at the pack you won't notice :) Not sure if it had the plastic wrap in the 60's though but I don't want to take it off yet. Feel better having Camels in my helmet as the Lucky Strikes have the old school look but newer school box. 

I was cutting though the park to get back to my neighbourhood and I was recording about the Camel smokes and someone wanted to practice English on me. Before I knew it I had 5 people around me listening in and asking questions about Canada. I recorded a shitload of it but just basic stuff, they asked me questions, I answered, I asked about Vietnam, etc. I talked for about two hours hahaha. We exchanged email address and they want to meet up with me again, in the park, not the one I met fuckstick and bitch in. I'm cool with it as it's in public with plenty of people. The one kid is going to Cu Chi Tunnels and wanted to know if I could come. Pass up another chance to crawl though tunnels!? I'm in! In the tunnel though, he's on point. Cong won't shoot another Vietnamese not in a uniform and unarmed unless it's Tet 1968, a mass grave was already dug and it was in Hue (watch full metal jacket). Plus I'll give him my E-tool to kill bugs. Fuck! If he's on point he'll have my flashlight. I have Matt's gas mask, just need to find some 40 year old canister of DDT haha. Naw it'll be cool because on the way I can teach him about the American War Tunnel Rats, the non-commie side of Cu Chi, away from the propaganda. Since everyone at Cu Chi is dressed as Viet Cong or NVA I'd honestly love to show up head to toe in US kit. If only I could legally work there hehehe. I'd settle as a tour guide for a travel agency, as long as I could be head to toe in US kit :) Explain about tunnel rat tactics, tunnel demolition, etc. And if the situation blows up in my face going to Cu Chi with this kid I'll beat him to death with an M1967 Tri-fold Entrenching Tool (E-tool). Does a bit more damage than a near empty swinging water bottle to the ear or nose :)

Alright, I came back here, started writing this since I wasn't hungry, then it started raining. Luckily I can hear the rain somehow from my 2nd floor room (think it's like 4 stories) so I hit up a place that stole Boston Pizza's logo, atmosphere and menu! The food wasn't the same but they had chicken fingers and the last ones I had were tiny satay-like twigs instead of a finger. If they were fingers, they weren't human ones. Anyways these were passable, but overcooked. Could have been fish for all I knew but I ate them. Better than sending them back to the kitchen and wanting new ones as the sauce would be tainted haha. It was a sports bar so there was soccer and some olympic trails, had pole and freestyle gymnastics and a Russian guy got gold on the poles and Canada got silver and bronze, so it was cool to see a piece of Canada other than myself. Also on the front of the menu was a small Canadian flag. I asked the waitress if the owner was Canadian but the language barrier appeared. I wouldn't doubt it though. Who knows Boston Pizza, moves to Vietnam and starts a copy of it? I figure an American would literally bring the franchise over. That's one thing I like about Vietnam in a way. If I had a bar or restaurant in Vietnam, and it was catering to the war tourism, what would I name it? We Were Soldiers, Hamburger Hill, Full Metal Jacket, Bright Shining Lie, Uncommon Valour, Rescue Dawn, Charlie MoPic and Boys in Company C don't have a ring to it, although Hamburger Hill would be on the menu. Good Morning Vietnam and Apocalypse Now are taken... wait! Good Morning Vietnam is an Italian Restaurant (horrible name, make it a place with coffee or war) and Apoc Now is a shitty club people go to just for the name and 90% of the people there are whores.

I'd honestly love to open a bar or restaurant here and I know some people who can open the kitchen and do the menu and I can steal either Good Morning Vietnam or Apoc Now as Vietnam has no copy write laws!!!!!!! Nice one 2nd world country! Plus if I can build a house for $1,000 and buy a nice big house in the capital for $11,000 I don't think a restaurant would be out of the budget, mind you it would dip into my Vietnam gear fund back home. Hmmm....

Anyways the chicken fingers weren't good, the bar was alright but service wasn't great and I'm here now. I'll probably watch a movie or American Dad before bed and the girl at Dan Sinh market is brining more maps for me to check out. I'm only buying them if there's Bien Hoa or detailed area around An Khe/Bong Son area or the An Lao valley as it was the 173rd's responsibility after 1968 to keep clean. Night!

Dogs, Groceries and Security

The title is just to remind me what I wanted to talk about. Normally I have no idea what to title these so 67% of the time it's totally at random.

Last night I was up till 3am watching American Dad and I planned to get up a little early so I'd be tired tonight, go to bed early and wake up at a decent time. This plan was trashed by morning Jay, who has the ability to see and understand what time it is, disarm multiple alarm clocks, even if he has to walk across the room, crawl back into bed and when he does wake up, he has no idea what he's done! That happened and I woke up around 1pm haha. You know if you're having a really good dream but then you wake up? I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep and reset everything the way it was. Sadly it didn't work out haha.

I stayed in bed until 3pm because I found an online Vietnam War game. It's not great, you have a combat platoon, so about 20 troops (during peace time a platoon is full with 40 troops and an officer) and you're outside a village and all your troops have traits, some are good at observation so they can see Cong before others, some have shitty aim, etc. The only constant that you have is an RTO, Radio Telephone Operator but everyone else is random. You have to keep your RTO alive or you can't call for artillery, air support, gun ships or resupply. What sucks is that on average you can call three times. The horrible thing is when you call for artillery or an air strike, it's all random. You start off with about 20 guys, I called for an air-strike and I lost 15 haha. Your guys have a mix of weapons, mostly M14's and M16s. You usually get a sniper, a SF guy or a medic, which doesn't have the ability to heal people. It's a cheap game from newgrounds.com so it's not perfect but kills time. Anyways the point is you have to take over the village and after you do, you have to fight inside it as afterwords you face human wave attacks from the Viet Cong. The shitty thing is by the time you clear the village you have like 5 guys left, then a wave of 20 enemy troops come. It sucks haha.

Anyways I played that, got my fruit salad, it pissed rain so I came back here, headed out for supper at the Vincom Centre, the big 6 story mall and went to Carl Jr's which is like an American fast food place. I got a monster of a hamburger, fries and a strawberry milk shake, but it cost me $10CDN so I can't eat there anymore.

On that floor there's a supermarket, so I figured I'd check it out. Eric and Mitchell will be happy because Vietnam doesn't have Dr. Pepper. They have Dr. Thanh, Vietnamese doctor that's fizzy and has the cure for hydration, with Thanh! I mean Pep! haha. I've been craving coconut and viva puffs but there not here. I got some a Twix bar which tastes different and made in Australia. The ones at home have more of a cookie crunch while these tasted like they were soft shortbread. Still awesome, but different. M&M's for some reason cost a fortune, well maybe not but there a dollar more than the Snickers, Mars bars, Twix, etc. I picked up some Lime Mirinda which is really good! I got Maltesers,  a TimTam which is some chocolate and strawberry wafer, Mana which look like aeroroot cookies with strawberry filling and Cream-O's which are like Peak Freans cookies or as I called "Freaking Pete's". I was talking to Jackie about it last night and yea, I'm comfortable trying western like foods to see how the Vietnamese rates at copying them, but fruit and veggies I won't test out. One thing looks like a green strawberry with sharp claws. That's not entering my body haha.

At the supermarket they have about 5 security guys constantly walking around. I also had to lock up my ARVN backpack so I wouldn't steal anything. Glad they didn't make me take my cargo shorts with all it's pockets too, as I gave up boxers weeks ago. Doesn't make sense in a tropical environment haha. But yea, I think it's interesting how in a shopping mall there's like 200 security guards, but next to no police presence, especially in a communist country. Seeing Russia with tanks driving down the street on CNN I figured here would be super secure but I guess not. Most security guys are only armed with FRS radios, but tourist security guys, the christmas green uniforms they carry the same thing Raphael on the Ninja Turtles had, it's like a 4" Sai, like metal cactus or an ice pick with two smaller ones coming off the base. It's crazy, who carries that? Sure it can be defencive, but it's tiny. Why not a baton or something? Aw well.

Dogs. It's weird, there's like 3 main dogs here, and it's like their from the same family. One female gave birth to two pups. They mated and make two more, they mated and two more etc. Their cute but they look like somethings wrong with them. The one near my hotel reminds me of a gremlin because it has a weird overbite and looks goofy. I cross town and there's the same dog, just different colour. They all seem to be mutts. Yesterday I saw a chiwawa with a sweater. We're in Vietnam! That should be animal cruelty haha. Anyways tonight I might watch "Men Who Stare At Goats" and tomorrow I don't really have any plans, other than waking up at a decent time! Take care.

Map to old adventures!

Hey, didn't get up to too much today. Hit Pizza Hut for lunch for my "Happy to be alive" meal, walked down to Dan Sinh market to look for more maps. I might have found a map showing Katum and the Cambodian border, where the 173rd preformed the only US Army combat jump.

I spent last night up until 3am distracting myself and face down in my new map of the Dak To area. I bought overhead projector plastic sheets and wipe away markers yesterday before the Viet Cong ambush I walked into. Last night I opened up Google Earth, Ray's Map Room who has a huge collection of maps he's scanned and uploaded. He was in the 1st Bn, 69th Armor Regiment during the Vietnam war and has added 173rd bases as he operated at the same bases with them. There's also a website where you can look at 60's maps all of North and South Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. All of them are military maps and it's almost like google earth in HTML haha. Each click brings you a new page of a more zoomed in with more click-able maps until you get a high detail map of the terrain, detailed enough you can see military bases and major hills. All I do is print screen, paste it into Paint and add what I want. That's how I printed off Derek's 720th MP Company map. Getting sidetracked haha. I was up till 3am crawling all around my double size bed plotting points on the overhead pages from Hill 875, Fire Support Base 16 which Bravo company (our company we re-enact) built, west to Hill 830 and Hill 664, Rocket Ridge which looked over the Dak To Airfield and the enemy launched rockets from and Hill 1338 is just off the map. North to FSB 13, West to FSB 12 (real original I know), Ben Het Special Forces Camp and the Tri-border region of Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam. Now I just have to worry about smugging any of my hard work. At home I'll probably redo it but in grease pencils so it's tougher.

I've been lucky though finding original maps and I checked on ebay for more maps. One guy is based in Saigon and I asked if he has a shop or anything. He owns the coffee shop I go everyday and eat my fruit salad. What are the odds? I could get him to bring all his maps but I don't have the funding for them. If he does have a map of Dak To airbase, Hill 1338, Hill 875 and Ben Het Special Forces camp I might buy it as mine is missing 1338 and Dak To. His maps are bigger and in more detail, so if both look good and he's almost out of both, I'll have to let the Visa handle it. Otherwise I'll order them when I'm out of debt! I don't know why I like maps. I think that it's because I'm a visual learner that it's one thing to read about it, but another seeing the terrain, where they were based at, how far away, villages in the area, where the enemy came from and all that.

That reminds me of a game I use to have, it was turn based like those warhammer table top games, but you got to fight different Vietnam War battles, you move the US troops around, computer is the enemy and sticks to their movements during the battle, or as close as possible. So I mean I could be in the Ia Drang Valley, I play the role of Lt. Col. Hal Moore (Mel Gibson) and in command of 2d Bn, 7th Cav, 1st Air Cav Div. The smallest unit you can control is either squads or platoons, so my Machine Gun squad can put down a base of fire and have three rifle squads flank. You can also control vehicles so I can have gunships swoop in, I did use my Chinook cargo helicopters to do gun runs but they got blown out of the sky, lowered troop moral and it was a hard game. Gotta be more of a chess player than a first person shooter gamer haha. Only way I could win was on two player and I made the VC walk into my ambushes, playing Jay's version of the Vietnam War hahaha.  I'm trying to download it as we speak.

Again didn't do much, hung out here after the market, still full of pizza and at supper at 8pm. Got my fruit salad and my dessert, got some Vietnamese cookies and their version of joe louis which wasn't great and I'm here. Nothing really planned tomorrow other than pick up that Katum map and thats about it. So exciting I know :P Take care.

5%

Alright, before I start, 95% of the Vietnamese people are good, nice people. I have just kept encountering the other 5% which are the hookers, annoying moto drivers, annoying vendors and people who walk off the street, interrupt a great meal I'm having to ask me if I want to buy Chinese copied Ray Ban Aviators and scammers.

Today this is about a scammer. Warning, I may swear more than normal. The guy I met, lets call him Fuckstick. I was to meet him at 10am where I met him last night. I was meeting him because his sister was moving to Vancouver to work at a hospital and wanted to know more about Canada. 9:45am I'm in the park. I rather be 15 minutes early than 5 minutes late, that's how I roll. An older couple talks to me and they want to learn about Canada. They want me to sit down and talk all about Canada and answer their questions. Alarm #1 goes off in my head. This seems familiar. Park and conversation is same-same and this is my 2nd time in the park. 100% of the time I was in this park people wanted me to talk about Canada. Interesting. I told them I was meeting someone at 10am and they said "Oh, well if they don't show up please come back and find us." I walked off to a secluded spot and took the valuable money out of my money belt on my waist and hid it in my secret pocket. I also checked all my other pockets so it looked like I was looking for something, not hiding something. I felt odd, like I might be walking into an ambush so I proceeded carefully, or so I thought.

It's 10am and a girl comes up to me and knows my name. I assume this is Fuckstick's sister, but it's his niece, lets call her bitch. Bitch and Fuckstick haha. Alright. I meet bitch first, then fuckstick comes by and tells me his sister couldn't make it. Last night they invited me to their house, as their mother is afraid for Fuckstick's sister going to Vancouver. I was to educate about Canada which was no problem. I've talked to others before on the street about it, so why not? My last long blog was about me being always on guard and maybe I should let it down when appropriate. Fuck That Shit! I asked where they lived and they said not too far away. Thanks for the details. I thought we were going to walk but they called a cab. I noticed both had cell phones. I get into the cab (Fuckup #1)and fuckstick sat upfront, bitch sat in the back with me. I paid careful attention to street signs and buildings, sights, landmarks, etc. It was about a 10 minute drive North and we crossed a river. We talked about markets and they pointed out a local market nearby. We get out and they take me down an alley. If this was a North American alley I'd be getting ready, but it's Vietnam so I knew it was leading to their house. I get in and there's no sister. Alarm #2. There's an older women there but it could be fuckstick's wife. I meet "Ian" who is younger and looks my age. We all talk about Canada and I ask questions about Vietnam. Older lady is cooking and everyone goes to eat. Fuck up#2 I ate with them, but i only had white rice. I wasn't even hungry. Ian works at a casino in Cambodia, he's a dealer for a game called Super Pan 9 (weird I know) but it's suppose to be like Ma Jong and Poker. He said that he can get me a hotel room for 50% off and he can let me win (Bull fucking shit haha). Fuckstick answers his cellphone and says that his mother is in the hospital in ICU. Nobody seemed affected by this. Alarm #3. Ian wants to show me how to play this casino game. Alarm #4. This is familiar. I read on the Canadian Embassy website for Vietnam that it's a common scam to be invited to someone's house to talk about Canada. A poker game breaks out and the victim is encouraged to play but loses all of their money. Thank fucking god I read that and I'm 100% I'm in a bad position. We went upstairs and Ian was going to show me. Bitch came upstairs with me and closed the door behind me. Alarm #5. I let them know that I'm broke, I have no money to play and we go back downstairs. Nobody wants to talk about Canada anymore. More news on the mother comes in. It's been about an hour and I let them know that I have plans today so I should get going. They called a cab and we go out to meet it. Fuckstick says to the cab driver "Hello again!" Alarm #6 - The same cab driver that took us there. He could be in on it too. Fuckstick is up front, bitch is in the back. I'm keeping track of where we are and looking for landmarks. We cross a river and I see the big skyscraper in the distance ahead of us. We're going back to my familiar territory. Fuckstick talks about his mom and how she's sick. He asks what blood type I am and I say I don't know. They laugh and are surprised. I ask what their blood type is and fuckstick is AB- and bitch is B+. They want me to buy blood for their mom and tell me each bag is $50USD. They want me to buy 3 bags which is $150 and about $3 million VND which the average person makes $2 million a month. I'm not about to give them a month's worth of money and I don't have that much myself. I ask what blood type the mom is and they say A- and I said "wait, I'm A+ so I can't donate" They wanted me to donate 3 bags of blood and I should give with my heart. I break it to them that I've donated blood 25 times and saved up to 75 people's lives. I've given enough. Also donating one bag of blood takes a month to recover. If I donated 3 bags it would kill me as the human body has 7 bags in it at all times. I let them know I'm broke and that I can barely afford to feed myself daily so I can't give them any money. Bitch reaches into her purse and fiddles around. They figured out I'm not handing over any money. Fuckstick says he wants to give me a motocycle. How nice of him! I said I don't have a license to drive one here, and he said he'll ship it home to Canada for me. I told him shipping would be insanely expensive so I can't do it. Fuckstick says I'm such a nice guy he wants me to have it. I told him he should sell it and buy blood for his mother who is dying. (Stick that moto up your urethra jerk is what I was thinking haha). They let me know they will drop me off anywhere or take me back to the park. Traffic is slow and conversation has broken down. We pass reunification palace so I know exactly where I am. They let me know that we can meet up again in the park to meet his sister, and go to ABC coffee across the street. Bitch fiddles in her purse and worst case scenario it was going to pull a .38 cal revolver and take the little money out of my money belt by force. I'd grab the pistol and pull it six times so she opens fire and makes it useless, then I'd kick her and force her on the other side of the car while I open the door and backwards tumble out as the car was stopped due to traffic. Luckily nothing happens. Traffic flows again and I tell myself next time traffic stops, I'm getting out! I tell them traffic is so slow it would be faster to walk. We stop at a red light, I open my door and say "I'm going to walk, see you guys later!"

I Jason Bourned it outta there. I hoofed it, I beat feet in my Crocks and my bad knee but I knew where I was and where I was going to. I ran North as the car was going South. It can't turn around and it's stuck on a one way street so no U-turn. I turn up a side street and move on the other side so I can see cars coming to me, not sneaking behind me. I look crazy running but I don't give a fuck haha. On the way some good luck occurs and I realize the Canadian consulate is on this street! I bolt faster and walk into the Metropolitan, which is a big office but the consulate is on the 9th floor. I go to the security desk and let them know I want up to the consulate. They asked if I an appointment. Yea, I knew I was going to run for my life and I called ahead for a 1:30pm appointment. The consulate is closed. It's 12 noon and the building empties for lunch. It reopens at 1pm though. I take a seat in the lobby, back to the wall and everyone that comes though the doors I check out. I'm honestly paranoid at this moment and think anyone could be after me. They know I'm Canadian and I ran this way. I gotta piss. Next door is a coffee place. I leave the security of the office building as it has no washroom, and security is everywhere outside (thank god) but I can't piss behind the building. I go to the coffee place, head on a swivel making sure nobody is following me. Again feel like Jason Bourne. I go to the washroom and buy a drink figuring I'd get in trouble if I didn't. I go back to the consulate office and wait until 1pm. Fuck I drank too much water at Fuckstick's house. I gotta piss again and I'm not buying another iced coffee and carrying a litre of water with me. I finished the iced coffee, look around and the closest place is the Vincom Centre, the fancy mall with like 4 underground floors. I walk over, eyeing everybody and ready to swing my water bottle to save my life. Wish I had my paratrooper knife but it's at the hotel, but then again I don't want to shank anyone either. I make it to the mall and go to the washroom. I kill sometime in the mall as there's security and it's not 1pm yet. I head back to the consulate and wait. 1pm I check in at the security desk and they send me up. I walk into the consulate and take a deep breath. I'm secure. Pass through the metal detector alright and the security officer asks me why I'm here. I honestly don't know what to say. I'm here to report a scam attempt. I'm alright but someone wanted all my money. He understood and told me the Consulate opens at 1:30pm but I get to sit and wait in red chairs, surrounded by maple leafs, government officials on the walls and I can let my guard down as I'm considered on Canadian soil.

I replay everything and I'm shooken up on the inside. I knew I was walking into an ambush, but told myself to make sure. I'm so fucking lucky. Honestly there's a hundred of different ways it could have ended, but to get away with my money, my health and my life I was lucky. Unlucky to be in that situation but lucky to get out safely. I realized all the stupid things I did but learn from them and the biggest thing is to trust your gut. My brain knew something wasn't right but I told myself it's alright before I even met up with fuckstick and bitch. Tran was nice to me and invited me over in the same situation and so I assumed it would be the same, plus I told myself to open up a bit more the other day. Fuck haha. It could have ended in so many ways and they flashed through my brain during the 30 minute wait. They could have taken me anywhere in the cab. They could have locked the front gate behind me when I walked into their house. They could have laced the rice I was eating, but everyone else had the same rice. Going upstairs when bitch closed the door behind me she could have pulled a knife or gun. Ian didn't have to let me go back downstairs. They could have refused to call me a cab. Once they realized I wasn't going to fall for their con they could have taken me anywhere and forced my money into their hands so many different ways. I could be fucking worm food right now or decomposing on the shore of the Saigon river. Back in 1970 I would have been killed, and 2010 I could have been as well. It reminded me of that Tour of Duty episode where Purcell and Ruiz go drinking, meet up with an American Asian girl, they go to leave together, cut through an alley, she pulls a gun, Ruiz gets shot, Purcell grabbed her gun and made her shoot Ruiz's date, he takes the gun from her and shoots her right there. It could have been me...

I get called to talk to someone behind plexiglass and again wonder what to say. I explain that I was almost scammed, I escaped and ran to the consulate. She talked to her supervisor and I get sent into a private room where I can talk to another person behind glass but in private. I start from the beginning. I explained I ran to the consulate for asylum but also to report it so nobody else has to go through what I did. I told them I read the warning on their website but I have more details on it, where I was picked up, roughly where they took me, the cons they tried to sell, etc. I also asked about Vietnamese self defence laws as it was in my neighbourhood, what if I see them again? Luckily the law is the same as Canada. If they say "Hi" to me I can't blow them away, but if I'm in a threatened position I can legally defend myself as long as I don't overdo it. If I'm attacked I can fight back but I can't kill three people doing it and have to use reasonable force. I asked what can I do? She said I should write it all down what happened and anything that might be helpful. The consulate will translate it to Vietnamese and when it's done email me. I can come and pick it up and take it to the police, which she gave me a list of police stations in District 1 which I'm staying in, and luckily there's a police station I pass everyday by my hotel. She asked if I'd recognize them if I saw them again and I would. It took me about an hour and a half but I wrote three pages on everything. I also remembered they said I could meet up with them again to talk to his sister. I wrote that down and I'm hoping I can meet up with them again, with undercover police at ABC Bakery and bust at least fuckstick in a raid. There is more tourist security than police, or at least of what I've seen, so a crime like scamming a tourist is big fucking shit. Fuckstick on the way to his place told me that traffic accidents aren't reported on the news because the government is afraid of tourists hearing it and not wanting to come to Vietnam. Wait till they hear about a scam at least two sets of people are trying to commit on tourists! I told the girl behind glass that if I had a map I could show her roughly where they took me. I marked the park where I met them, the route we took to their place, the bridge we took over the river, the market they pointed out on the map, the route we took leaving their place, the street in front of Reunification Palace, where I got out and ran and the path I took to the Consulate.

She briefed me on what to do next, keep my guard up and be careful, gave me the police phone number, my list of local police stations and I gave her my email to let me know when my Vietnamese translation is finished. I was going to go back to the park and tell anyone who's white to be careful of the scam, as I don't want anyone to be in my position or unluckier, but I figure I should lay low. The next time I see fuckstick I want the Saigon police with me and catch that fucker in a sting.

Sadly this has worsen my trust and as I can't throw 84 million people, I can't trust them either. If you're not my hotel staff, the Consulate or Tran the zippo guy fuck you. Sorry but for my own health and safety I have to adapt that attitude. Doesn't matter if your six or sixty. I got another Vietnam experience and at least I can feel how US troops felt about the locals. Kids leading squads into ambushes and selling Coke with glass instead of ice, to the Old Mamasan who is carrying a heavy load. When a GI comes to her aid the load is full of C4 and takes out 4 US troops with her. I said I was hard before. I don't even know what to define what I am now. What's harder than hard? Stiff? Cold? Dead? Right now I'm all those things, but it's internally. I have the closest thing to the 1,000 yard stare as I'll ever get. Guess that's another Vietnam experience. The lady behind glass did tell me that it's good that I was cool and calm about the situation, and that if I did panic or freak out it would have made things worse for me. They might not have let me leave if I was emotional or scared, knowing I'd run to the police. I left with an invitation to see them again, and a frustration at the traffic. I told them I'd see them later. As far as I'm concerned on the outside our relationship is just fucking peachy. In my head I wanna be alone in a room with him and only one of us walks out knowing what could have happened. I'd walk out alone. 95% of the population of Vietnam are good, nice people just trying to survive, just like all of us. Today I ran into one of the 5% and I'm lucky to walk away. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm not going to trust anyone who isn't white. Tran and the family I'm living with are exempted. If that's racist, fine, but if it keeps me alive and boarding a freedom bird home December 15th, I'll be more than happy to be it.

Alright, enough with the dramatic and darker shit. I went home and got organized. I went to Cho Dan Sinh to pick something up and it pissed rain. It quickly ended and as today could have been my last day, I wanted to celebrate being alive and have a good dinner. Yup. Stuffed crust pizza haha. I walked past the consulate and my leg was a little sore. It pissed rain again so I broke out the poncho and kept my umbrella. I walked all the way to the Diamond Centre, a good 9 blocks on a bad knee and the Centre was closing at 5pm for something fancy. Everyone was dressed in tuxes and nice dresses. The only other pizza hut in the district was back near my hotel, but I didn't know the address or street, or the centre's name. I got a free map and told a moto driver that I want to go to the mall, the shopping centre that's in this area. He knew but on the way I realized I don't have my visa card on me, I left it and my passport all day at home as I wouldn't need either. Glad I left it too. I told him to take me home so I can grab shit. It pissed rain again and the internet went out. I asked for a phone book and the staff didn't have one. I wasn't willing to walk in the rain on a bad knee looking for a pizza hut which address I didn't have, nor the directions I wrote out how to get there, as I've been there before. The streets were flooded and my poncho was leaking despite being from the 80's. I found a local place to eat, same place as last night. I got the calzone and had my camera so I took a picture of the crab. I ate, hit Swansons for dessert and came back home. Internet was still out so I came here, Highland Coffee and set up shop to write this. I'll probably watch a movie and go to bed tonight.

Tomorrow I'll hit the post office to see about a package I sent that has to be lost as the tracking number hasn't found it anywhere in the last two weeks. Hoping it's picking up dust at the post office. I'll get my Happy to be Alive stuffed crust pizza as the Pizza Hut is near the post office and consulate. After that I'll probably head home and hope the internet is working. Rough day but I made it, I'll keep making it too, just one day at a time. Night.

History and Irony

Alright, I gotta let it out. I bought a map the other day, think I mentioned it but it was near the Laotion, Cambodia and South Vietnamese boarder. The unit we re-enact, the 173rd was in the area in 1967 so I picked it up and was going to check it out later, see if I can find anything.

The 173rd Airborne in the spring of 1967 was on Operation Junction City, the biggest mission at the time using 22,000 troops. Units in the area, like the 196th Light Infantry Brigade (LIB), 25th Infantry Division, 1st Infantry Division and ARVN units were going to create a horse shoe around an enemy unit crossing from Cambodia into Vietnam. The 173rd sealed the horseshoe by preforming the only Army infantry combat jump of the war, dropping the 2nd Battalion (Bn) of the 503rd Infantry Regiment right on the Cambodian/Vietnamese border and all units would close the noose. Afterwards they swept the area along the border and found several base camps but 2d Bn making light contact. They were all flown back to Bien Hoa AB as it was the Brigade's (Bde) HQ. The whole unit was flown to Pleiku and rode in trucks from Pleiku to Dak To. The situation was that the 4th Inf Div was operating in the area and found a massive enemy force crossing into Vietnam. Little did they know these units were coming off the Ho Chi Minh Trail and trying to get into position for the 1968 Tet Offensive. The 4th reported the troop movements and General Westmoreland sent up the 173rd. Dak To is in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, so it's very rocky and covered in mountains. It was named "Land with No Sun" as the jungle canopy was so thick it blocked out most sunlight so it's not a great place to be in.

Making things worse is that down around Bien Hoa the 173rd was fighting the Viet Cong, a unit made up of locals and Communists living in South Vietnam but in the Central Highlands the 173rd would be making contact with the North Vietnamese Army, a highly trained, well disciplined unit and different compared to the Viet Cong. They wore tan uniforms, were well equipped and hard fighters. The 4th Inf Div commanders warned the 173rd about this but the 173rd were airborne, so they thought they could handle anything.

Operation Greenly started and the 173rd patrolled the hills looking for the NVA. On Hill 1338 they found the NVA. Alpha company was about 137 troops knew the enemy was close and laid down CS crystals, like pepper spray so if the enemy used that trail they'd walk on the crystals and get caught up in the gas. What they didn't know is they walked into a very large North Vietnamese unit who were moving down another trail. 137 troops walked into hundreds of enemy troops and the fight for Hill 1338 began. Medics were quickly killed and M16's jammed. Alpha called in all the air and artillery support possible, but the canopy was too thick and the NVA moved so close to Alpha that they risked killing themselves calling artillery on their own position. Charlie company was ordered to move as fast as possible to support Alpha, but Charlie worried about walking into another ambush and being ineffective, plus the terrain and jungle made it impossible to move. Making things worse Charlie stepped on Alpha's CS crystals and everyone was coughing, crying and throwing up. Of the 137 Alpha troops 76 were killed and 23 were wounded. The number of killed was higher than the wounded as the NVA executed as many wounded Alpha troopers as possible.

Days later 4th Bn, 503d Regiment built fire support base 4 (FSB4) on Hill 664 and made contact taking 22 killed in action (KIA) and 62 wounded in action (WIA). The 173rd was flown to Tuy Hoa to protect the rice harvest from the Viet Cong but 2/503 stayed behind in Dak To ending Operation Greenly. Intelligence showed that the NVA's goal was to slaughter a US unit so that troops would be moved into the country instead of protecting cities and this was for the upcoming Tet Offensive. The 173rd was flown back to Dak To and the enemy had every hill top fortified so they planned to stay for a long time. This started Operation MacArthur which finding the enemy's command unit was the goal. The 173rd also built FSB's in the area and reinforced Ben Het Special Forces (SF) camp. November 4th B/4/503 made contact and had 20 KIA, 154 troops WIA and two missing. On the 12th, Dak To airbase was attacked destroying C-130 cargo planes and blew up the ammo dump, where all ammo is stored from .38cal revolver rounds to 500lbs bombs. This blast was the biggest so far in the war, knocking people a mile away off their feet and on the ground. Nov 15th, 1/503 Inf climbed Hill 882, made contact and lost 7 troops and 34 wounded. During the same time 4/503 was in the area, called in artillery to assist 1/503 but accidentally killed 6 US troops and 31 allied Vietnamese. Intel showed that the enemy was going to take Hill 875 and 2/503 was tasked with taking that Hill.

Bravo was chewed up from their first at FSB 16 but Alpha and Charlie from 2/503 went to take the hill. They walked into massive amounts of gun fire and quickly took causalities for hours. They called in all the air and artillery possible but the NVA bunkers were too well built, stopping most explosives on their roofs. Sadly on one such bombing run a USMC F-4 Phantom missed it's target and dropped two 500lbs bombs on the battalion HQ during an officer meeting and a medic station, killing most of the medics killing 42 and wounding 45 173rd troops.The battle still raged on and more troops were flown in such as the 4th Inf Div. Finally the 173rd took Hill 875 November 25th and found the enemy had left during the night. Turkey was flown out to the hill top so the troops could enjoy Thanksgiving dinner. It took several days to clean up the battle sight. In the end 2/503 87 killed, 130 wounded, and three missing. 4/503 suffered 28 killed 123 wounded, and four missing. With non-combat casualties the amount was 20% of the 173rd's fighting force. Due to their actions on Hill 875 the 173rd Airborne Brigade earned a Presidential unit citation from the White House, noting their courage and bravery from the president, LBJ. Afterwards units patrolled the area and got new replacements with their next major action Jan 31st 1968, the Tet Offensive. 4/503 went to Tuy Hoa and was in the battle for Cemetery Hill while 1/503 was sent to Ban Me Thout. Sadly after this I lose all information on the 173rd on what they did after the Tet Offensive.

Tonight I checked out my map. I found Ben Het SF Camp and the tri border area which was a good sign. I've found several 173rd bases, including FSB 16 and get this... Hill 875! What are the fucking odds of that!? I come to Vietnam and I find a 43 year old map of the unit we re-enact! What's even more crazy is that 43 years tomorrow is when the 173rd took Hill 875. I planned to be in Dak To Nov 25th but sadly that didn't turn out. I got the map for $1 but I probably would have paid $40 knowing what was on the map haha.

Tomorrow marks the 43rd year anniversary of the battle for Dak To so please take a minute to think and reflect on it. Any questions feel free to email me or hit me on MSN. Take care

Walking the dog, shopping for cigarettes and ignoring children

Well I slept in until 11pm. Last night's blog took forever but I wasn't sleepy thanks to a pack or strawberry oreos haha. I went to bed around three and slept in. I got up, got my fruit for breakfast, apples, watermelon, strawberries, pineapple and bananas. A lot healthier than my banana pancakes and a lot better variety too. Today I was going to take it easy on my leg, not do a heck of a lot. I bought Matt his Ho Chi Minh Sandals, and for those that don't know, they're sandals but made out of truck tires haha. They aren't comfortable or styling but a cheap set of footwear and easily replaceable. It's funny though, I'm so use to bargaining that my tactics didn't work and if I wanted the sandals I'd have to pay 70,000vnd, which I wanted to pay 50,000VND tops. I reluctantly handed over the 70,000VND and looked up how much CDN it was and it's $3.26 haha. I wanted it for $3 even. Going back to Canada and shopping will be interesting, as with crossing the street as if I crossed the way I do here back home, I'd be quickly killed.

I also handed over the design for my B/2/503rd Infantry Regiment Guidon. A guidon is pretty much like a parade flag. In a parade or a formation of troops, the flag just ID's who these 120 troops belong to. Their Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade (Separate) and that's the unit we re-enact. I've always wanted one for public events, just kinda making us look more professional/military looking. At home I was considering getting one made for $150. Here it's $25 and although it digs into my budget I won't have another chance to get one done at that price. I also got a quote for N Company, 75th Infantry Rangers and it's $9 each, the amount ordered doesn't lower the price. At Moore's Militaria, normally the "One Stop Vietnam Shop" their Ranger patch for the 173rd is incorrect as the real version was basic, just saying "N" on the left, Airborne Ranger arching over the 173rd patch and just 75 on the right side while they have it "N Co." and "75th". By the way I'm a sucker for accuracy. I wouldn't be able to wear it with pride knowing it was the wrong one. For $9 I can get it professional looking like the factory made patches or for the same price get cheap quality and I'm not sure what to do. The cheap quality makes the patch rough and look like it was done by hand, which gives it character, but for the same price i could get a beautiful one. Might go with the rough one but as others will get them too I'll have to ask around. I'll see if another shop can do them for a better price though.

I also went shopping for cigarettes! It's not what you think though haha. I think I explained it in another blog but the smokes here cheap and everywhere. I found a pack of Lucky Strikes that were so close to the ones used during the war. Marlboro's and Camel's haven't changed much either. Marlboro's have a health warning on the one side. If the other side was missing it I would have picked up a pack for Josh, but alas both sides had it. I asked for a pack of Lucky Strikes and got their new pack. Language barrier and all I finally got them to understand I want the display box, not the new pack of smokes. They laughed since I just wanted the box and I asked "How much?" and the kid (yea it was a kid selling smokes) said it was up to me haha. I pulled out 1,000VND and he approved, so I got a little cardboard box like the ones in the Vietnam War to attach to my helmet for $.05CDN and right now I have them stuffed with toilet paper hahaha.

I watched the last two chapters of my Vietnam documentary which covered the Fall of the South and the last one talking to troops and the government about what happened, why it was a failure. The Fall of the South is tragic. The Peace deal left SVN's president Theiu in power, but left 150,000 enemy troops in his country which was a bad deal but the US more or less forced it on them, saying if you don't take this deal, we'll cut off all aid to SVN. Once the enemy realized the US won't help out SVN it took over Ban Me Thout in two days. The officers abandoned their men as soon as possible and more or less gave it to the enemy. The enemy planned on taking Hue, the royal city and former capital of united Vietnam and Da Nang Airbase which would cut South Vietnam in half. With little effort they took it over and the SVN army officers fled again. Next thing the enemy took over provincial capitals with ease. President Thieu then made a bad call. He told his military to fall back. Hundreds of thousands of troops turned their backs to the enemy and let them have half the country. The idea was to regroup outside of Saigon and make one big last stand which makes sense but the way they went about it, just running off in chaos was horrible. The local population went running with the army and the military chose to take an old horrible road hoping the enemy wouldn't attack. The North Vietnamese slaughtered military troops and civilians alike. 25% of the people trying to flee survived and it was credited as the worst withdraw in the history of conflict. The North Vietnamese took all the weapons, armour and aircraft the US donated to the South, as the South left vehicles with the key in the ignition when as a military you're suppose to destroy them so they can't be used against you. Xuan Loc was the last stand because after that the next city was Saigon. The ARVN fought tooth and nail and deserve all the credit for staying and fighting it out but in time they failed. Days later Saigon fell and the war was over. The ARVN troops weren't horrible and I'd hate to paint them as bad. But when your country is being invaded, you've lost 800,000 friends defending your land and 500,000 Americans fought to help you out FUCKING STICK IT OUT! Fight! Do your job because when your country is taken over, you're dead anyways or be "re-educated" and wish you were dead. Sadly because they didn't fight it's tragic that 58,000 US troops, at least 100 Canadians in the US Forces died in vain. Their hearts were in the right place, but they were training people who didn't care enough to give it everything they had. The video talking to troops and government officials, the general message was the US didn't have a plan. They sent troops but there wasn't a strategy except killing enemy troops, no government plan on what goals they were trying to reach, how they would reach them, what is victory, etc. That is how you can slaughter the enemy and still not get anywhere. The US was trying to do the right thing and I fully support what they were trying to do, but ultimately it didn't work out. The reason why is a huge long discussion with half my group and beers in hand haha. Maybe we should do a "Drunk History" video? Josh drunk explaining the politics, me talking about the battle of Dak To or the Cu Chi Tunnels and Sean covering everything else haha.

I forgot to eat lunch. My breakfast is just fruit so it doesn't keep me full, but I couldn't eat a meal since it was 4:30, but I was really hungry. I bought a Toblerone bar and crossed the street to the park, which I never really hung out in before. I use to cut though the other park on the way to Ben Thanh Market but this park across from Pham Ngu Lao and De Tham has a water pond in it. I sat on a bench and wolfed down my chocolate, also forgetting that chocolate melts quickly at 35 degrees in the sun while wrapped in tinfold haha. A guy noticed I was white and started speaking English. Of course I was Canadian and his sister was moving to Vancouver and work at one of their hospitals so he was asking me about Canada. He called his sister and asked if she had any questions for me. She wanted to meet up with me haha. Little random, hanging out with some guy I just met and his sister. Well I was busy tonight so tomorrow I'm meeting them at the park and their taking me to their place to talk about Canada. Don't worry, I know, be nice to everyone you meet, but have a plan to kill them, and I will. Remember, it's hard for me to drop my guard. So that should be interesting but I gotta get up a little early to eat breakfast and then meet up with them. Hope his sister is hot haha.

I hung out in the park for a bit waiting until 5:30pm, figuring I can eat supper then. I finally saw someone jogging! This means I won't look insane jogging in a park, mind you it took me almost a month to see somebody jog here so I didn't know if it was in or out, but one person doing it is all I need and gives me no damn excuse for not running. My knee on the other hand does give me an excuse haha. I saw a dog standing near the road, and with rush hour traffic I assumed the worst would happen. I go over and whistle, call it trying to get it's attention. He looked at me and say "Yea, okay, but I still wanna cross the street". I gave up. Fine, I'll walk the dog across the street. I didn't want to turn around and walk away, then here moto horns, a crash and a sharp painful dog crying in pain. Luckily a mom and her kid were trying to walk across to, so at least they asked at one side of the shield, and it's not wrong to use people as shields in Vietnam. Remember traffic is both ways, so two lanes you're protected, then the next two lanes your ass is on the line and they're protected. So with some time we slowly crossed. The dog happily walked away and I wanted to know where it was going. I didn't want to walk it across the street only to have it get into trouble. I walked it across a quiet street and it went down an alley way. I figured it knows where it's going now and there's no dangerous roads around, just houses. I forgot to mention, but in cities alley ways aren't bad like they are in Canada, as they lead to residential homes, so it's like a street to a neighbourhood back home.

I crossed the street at the light, heading back towards my area and food. Oddly enough it was a dangerous thing crossing at the light during rush hour. It was my turn to walk, but the cars in the turning lane from the last light hadn't been able to turn, so they were in limbo trying to force their way into a sea of motos driving against it. So they're in limbo and it was a bus, so I had to wait until it moved out of my way. I went to go around it and what do you know, motos zipping into any crack around the bus, including the one I was filling. The traffic was so close and tight that nobody has room to move, so the motos don't exactly go around you. They want to and will go through you. Making things worse is that my light to cross had ended, and it was the other street's turn to go, with me in the middle. You can cross, but it takes forever since you can only go inch by inch as the motos don't have any room to get around. Complete gridlock. I finally made it across. I checked out a restaurant I hadn't been to yet. I looked at their menu on display and from one table a guy said "Okay, I gotta ask, what part of Toronto are you from?" I had my Toronto Lynx shirt on and I don't know anything about them. I told him I'm from London and it was funny that coming here the security guard at London Airport commented on my shirt haha. Turns out he grew up in Toronto, the guy that asked me tonight. We chit chatted a bit and I found something I wanted, a calzone haha. I didn't have my camera on me and I'm kicking myself for it, because they made my calzone into a crab. They gave extra dough to make arms and claws, and they gave it eyes with a peppercorns for pupils haha. An Irish guy sat down near me and had a beer. We were on a back alley street but still harassed by people wanting us to buy crap from them. He was new as he was talking to them "Oh, no thanks" and when they left he asked if they ever stop haha. I told him my tactic. They speak to you, I look and notice them but then I go back to enjoying my food and ignore them. I've seen them and what they sell, saying "no thanks" starts a conversation, "oh, good price, I give you numba 1 deal" No. "I have other styles and colours..." and saying no keeps the talking going. Notice them, shut up, enjoy your food and don't say a word. They quickly get the point, you don't waste your breathe and you still have a good time. The Irish guy said the worst was his first day not knowing the cost of anything and getting ripped off. I got my bill and a little girl came up asking me to buy. I was pulling out cash to pay for my food. My ignoring tactic wasn't working since I had my wallet open, and the Irish guy was laughing his ass off. The girl checked out my receipt, tore up a napkin and luckily I had exact change. I tossed it in the bill fold and handed it directly to someone that worked there. I grabbed my shit, laughed and wished the Irish guy good luck haha.

I headed to Swensons for dessert and it was alright. Their menu options are limitless as you can customize anything you want. But looking at their menu I've already eaten the things I liked haha. With the language barrier I'm not comfortable telling them exactly how to build the best ice cream ever, so I just switch up the ice cream as it's the simplest form of customization. Tomorrow might be my last night there as I've done most of what I want there but I will admit, best dessert place I've been to as they're ice cream and sundaes where Dairy Queen is mostly blizzards. Tonight I'll have my shower, maybe watch a movie or find the location of my map on Google Earth and get up early to meet up with those people haha. Take care.

Long Day?

So many ways I could start this tonight haha. I had a loooooooooong day. I think maybe one of my longest since I passed out the night I landed here, two fans on high trying to cool me down after 28 hours of flying and 14 hours of waiting.

WARNING: Long. Grab a drink, go to the washroom or just pace yourself haha. If it's better for you, on my walk home I talk about most of this on video, in order to stay sane. Might be a bit easier for you. Thanks :)

I'll start off with jot notes...

-some girl told me she loves me
-kid on the back of a moto gave me a drive by punching
-walked non-stop for 8 hours, Downtown to Tan Son Nhut AF and back
-Vietnam People's Air Force Museum
-pull the muscle out in my knee
-got screamed at by random guy
-hit 2 markets, no military stuff
-walking 2 hours in rush hour and gridlock

Alright, overall I've had a good day, bad shit did happen though haha. Today the weather was suppose to have no rain so I went on a trek, turned out to be 8 hours haha. Had my fruit salad, didn't forget my bag this morning under the table, set off on my trek. Wait, I was trekking to two co-ords. There was a market I was told to check out as it might have military stuff. About an hour away from there was the Vietnam People's Air Force Museum which focused on the American war and the Cambodian war.

I trekked it, and trekked it good. I only have been that route once and it was a 15min drive from the airport at 10pm, so seeing it in the daylight was good. On my way to location #1, the market I stopped in a hobby shop with some kick ass models done up, like Huey's, an M42 Duster which was a 40mm Anti-aircraft gun but worked well against people, an Ontos which was a USMC small tracked vehicle with six 106mm recoilless rifles mounted on the outside and a crew of three. Good idea against bunkers and the streets of Hue, but some poor bastard has to go out and manually load all six rifles and the thing (Ontos is actually greek for "thing") is a bullet magnet. One funny thing I did see was a 173rd Airborne Brigade set of recon soldiers. I would have bought it but I suck at painting and they were 1:35 scale which is awkward as I only collect 1:72 and 1:18 scale stuff. I saw a few 60's era buildings and found another market on the way.

This market, Cho Hoa Hung was two level, the bottom being mostly food as most markets are, and the top being clothes. Alright, first weird encounter. I'm walking through the food section, and a man said "Hey". I kept walking as that's what my anti-vendor and anti-moto training has me do. "Hey!" kept walking "HEY!" kept walking... HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First off, who the fuck are you?! 2) If you're gunna fucking scream at me, do you think I'll stop and have a pleasant chat with you?! 3) I'm under stating the yell. He did it top of his lungs, 120% volume and the whole market stopped and looked at him like "What the fuck?" but I kept walking haha. Searched the place and nothing, but I did see a big rat. I don't think mice exist here, or if they do, they are eaten by the rats. Troops weren't kidding that they are the size of cats.

I humped it out and found a BP gas station. Guess they didn't go bankrupt haha. Also I walked past a shop and I saw the vendor had a "CANADA" shirt. I stopped and told him I liked his shirt, and then the language barrier dropped. He had a book shop and asked if I buy book. I tried to tell him I liked his Canada shirt and I'm from Canada. Then my usual tactic if they don't get that is "It's Okay. See you" haha. Getting to the main market I was headed to took me down back ally ways and everyone had a linen shop. Now I'll let you know, I scanned every shop looking for anything like Tiger Stripes, ERDL camo, Duck Hunter or Olive Green material. Found some rip offs (big surprise) but nothing close to authentic.

I made it to the market, Cho Tan Binh which was actually three stories tall. The main building looked like an old department store as it had broken down escalators. I guess they broke when democracy did. Kinda reminded me of that mall Owen Wilson is in, when he was in Behind Enemy Lines except this time a T-72 tank didn't roll though the wall and share some 125mm cannon action. It had some different shops, but this place is just clothes. I thought Ben Thanh Market was, but this has to be the biggest market in Saigon or at least that I've seen. Behind it is rows and rows of booths which is almost triple the size of the main building. It could honestly and easily have 500 vendors or more. It was to the point where I could only skim the rest of the place or I'd be there all damn day, and I had to hit the museum as it closes at 4pm. During all this searching I found the washroom. This washroom reminded me that I'm in a 2nd class country. It had running water which was good, but stank, and I'm not talking like a porta-potty, I'm talking... fuck, I don't know if I can describe it. I'll give it a try...

Take a small tiled room. Bring in an elephant and trade its water tub with a clear, liquid laxative. Leave it for 24 hours and not clean up. Then start a fire around this small tiled room, cranking the temperature as high as possible, but not enough to get rid of the smell in exchange for smoke. More or less bake the room and the bacteria that has made a kingdom in anything that isn't tile, as tile can be wiped. If you touched anything, your fucked. Guess why? The "sink" is a rain water collection bucket, the big blue kind you have catch the water from your roof. I had hand sanitizer. The icing on the cake is I walked out and got yelled at. I turned and looked and some girl said "cash" I blew it off but swiftly left. I found another washroom AND YOU HAVE TO PAY TO USE IT! The beautiful thing is, guess how much... TWO AMERICAN DOLLARS! $2USD! HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! For that much I could have pissed on the sidewalk, which I caught someone later on doing today but not only that, I could have gotten 3 ice cream cones at the convenience store for $2. I couldn't believe it! Fuck, listen bitch, you gotta pay me $2US to share my clear bill of health in your god forsaken urine soaked bacteria fucking hell hole! I could have said gold, but remember kids, stay hydrated! Doc's orders! Fuck it's more funny now that I think about it haha. That was just the guy's room too! The girls washroom would have been four times as worse!!! Fuck I love being creative :)

Alright, found nothing other than rip off copy shit. Oh, by now I pulled the muscle in my leg again. It was a great airsoft game at the start of Oct I think, but it's not fucking funny anymore. Heal damn you!!! It was stairs, the quick bending in and out, over and over, plus a long trek on top of that which think I was in my 3rd hour of quick walking, not diddy bopping down the block on the way to Masonville. I got maybe a half hour of walking, which is now 45 minutes with limping. Doesn't hurt if I keep it straight so I'm walking like Terry Fox (yea I know I'm going to hell) except I don't have a police cruiser clearing my path and keeping me safe. I'd fucking need it later haha. I'd normally say I humped it out, but now I'm dragging it out. I was going down the sidewalk and some guy was looking at the wall of a building. Then I heard his stream splashing and luckily I was out of range. I saw a toy store and quickly checked it out. Turns out kids here play with knock off transformers and power rangers. Girls play with dolls which I think is unfair. Discoloured Transformers and Power Rangers made in a Laotian workshop are good enough for girls to play with as well. Don't forget there's an Asian Female power ranger and the first generation of Transformers had girlfriends back on Cybertron! I'm pretty much at the museum, which is by Tan Son Nhut Airport, at one point the busiest airport in the world. You can see the architecture shift kinda, looks older and has that 60's vibe which we all love, admit it. At the street corner a moto driver yelled at me, as usual. I use street corners (that sounds bad, let me explain) to find out where the fuck I am and check my map haha. I shoot an azimuth with my compass and make sure I'm going the right way. The driver and I think an air force security guard come over and I tell them the Vietnamese People's AF Museum, and the guard points to a Vietnamese sign. Sixty metres away. The moto driver wanted to take me. I'm limping but I'm not dead or retarded. I can drag for 60m haha.

I get there and it was pretty good. Not a soul there which is a shame. I creep into the building as it looks like it's closed. Three girls hanging out and a guy reading a newspaper are the staff and the one girl turned on the lights for me. Now that's museum service ;) haha. Everything is in Vietnamese haha, but I checked out the pictures and got the just of it. They had models of certain aerial events that reflect favouring on the North, not mentioning Operation Rolling Thunder, Operation Bolo, Rolling Thunder II, The Christmas Bombings and countless other operations where the North had to beg Russia for more aircraft :) They did have some cool stuff there. I got pictures with a GAU-2 7.62mm Gatling Gun (I might have said GAU-8 in my video, which was a gun with an aircraft built around it and bigger than a VW Beetle haha). They also had an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile. The AIM-9 was a 1st generation 190lbs heat seeking Air to Air Missile (AAM, SAM - surface to air missile) that would obviously seek heat, like the massive jet engine of an aircraft and is still used today by Canada, the US and a few NATO friends. They also had a K-13 (NATO calls it the AA-2 Atoll) missile which is Russian and reverse engineered from the AIM-9, a K-5 (AA-1 Alkali) missile which rode a beam from the aircraft to its target, instead of individually seeking the enemy aircraft and unguided rockets on display. They had info and pictures of the Cambodia vs. Vietnam conflict and I found it sad and hilarious that Communist Vietnam used US aircraft and weapons to fight Cambodia! They trained pilots to fly Huey helicopters, F-5 Tigers, A-37 Dragonflies and O-1 Bird Dog spotter aircraft. If the US donated it to South Vietnam, it was later used by Red Vietnam attacking Cambodia. Continuing the irony donated aircraft were originally American, given to the Republic of Vietnam's Air Force (RVAF) so it could have been possible that the US used those aircraft in Cambodia, given them to South Vietnam (SVN), the South taken over by the North and used again on Cambodia!!! They also had Mi-24 Hind Gunships and I took a picture

Alright, outside they had a UH-1D or H model Huey, an O-1 Bird Dog spotter, A-37 Dragonfly, F-5 Tiger, MIG-21, Mi-24 Hind and Mi-8 Hip out front. I should warn you I fell in love with US Aviation before I focused on Vietnam, so I know my shit equally well and go into full detail. I have a long video explaining all of these aircraft here... and RED DAWN is the damn movie I can't remember in the video hahaha. Well it's a long video (44 minutes, get comfy!) and a long upload. If I remember I'll post it here.

I left around 4:30pm and had to retrace my way home. I did find a mall and checked it out, found a MAXIMART which isn't a Mart, but a big grocery/department store and it was two levels. All the normal stuff you'd find in a grocery store but I was shocked to find North American chocolate bars for 24,000VND or $1.25CDN! I came to Vietnam for cheap shit god dammit! That's more than chocolate bars at home! Frack! There was a Lottera, KFC and Pizza Hut and could have stopped for dinner but I was determined to get home. It was getting late and rush hour-ish and after walking all day, getting tired, hurt, dirty and sweaty, I was getting crabby and I recorded some of this. What really pissed me off is when the streets are so crowded that the motos start driving on the sidewalk which is for me! Us! Pedestrians! I'm surprised I spelled that right! Traffic was so bad that motos were all over the road, all over the side walk and you had to crawl and weave all around these fuckers taking up space and not doing anything. I was so frustrated and with motos trying to run me over for over an hour on the sidewalk I was ready to kick anything in my way. In my video I mention that two things boost moral when I've been like this before either singing out loud makes me laugh, ice cream shuts me up and happy haha. I did both and made it back to home.

I honestly didn't feel like eating, I turned on the fans and the A/C and flaked out on my bed for 15 minutes, rested my leg and went to hit a Texas Bar and Grill down the street. I had the American pancakes there a few days before and though they could make a good burger. What's critical to know if you don't it already. If you wanna go to a restaurant, and when you get there and nobody is eating there, no locals, no tourists. Don't go. You might have a good time still, but other people may know more than you on this place. It's it's 6pm and all the other places have tons of people and the place you want to check out is dead, there might be a reason why! So I back tracked and found a place I haven't been to, an Italian place with air conditioning. Only two things on the menu interested me, Hamburger and Ravioli so I got the ravioli. It came really fast, fast enough to think it was pre cooked and under a heat lamp haha. For 100,000VND I got 5 and they weren't great. 50% of it was "tail", the non-stuffed parts haha. Little rubbery but for $5USD I'd get the same quality at home, but for 100,000VND I could have got a lot more. I ate it and paid and limped to the ice cream place, Swansons I found the other night. I emailed them and their actually based in Canada, Markham Ontario! And they have no Canadian locations. A Canadian company just bought the chain, which has over 300 locations in the US and World wide. It wasn't as great but I got the strawberry sundae thing and had like jam syrup in it which was too much. Let the ice cream do the talking and the sauces on backup. I came back, traded in my $200US emergency money and got $4 million Dong which will last me for now and after that it's all debt! So now you know why I can't just take off somewhere, I gotta ration it until I leave Dec 15th.

One thing that I regret is that with my ignore tactic with vendors and moto drivers, not this guy, but I think someone legitimately wanted to talk to me, maybe practice English or just see what's up, and sadly I clued in after I blew them off. Baz Lurman in his Sunscreen song suggests living in New York, but leave before it makes you hard. Being use to downtown London for years has already made me hard (not in that way...) and I think being here for almost a month has made me cold as ice (good song) to anyone who wants my attention and waiting to react. A moto driver grabbed my arm and I told him to "get your fucking hand off me!" I took some pictures and put my camera away, right hip, 2nd pocket, zipper shut, wrist band secured and the rubber around my camera gives me a hard time taking it out haha. I caught someone tailing me and I was ready. It might be dumb, I admit it, but if I'm robbed, I'm going down swinging even though I was taught to give them whatever, you can get more money and can't get a new "Me". Even if I get shanked in the gut and my shit stolen, I rather land a few hits and bleed out on the sidewalk than be victimized, comply and hand over my dignitary to some fuck that probably didn't pose a threat.

I'm here now and I used my two trademarked moves which I'll let you copy. If you think you're being tailed, look out to the track, lock your eyes on a car and follow it, as if you think it was your aunt that just drove by. Break contact after making sure you're not being tailed. If you are being tailed and wanna shake them off your six(ass) take a step to the side away from them. Stop. Check your pockets like you lost something. 99% of the time they keep walking on. I want to make this straight though. I'm not crazy and think people are chasing me hahahaha. I have no reason to be chased. I just live by the US Marine motto "Be nice to everyone you meet, but have a plan to kill them." I know it's odd, but so am I haha and I've done this since I was little (I'm talking like seven haha), thinking "If we were attacked, what would I use around me..?" The only thing is that with such a large volume of people, you can't lock on and pick a different attack for everyone. I was walking down an alley and thinking "Okay, this guy I'd swing my water bottle 'round the world' style and break his nose" and then another person walked by "alright same with him, and that guy, okay and that guy, and that one..." haha

I guess it's learned behaviour. I was that way at recess, always ready to get jumped and what my next move would be after, then what? Okay if I do this what will happen? What if I do that. It gets to the point where I'm calculating things that won't happen, or slim chance they will happen. That's probably where I picked it up. I had to in order to survive school, now I'm on the streets in public and I'm ready to get jumped again. Kinda cool that I'm learning stuff about myself being 14,000km away from everything I've ever known.

Baz Lurman suggests living in California once, but before it makes you soft. I think the closest thing here is Nha Trang and sadly I can't do it and survive to Dec 15th. I'm stuck in a hard city and getting harder by the day. My face is scarred with years of being hard and now it's my relaxed look and people ask if I'm alright. I could be doing good but I got the hard look going, and yet when I'm walking alone at 4:30am at home I put on my ultimate hard look, the "I'm going to fuck you up" look. I'm working on it though. Smiling at people is less scary, for when I want to be less scary. Like when the sun is out, at 2pm and all secure, no morons, junkies, drunk people or people waiting for my money. There's classes to prepare you for threats. Are there classes on how to disarm your security system? haha. I know I have to lighten up and that's a good step. I keep it real with some and I'm not like this, also doesn't help that I'm quiet, everyone thinking "what's on his mind?" On my own my guard is up, ready and waiting for threats and I think that transfers over to other aspects in life and I can't lower my guard in certain places, with certain people, etc. Just unsure how to unlearn. Hm...