A man and his girl friend are in bed playing, and the man jokingly started to smother her with a pillow. She stops struggling and he takes the pillow of her face and she's limp. Suddenly she bursts alive with a big smile on her face but the mood has been killed. They get up and talk for a bit, it gets dramatic and sappy and he proposes to her. She's so happy and accepts. He puts a necklace on her and go back to bed. They start getting back to playing, and he gets the pillow out and smothers her again. She goes limp and he takes the pillow off her face. He waits for her to spring back to life. He waits, and waits but the seriousness of the situation starts to take form. He starts to shake her and she doesn't respond. He freaks out and tries to think of what to do. He grabs a blanket, wraps her up and carries her outside. He starts digging a shallow grave and dumps her in.
So how was your day? Mine was decent, got my fruit salad and free coffee as a reward for getting to the cafe before 11am. I head back to the hotel to start planning my day, figure out what to do as my only plan was to go out with Hien to experience some Vietnamese culture (he does know I've been here for seven weeks right? haha). There's a few buildings SW of my area I saw on my way to the Mekong Delta I wouldn't mind investigating, but I went back to the market to see Hien, the Zippo Hien. I've mixed things up in the last few blogs as I've been calling him Hanh haha. Maybe I should have just stuck to calling him Tran haha. We chatted for an hour or two and he reads the news so we talked about Wikileaks muhahaha, which lead to freedom of speech, which I didn't have the freedom to talk about, so we kept it really hush-hush and I made sure nobody was around me.
I explained that in Canada that I have the freedom to say what I want about anything without punishment, as long as I'm not violating another persons human rights. I can say that I don't like Obama because I don't think he's a good leader, but I can't say that I will kill him (and I'm not saying that now) as that is illegal, as well as I can't say that Obama eats babies because it's crazy and likely untrue, it would be slander and I could get in legal trouble from him. I explained that the wikileaks guy is in trouble because he is releasing information that is classified by the government, and he has freedom of speech, but if it puts peoples lives in danger I think it's considered illegal. Won't get deep into it as we didn't either. He told me that he read in a Vietnamese news paper that US troops are raping and killing young girls in Iraq and Afghanistan. I paused and calculated how I should handle this. How do I kindly say that his government controlled newspaper is full of shit and untrue, that it's just trying to make the US look bad and say it in public? He mentioned that US troops are getting in trouble with prostitutes, alcohol and drugs. I softly explained that it was a problem with some troops in the American War here in Vietnam and if troops did get rowdy with cheap women and drugs it was because they thought they could die the next day, and if they did die the next day, they wanted to have a good time before they died. I did mention that now in Iraq and Afghanistan that the culture is very strict, that women known to be prostitutes would probably be killed for their actions and US troops would be in serious trouble with the military as the military doesn't want their troops to get sick from disease or fall victim to drugs so that they're always 100% effective. I'm sure some troops would love to have a drink, some FOBBIT (forward operating base creatures that never leave the safety of the base, modern day version of the REMF - Rear Echelon Mother Fucker) probably wants to get high in the rear as they likely don't have much else to do after they're done work for the day but combat troops in the US Army have a 14 month tour. Canadian troops have a 6 month tour in Afghanistan and both have to stay clean, alert and out of trouble during all that time. They can have some fun at home but until then it's all business and the military has learned from the American War in Vietnam and doesn't want to go through the trouble that some, not all troops got into back then.
We made plans Tuesday night to have coffee and so I can meet his friend, someone who took history at university and I told him I could for an hour or two, but a few hours afterwards I'll be getting ready for the airport.
I headed back home and walked through the park, but this time I kept my eye out for Westerners talking to Asians. Oh! Might help if I mention that I posted a warning about scammers in Ho Chi Minh City and my story on the Lonely Planet travel Forum. If you're going somewhere on vacation, you buy a Lonely Planet book about that country and learn pretty much everything you need to know, it's a travellers bible and they have a forum to keep people up to date on info instead of making a new issue of every country every year. I got an email from someone wanting to know if they could post my story on their blog. I checked it out and this guy, a Western photojournalist living in Vietnam and his blog is pretty much dedicated to hunting down the Filipino mafia which is exactly what it sounds like, Filipino people operating a scam and crime syndicate in Saigon. It has tons of stories on different scams, locations they hang out, many that I have visited and follow up stories. He also posts pictures and video of scammers and has a police officer friend that investigates these cases. I let him post my stuff, I also gave him a video that I shot of the two old ladies, which he went through and got still images of each of the old women. He explained that they have purses and hats so they can hide their faces if need be and most scammers have people on lookout as well.
I was somewhat inspired and kept an eye out for Westerners. One girl was being questioned by two girls, then three, five, seven and a small mob formed around her as I took random pics of the area around the area. Turns out they all looked like university studies and figured seven girls couldn't all get away if they jumped the one girl. Due to the website I figured out what Filipino people look like in comparison to Vietnamese, the subtle differences in their faces. Filipinos skin tone seems to be darker than Vietnamese and now I can pick them out of crowds. I found a group of pinos hanging out on the main path of the park, waiting for tourists to walk by. I saw Fuckstick again but I don't know if he clued in that it was me. I kept an eye on them, but couldn't get up close and take a good picture of them and their faces without them knowing I'm taking a picture of five scammers faces at the same time haha. No trees or plants I could pretend to take pictures at. I did a lap around the park and discovered that each tree is numbered and I accidentally found the 173rd Airborne tree. See, I can't go without a blog not mentioning them! I found the 101st Airborne Division tree, the 82nd Abn Div tree, the 25th Inf Div, 23rd Inf Div, 9th Inf Div, 5th Inf Div, 4th Inf Div, 1st Inf Div and I guess I can include the 1st Calvary Div too. I'm not going back to take another picture of a number one spray painted on a tree haha. I also took pictures of the 335th Assault Helicopter Company (flew the 173rd everywhere) and the 174th Assault Helicopter Company which from 1967 to 1971 gave troops around An Khe and Bong Son occasional support as they were attached to the 1st Cav Div. With my tree hunting mission complete I figured out a way I can get Fuckstick's face on my and not be obvious. I was walking around with my camera in hand all the time, even when not taking pics so I started recording and walked past him close enough to get him and I also had a bag to somewhat conceal the camera until I needed it out. I uploaded the video, played it frame by frame, print screened the frames and blew them up. With that I sent them to the guy with the blog and he'll post them.
I had some time to kill before meeting up with Hien and I had nothing else to do here so I did something I haven't done in a long time. I did some research! Arthur B on my facebook, a former OH-6 Loach helicopter pilot went to the Casper Aviation Platoon facebook page and said he was a fan. That came up on my news and I've been meaning to look into it, so finally someone became a fan, or joined a group, or did something that was useful and that I wanted to know about! Finally! haha. When the 173rd was organized in Okinawa Japan in 1963 it TOE (table of organization and equipment) it was suppose to have eight UH-1 Huey helicopters. Instead it had four OH-23 Ravens which are small scout helicopters, looks like the skinny ones from TV's MASH with the big bubble top, two U-6 Beaver light observation airplanes (which are Canadian made, you know, from a time when we made airplanes) and one UH-1A Huey. They were sent to Vietnam May 5th 1965 but only sent the two Beaver, which later were given to another unit and in return got two Hueys (one UH-1B and one UH-1D which was a troop carrier Huey) Nov 7th, 1965. The role of the Casper Aviation Platoon was to give 173rd Brigade and Battalion leaders C&C (Command and Control) aircraft. When the troops got in the shit, they would hover over the battlefield to see whats going on and to co-ordinate the battle. The 173rd Brigadier General Williamson wanted an aviation company directly attached to the 173rd so they can get up and go anywhere without tons of planning and co-ordination, like when battalions were chopped in half in Dak To, calling a local helicopter unit to pick up and move a few hundred troops last minute would have taken forever, luckily US Generals agreed and gave Company A/82nd Aviation Battalion to the 173rd, which later they'd be known as the 335th Assault Helicopter Company "Cowboys" letting the 173rd carry 160 troops into combat on 16 UH-1D's and being escorted by 9 UH-1B's armed to the teeth with either six M60's, eighteen 2.75mm rockets and a 40mm automatic grenade launcher OR the 40mm grenade launcher, forty-eight 2.75mm rockets and two M60's. Fucking Eh ;) When I finish it I'll post it. That's one more thing I'm looking forward to getting back home, having time to sit on my ass and rock and roll on reports while I watch Futurama and American Dad on Teletoon at Night haha.
I hit Zoom Cafe for one of my last meals, massive cheese sticks and a bacon cheese burger with two big onion rings on top. I met a British tourist that just landed in Saigon two hours earlier. He asked if I had any tips and I told him I've been here for seven weeks haha. I unloaded all the useful info I could think of, from 90% of Vietnamese girls in clubs are prostitutes, to Bobby Brewers shows American movies, to bargain your balls off anywhere you go, watch out for scammers, ignore people trying to sell you shit as talking to them is a waste of time and breathe, settle on a price before getting on a moto, etc. It was this time a guy I've dealt with before at the same time, same place came up and grabbed my shoulder and started massaging it, then asked if I wanted a massage. I said "No, No, No, get off of me!" I kept talking to the British guy and he told me he just came from Cambodia, and for $300 you can fire Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs) and for an extra $75 you get to aim at a goat! Yea! You can also throw grenades and play with an AK-47. The rumours are true! The massage fuck came back fifteen minutes later and he grabbed my shoulder again. I grabbed his hand and asked him "Would you like to keep your arm?" He looked at me and I told him "If you do, get your fucking hand off me or I'll rip it off you!!!" He got the message and he mentioned something in Vietnamese to someone nearby and gave me a look. He better not try it again because I'll be hazardous to his health and leave him with the medical bill. Oh I could easily pay it for sure, I would gladly to fuck him up, but I won't adding insult to injury.
I met up with Hien and we moto'd to the movies and met up with his friend. We get in and we're on the 2nd floor, but the lights are out and to get to your seats there isn't the little ramp or slope we all secretly know and love, so some people tripped down the stairs but I luckily used a little girl as a crutch. Wait, I mean I held seats and felt with my foot, yea... turns out it was a play! We had no idea what play it was, but luckily it was a horror play. the intro I used was the first act. Dude proposes to his wife who is poor, but he has a rich lady lover and they plan on moving to the US. His girlfriend finds out and he kills her. She comes back to haunt his ass, and out of the seven scary parts, two made me jump, all of them being "pop out of no where" spooks but the audio was so loud that it sounded like an explosion, but really it was the sound of a lightning strike, but so fucking loud, plus the lights go super bright and flash. The scene wasn't scary, but the blast of sound just makes you deaf. Making it worse there's two hundred Vietnamese people all around you that SCREAM at the top of their lungs, so the sound isn't just in front of you, it's fucking everywhere! haha. Without the booming sound it wouldn't have been scary. The rest of the play is him getting scared and it was the sister and brother of the girl avenging her death and at the end police take him away, surprisingly with a pistol, which is the first gun, real, airsoft, cap or toy I've seen here. All the guns I've seen were either police or behind glass haha. I grabbed a Toblerone, came back here and wrote this!
Tomorrow I'll get shit shipped out I promise and 6pm I'm meeting up with Hoa. Other then that I might check out the SW area and take a few pics. Till then I'll see ya later
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