Landmark in Viet Nam – the early days – Part 3

Getting out of Vung Tau was almost an adventure in itself! The local fishing fleet is docked just at the outskirts of Vung Tau. We drove from VietSovPetro on our way to Ho Chi Minh City for about 15 minutes when the driver, who spoke no English, decided to stop at a small crossroad. He got out of the van and disappeared in the direction of the fleet. I didn’t get worried the first 5 or 10 minutes but when he had been gone for 20 minutes I thought to myself ‘Great, the Landmark reporter will have a lead story in tomorrows edition – Carl Huxohl was kidnapped in Vung Tau’. Just about that time the driver returned with a fresh pack of cigarettes, opened the pack, looked at me and smiled and we drove on.

Once we made the main highway I was surprised by the traffic on our route. Not trucks, not cars. Lots of people on foot. Cattle being herded. Goats being herded. Bicycles and scooters and small motor cycles galore. Even more interesting a small motorcycle, built for 1, was carrying a whole family. Mom, Pop, both kids and some grain! This was a real education for me about life in Asia and how different it can be from what I was used to. In my humble opinion, everyone should have experiences like this just to show us how lucky we really are and how diverse the human condition really is.

We final got to Ho Chi Minh City and drove up to the hotel. I went inside to the main desk and asked for my room. I was tired from all the stress and it was already about 8 PM. And the plane left the next day. To my surprise and shock the agent had failed to confirm my reservation and there was not a single room available.  Hmmmm. I am sensing a pattern here. They said I could wait in the coffee shop in that perhaps a room might become available later. I did. Around 10 PM the coffee shop closed. I went back to the desk and inquired – still no room. Stress out! About 5 minutes later a room did open up. Oh what a relief it was!

So now I was ready to take the boxes, yes the ones with broken hasps and no way to lock them, up to my room. The concierge told me that I could not do this. So I asked him what I should do with the boxes since I could not drag them up 4 flights of stairs. He told me I could leave them in the lobby with him and since no alternatives were available I took him up on his offer. At this point he took out some tissue paper and tore them into strips. He asked me to sign the strips. Then he took out some scotch tape and taped these strips across the hasps on each box. All I thought was ‘Great, all I will know in the morning is that everything is gone’. 

Finally, I got to my room, cleaned up and went to sleep. I could finally relax! I woke up the next morning and went to breakfast and noted that the boxes and their contents were still there (all with a big Landmark sign painted on them). I came back out and the assistant for our agent picked me up. We put all the equipment in a truck and he and I got in a lead car. This fellow was quiet but while I was in the car he gave all my 8mm backup tapes back! I thought that was strange because they were supposed to be in a safe at the airport!

We got to the airport and checked the equipment in at the customs desk. Shock! It turns out that the only person who could get them out of the country was our agent since he was the one who had checked them in. And the agent was nowhere to be found! This was a problem. Finally, I gave up and went to the flight desk for my flight. Shock again! The agent had not reconfirmed my ticket so I was at the bottom of a pile of tickets and the plane was already at capacity.

I asked the guy, imploringly, to move me to the top of the list. I waited for about 30 minutes and asked again. He looked at me strangely and it dawned on me that he wanted some money to move it up. I told him I had to be in Bangkok for some more business that night. To this day I am surprised because at the last possible minute, just before the flight was to leave, he moved me to the top and I got the last seat out – without money being exchanged. This was all good because I had already had my passport checked out of the country. I would have to go through a whole process to get back in if I did not make that flight!

I never did figure out exactly what happened to the equipment! I had a friend who went over to visit family and I asked him to find that equipment and disable it if he could. Finally, he did find it in a warehouse and he did disable it! What a journey! The short and quite profound lesson was to ‘trust no one’. 

And by the way, at the airport another one of the agents assistants, who could speak English, told me that the assistant I had ridden with to the airport had, in a previous life, been the Viet Cong general who had attacked the US embassy during the highly reported last day of the US embassy (where helicopters were flying everyone out). I was glad I did not know this until I was ready to leave. Was he or wasn’t he???