Friday, April 25, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
I didn't actually fall off the face of the earth...
...I'm just lazy and inconsistent about keeping up with blogs. So here's my attempt to catch up.
After leaving the delta we flew commercial from Rach Gia to Ho Chi Minh City. HCM is a freaking cool place. It's huge and has everything you could ever ask for. Initially we were going to stay the night there at the Sofitel which I was very excited about but that plan fell through. We ended up only having a few hours of layover before we flew to DaNang, so we went to the most fabulous restaurant ever. It was a Brazillian restaurant that was just incredible. MMMmmm, big skewers of the finest quality meat and pineapples and deep fried bananas... oh I'm salivating right now. This is Bret and I outside the restaurant.
Well my birthday was super duper incredible. My team leader planned out this awesome party for me. We went to the New Phong Doong Club in DaNang. It was an impressively trendy club. The table was covered in beer and a wonderful cake. Vietnam doesn't do much in the way of baked goods except for a bread called "Bhang Mi" which is pronounced Bang Me...hehehehe. So the cake was a wonderful treat. The bar tenders were so awesome, everytime I took a drink of my glass of beer, they immediately filled it to the top again. They even had a techno happy birthday song for me. It was very cool. I think it may have repaired all of the crappy birthday memories from last year. This picture is just a cool statue in DaNang.
At the end of our stay in DaNang, we had a repatriation ceremony for the seven MIAs that our teams were able to find. It was really beautiful. On the DaNang flightline we gave full honors to each one. Of course the remains are very small so they fit in a box about twice the size of a shoe box. Each small box was placed in a casket and then was covered in an American flag. Each flag draped casket was then loaded onto the C-130 while all the American's saluted the fallen. It was just like the ceremony we do for those killed now. It was such an honor to be a part of all this. I'll try to get the pictures of our ceremony to post on here.
After Da Nang, we loaded up onto the C-130 and headed to Pattaya Beach Thailand. Originally, we were supposed to be out of Pattaya in no more than 24 hours... 5 days later we finally managed to find a way out. It was great to be there this time. This is the first glorious Guinness that I had.
Not only was there beer in Pattaya, but we showed up for Songkran which is the big celebration that marks the beginning of the rainy season in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. The way they celebrate is by having a massive, week long water fight in every public place. The moment you step onto a sidewalk or get into a taxi bus, you're immediately fair game for being slammed with water. I bought a water cannon which is actually illegal in Thailand but I managed to keep mine hidden from the Thai Fun Police. Annother part of Songkran is dumping baby powder or flour on people and vehicles. I have no idea what the significance of that is, but it sure was fun. Here's pics of Jayme, Bret, my new favorite Canadian - Frank, and myself.
So now I'm on my way home to Colorado. I'm actually sitting in the USO at LAX for my 5 hour layover. I hate air travel so much but it's certainly made better by free pizza, soda and cookies. My time in Hawaii was relaxing but I'm still so glad to be finally going home - yippeee!!
After leaving the delta we flew commercial from Rach Gia to Ho Chi Minh City. HCM is a freaking cool place. It's huge and has everything you could ever ask for. Initially we were going to stay the night there at the Sofitel which I was very excited about but that plan fell through. We ended up only having a few hours of layover before we flew to DaNang, so we went to the most fabulous restaurant ever. It was a Brazillian restaurant that was just incredible. MMMmmm, big skewers of the finest quality meat and pineapples and deep fried bananas... oh I'm salivating right now. This is Bret and I outside the restaurant.
Well my birthday was super duper incredible. My team leader planned out this awesome party for me. We went to the New Phong Doong Club in DaNang. It was an impressively trendy club. The table was covered in beer and a wonderful cake. Vietnam doesn't do much in the way of baked goods except for a bread called "Bhang Mi" which is pronounced Bang Me...hehehehe. So the cake was a wonderful treat. The bar tenders were so awesome, everytime I took a drink of my glass of beer, they immediately filled it to the top again. They even had a techno happy birthday song for me. It was very cool. I think it may have repaired all of the crappy birthday memories from last year. This picture is just a cool statue in DaNang.
At the end of our stay in DaNang, we had a repatriation ceremony for the seven MIAs that our teams were able to find. It was really beautiful. On the DaNang flightline we gave full honors to each one. Of course the remains are very small so they fit in a box about twice the size of a shoe box. Each small box was placed in a casket and then was covered in an American flag. Each flag draped casket was then loaded onto the C-130 while all the American's saluted the fallen. It was just like the ceremony we do for those killed now. It was such an honor to be a part of all this. I'll try to get the pictures of our ceremony to post on here.
After Da Nang, we loaded up onto the C-130 and headed to Pattaya Beach Thailand. Originally, we were supposed to be out of Pattaya in no more than 24 hours... 5 days later we finally managed to find a way out. It was great to be there this time. This is the first glorious Guinness that I had.
Not only was there beer in Pattaya, but we showed up for Songkran which is the big celebration that marks the beginning of the rainy season in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. The way they celebrate is by having a massive, week long water fight in every public place. The moment you step onto a sidewalk or get into a taxi bus, you're immediately fair game for being slammed with water. I bought a water cannon which is actually illegal in Thailand but I managed to keep mine hidden from the Thai Fun Police. Annother part of Songkran is dumping baby powder or flour on people and vehicles. I have no idea what the significance of that is, but it sure was fun. Here's pics of Jayme, Bret, my new favorite Canadian - Frank, and myself.
So now I'm on my way home to Colorado. I'm actually sitting in the USO at LAX for my 5 hour layover. I hate air travel so much but it's certainly made better by free pizza, soda and cookies. My time in Hawaii was relaxing but I'm still so glad to be finally going home - yippeee!!
Friday, April 11, 2008
Last night we finally arrived in DaNang. Oh I love the resort that we're staying at so much. It's so beautiful.
Our party was bitter sweet. Here are a whole bunch of photos from the last day.
Randy and his crew
Wong and I
Jayme and I
Anh and I
The girls
Chi Hun and I
Bye Bye!
This might be one of my favorites because it has my three favorite boys... Ka, Wong and Lin.
You can't tell me this isn't a funny picture... and she's an adult!
The coffee shop that sprung up on site
Ame Tim (she's on the left in the pic above) wrote this on my hand and then (in her very best english) whispered it to me when we hugged goodbye. Yup, I may have cried a little bit. I'm such a baby. Helpless is the best way to describe how it felt to leave the delta.
Leaving the delta...
Our party was bitter sweet. Here are a whole bunch of photos from the last day.
Randy and his crew
Wong and I
Jayme and I
Anh and I
The girls
Chi Hun and I
Bye Bye!
This might be one of my favorites because it has my three favorite boys... Ka, Wong and Lin.
You can't tell me this isn't a funny picture... and she's an adult!
The coffee shop that sprung up on site
Ame Tim (she's on the left in the pic above) wrote this on my hand and then (in her very best english) whispered it to me when we hugged goodbye. Yup, I may have cried a little bit. I'm such a baby. Helpless is the best way to describe how it felt to leave the delta.
Leaving the delta...
Monday, April 7, 2008
Yeah, yeah… I know I’m terrible about writing on a regular basis, but it was really starting to feel like Groundhog Day out here. Entries would have read… woke up, ate PB&J on a tortilla for breakfast, pushed dirt through screen, made big rocks into small rocks, ate rice and pork, drank Tiger, bed, repeat, repeat, repeat. All of my previous bitching about the lack of rain here has come back to haunt me. As it turns out, Forrest Gump may have actually been a documentary. For 50 days we had a total of two minutes of rain. Then one day the skies opened up and they haven’t really stopped since. It’s like the transition between dry and rainy season only took about twenty minutes. Here’s a really great picture of the wonderful rain. It wouldn’t be so bad except for the mud that results. And the mud causes my flip flops to blow out which is probably the most aggravating thing on earth. I would just walk around bare foot like the locals except that going to the bathroom definitely requires the protective layer of rubber soles.
I can definitely say that the Lt is not where the witness said he buried him. We’ve found no tangible sign of him out here. We did find inconclusive evidence of a plane crash but nothing substantial. It’s been disappointing. About a week ago a guy showed up who said that he had moved the body 4 kilometers away. I think that was the motivation breaking point for most of us. Unfortunately we have to continue digging the original site. When our motivation was to bring home our lost things were going really well, but once it became an exercise in filling a block our productivity slowed tremendously. Of course this also coincided with the rain which made all of our excavation and screening incredibly tedious. I can’t believe how hard we’ve worked out here. So much has gone into this mission and it’s a bit of a let down to have nothing to show for it. Leadership here keeps saying that every mission is successful regardless because we now know where he definitely isn’t buried, but it still doesn’t really feel successful. The new witness says that he threw the body into a latrine pit and it’s a crappy feeling to know that we may be just 4 kilometers away from bringing him out of that and there’s nothing we can do. Stupid ass politics.
We leave in two days so tomorrow we’re throwing the workers a pig roast lunch to say thank you. The last couple of days have been sad because somehow they found out that we’re leaving. It’s amazing how much you can communicate with so little understanding of one anothers language. It makes me wonder why we have so much trouble when we speak the same language.
Yesterday/today (depending on what time zone you’re in) was the anniversary of the Navy guys death in Iraq. Yesterday it was on my mind but fortunately we had a lot of work to do so dwelling on it wasn’t an option. And I’ve been a bit sick so I went straight to bed after work and several beers. It was probably best that way. But I did find myself reliving the day as it had happened and trying to remember what was happening at the same time one year ago. It was a little surreal. When I woke up it was just another day, but by night everything had changed so much. This morning I called Curt’s sister and mom. It was hard. I don’t know how else to explain it. The good thing is that we’ll all get to see each other soon at the memorial in May so we all have that to look forward to.
Well it’s bedtime now so now I need to find the fortitude to brave the latrine…
Another image of the mud we're contending with. Also, check out the giant pile of pulverized dirt behind the screening stations. That's about half of what we've done so far.
The ambassador came to visit us here. Again the giant helicopter landed in the field. Here is a pic of the girls watching it land. Hyeng thought that my digital camera was a little more interesting.
I can definitely say that the Lt is not where the witness said he buried him. We’ve found no tangible sign of him out here. We did find inconclusive evidence of a plane crash but nothing substantial. It’s been disappointing. About a week ago a guy showed up who said that he had moved the body 4 kilometers away. I think that was the motivation breaking point for most of us. Unfortunately we have to continue digging the original site. When our motivation was to bring home our lost things were going really well, but once it became an exercise in filling a block our productivity slowed tremendously. Of course this also coincided with the rain which made all of our excavation and screening incredibly tedious. I can’t believe how hard we’ve worked out here. So much has gone into this mission and it’s a bit of a let down to have nothing to show for it. Leadership here keeps saying that every mission is successful regardless because we now know where he definitely isn’t buried, but it still doesn’t really feel successful. The new witness says that he threw the body into a latrine pit and it’s a crappy feeling to know that we may be just 4 kilometers away from bringing him out of that and there’s nothing we can do. Stupid ass politics.
We leave in two days so tomorrow we’re throwing the workers a pig roast lunch to say thank you. The last couple of days have been sad because somehow they found out that we’re leaving. It’s amazing how much you can communicate with so little understanding of one anothers language. It makes me wonder why we have so much trouble when we speak the same language.
Yesterday/today (depending on what time zone you’re in) was the anniversary of the Navy guys death in Iraq. Yesterday it was on my mind but fortunately we had a lot of work to do so dwelling on it wasn’t an option. And I’ve been a bit sick so I went straight to bed after work and several beers. It was probably best that way. But I did find myself reliving the day as it had happened and trying to remember what was happening at the same time one year ago. It was a little surreal. When I woke up it was just another day, but by night everything had changed so much. This morning I called Curt’s sister and mom. It was hard. I don’t know how else to explain it. The good thing is that we’ll all get to see each other soon at the memorial in May so we all have that to look forward to.
Well it’s bedtime now so now I need to find the fortitude to brave the latrine…
But first, more pictures :) This is of Mea Gun and two of her twelve children.
Ang (one of our Vietnamese military guards) and I
The site foreman, An Ba Dau and I. He is probably one of the biggest jokesters I've met in a while.
Awwww, Mea Gunn and I again. I miss her already!!
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