I recently had the opportunity to visit Vietnam. I am in the US Navy and my ship, the USS Blue Ridge, was able to go there for a final port call of our fall deployment. I was not expecting much from the country, I was just happy to visit a place that I would otherwise probably never see. What I found there was an experience that I will not soon forget.

The day started out as any other while in a liberty port. After drinking a whole lot the night before I was waking up around nine and waking up my liberty buddy. Mike and I had already planned to go see the country and that morning I found out that we picked up three more people to go with us. I am not going to name the other three because they are not in the story for long. Everybody got ready and we headed out to Hoi An around lunch. We had to go to Hoi An to pick up some tailor made suits for the three that joined the party, but as soon as we got there Mike and I stopped to look in a shop and when we turned around the other three had just kept going and left us. That was some kind of B.S. being left behind like that, but that is what lead Mike and I to meet Mr. Uyen and that is where our adventure begins.

At first Uyen seemed like your average guy from a third world country just trying to get some cash out of the foreigners. Mike and I ignored him at first and he followed us for a minute when we told him we were not going to give him any money. He told us that he did not want any money he just wanted to show us the best places to go and tell us a little bit about Vietnam. He obviously was part of a tour company because he had a name tag on with his company name on it "Easy Riders". We told him that we were just looking for a bite to eat and he said he knew just the place. Mike and I agreed to go check it out and ended up sitting down for lunch at a small restaurant on the river. The lunch was delicious and the conversation was even better. Uyen told us about his family and we all showed off photos of our kids (well not Mike, he has none). He handed a book to mike and another to myself and they were filled with tour descriptions and thank you's that past tourist had written about him. One of the entries was by a woman from Alaska who ended up going on a week long tour up the Ho Chi Minh trail. There were entries from people all over the world, Australians, Americans, British, Canadians, Dutch, Spanish, etc. While reading through the books, Uyen's brother (Hyun) showed up and joined us and mike and I decided that we would let them show us around. We paid for our meal and hopped on the back of their motorcycles to head to Mt. Ba Na.

Ridding through the city is an experience all in itself. The majority of people are on two wheel vehicles and there had to be at least fifty in view at all times. Many of the scooters and motorcycles had two or three people on them. I saw one with a family of three and the dog. We rode through the city for a while until there started to be fewer and fewer buildings and other drivers. We were definitely heading in to the sticks of Vietnam. I kept on thinking about movies like Touristas and Hostel and wondering if Mike and I were going to have our organs harvested, but then I thought to myself "You watch to many movies. Eventually there were barely any buildings around and we were heading up a mountain. We came around one corner in the mountain and then you could see it, a gondola going up the mountain, and a nine level waterfall going down the hill. We got to the tram bought our tickets and headed up the mountain. The trip to the top lasted 17 minutes and the ride was amazing. The mountain was covered in thick jungle and we had a view that overlooked all of Da Nang at least until we went through the cloud layer. Once we passed through the clouds there was a breathtaking view of the tops of the clouds for miles. The gondola topped off at 5042 meters which is a little over three and a quarter miles up. On top of the mountain was a large Buddha statue and a shrine. There is also a resort that is being built on top of the mountain that looks like it will be pretty kick ass when it is done. Now comes the only bad part of the story. After we had looked around the top of the mountain we went to get back on the gondola and we were told that it was not open and they pointed to a schedule sign. The time was 3:30pm and the gondola was not going to be turned back on until 5pm. An hour and 45 minutes later we were at the bottom of the mountain again. Uyen and Hyun were still there and waiting to head back out. Since we got stuck up there Uyen said that we would not have time to go anywhere else and invited us back to his home where his wife would cook us fried duck and noodles.

After another hour of riding through the city we arrived at Uyen's home. Some chairs and a small table were set up for the four of us across the street and Uyen's wife started chopping up a duck and within 15 minutes there was a fresh plate of fried duck with cucumbers and mango. It tasted amazing. Along with our meal we had a whole bunch of beers on ice. Biere Larue was the brand of beer and it was not the best, but not the worst beer I have ever drank. The four of us sat around eating duck and rice noodles talking about all sorts of things until another member of the Easy Rider crew showed up. The new arrivals name was An and he is Uyen neighbor who has been working with him the last 17 years. This man was a character. His father was part of the South Vietnamese Army during the conflict and was imprisoned after the conflict was over. An was shot when he was four years old because he was his fathers son. He was a very interesting man and had a lot to say about everything. At one point I was talking about how I am a little fat and An did not agree. He asked me how much I weigh and I told him I was about 97 kilos. He did not believe me and wanted to try and pick me up. I agreed to let him try and he failed miserably. Hyun had to help him and Mike got a couple pictures which will be up on here sooner or later. After a whole lot of beers Mike and I had to head back to the boat. Uyen told us at the beginning of the day that he was not asking for money, but Mike and I thought that he more than earned payment. We each gave him some money for the days festivities and he called us a cab back to the ship. They paid for our cab fair and we were back to the pier in about ten minutes.

After a long, long day, mike and a whole lot of beers Mike and I were back on the ship with an awesome story to tell and memories that will last forever. We were able to get contact info for Uyen so if anybody is ever planning a trip to Vietnam any time let me know and I will give you the email of an awesome guide. The country is definitely the most run down places that I have been able to see, but the people are some of the kindest that I have ever met. If it is possible I would like to take a real vacation here some day and experience the parts of the country that I was not able to see. Vietnam turned out to be much more than I ever expected and this day was a perfect end to an amazing port call.