The beautiful beach in the photo isn't in the Caribbean or some secluded Pacific island chain. It's actually in Vietnam, on the island of Phú Quốc. The island is home to about 85,000 residents year-round, and has a very favorable tourist policy in effect as of March, not requiring a visa for the first thirty days of a vacation. It's just one more thing the Vietnamese government is doing to increase tourism.
Phú Quốc is a great place to visit. It is surrounded by a series of twenty small islets. The South Vietnamese Army had a prison camp there during the Vietnam War, but any signs of the war are long gone. But the island does have a troubled past that seems to keep emerging every once in a while. It seems that Cambodia also claims these islands as their own, and the two countries have fought over them for a long time. Who wouldn't want these islands? I'll take two small ones, please!
The Vietnam War was raging when I went to college in 1968. Friends and acquaintances of mine were being shipped over there on an all too regular basis. Vietnam divided our country for several years, and we paid a heavy price in loss of life and permanently scarred veterans returning from the jungles of Nam. I never went there as a soldier like so many I know and honor. I was one of the lucky ones who didn't have to live the nightmare.
I knew a guy in the '80's who told me a story that he thought was funny then, but had horrified him years before. It seems he had joined the Coast Guard in 1969, which wasn't an easy thing to do. Thinking he would end up on Search and Rescue someplace in the States, he ended up in Vietnam on a patrol boat working the Mekong River. As they picked up stranded soldiers and the wounded, they also carried body bags from the fighting. His boat was fired on almost every trip by Viet Cong guerrillas along the shore.
It wasn't a vacation, for sure! I don't know how much of his story was true, but it was the inspiration for one of the heroes of my book, Serpent's Curse. A young Ensign Rick Perry spends his days on the Mekong, getting shot at and all, while spending his nights and time off in Phú Quốc at a fictional Coastie base there. He develops a love for flying helicopters, which he pursues after getting back from the war.
Years later he ends up as the Commandant at a Coast Guard station in Fort Pierce, Florida. He is pulled into the drama and horror of the Golden Serpent, and almost sacrifices everything to help his friend destroy the monster. He's a great character and plays an even bigger part in the sequel, Serpent's Return. Find out a little bit about the Serpent and my characters by reading the FREE offer of the first seven chapters. Click on the link:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1456c9f6ce6cc2b2
To find out more about purchasing the book, please click on the link below:
http://littlepondpublishing.com/book-titles/serpents-curse-by-mark-t-bradbury/
Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend!
Mark
"It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it."
--- Steven Wright
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