Cambodia and vietnam

Thaddeus

Jr. Member
Dec 29, 2017
92
136
NFA
Detector(s) used
Garret ace 400i
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Is there anybody out the with an interest or a special knowledge of Vietnam and Cambodia in a treasure hunting or prospecting sense of course. Maybe even a veteran. Someone who can remember something and what province it was in? City? If you know you are never going to get to go back to detect....... or always wish you could specifically detect....... then send me a pm or just post here. I am a young school teacher slugging it out with a terrible school system in vietnam.......i need a spot....people have been living here for thousands of years.....(currently in hai phong province, close to hanoi, third most populous city in vietnam)honestly I will quit my job tomorrow to fix bike and detect full time. I really just teach for a place to crash. So what's the story does anyone even have an idea. There was a 10 kilo jar of ancient chinese coins found in a field here not long ago. That's all the solid info I have gotten so far. I need to speak better Viet but it's so hard. I cannot begin to research here. Maybe you have? Beaches are obvious....what about ruins? Temples? Our of the way places you have directions for that aren't in Vietnamese? Let me know I will honestly drive 1000 km on a 135, camp there and take many pictures to show if you are curious......oh and split what i find with you........u know a good place to detect.
 

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Well...........didn't really get to Hanoi often, Jane Fonda might know though. Good luck Thaddeus.
 

There are many maps documenting where American and French bases were during the war, as well as maps with exact spots of military engagements. I would be careful not to go without money as you may have to pay a police officer if they stop you. Also you will have to be extra extra extra special careful as there are tons and tons of mines and UXO's in that country, these will still be live and dangerous to life and limb.

EDIT: I would also look for old French maps that may have locations of old rubber plantations and plantation houses, those will be loaded with cultural relics.
 

From my experience in S. NAM you will find a lot of spent yak,yak 47, 5.56mm and 7.62 rounds.
Marvin
 

You still have her number Right?
 

Yes this is great advice P.Allen. The cops here try to fleece me daily. My technique is stay happy, shake hands alot, don't speak english. I go back and forth from French to Spanish to Thai and they give up pretty fast as I'm wasting their time shaking down others for not violating non existent road rules. Yes I will be very careful not to blow my legs off.......anyone have any experience with land mine/UNO signals? Now about these maps......where would you look online for one? Any map resources you have found useful in the past?

GA boy all I find on the beach is spent rounds. Instead of caps it's spent rounds here but they are still more fun. Very wide variety of calibre. Everything except .22 which is what I would mostly find in Canada and not on tourist beaches and city parks.

Atw......what do you mean by #10?
 

I would google stuff like "military engagement maps of Vietnam" "US Military Bases of Vietnam Maps" "French Colonial Maps of Vietnam" Any sort of boleen type searches involving Military, Maps, Vietnam, US, French will help. https://www.westpoint.edu/history/SitePages/Vietnam War.aspx
Then once your google search comes up, click on IMAGES and go from there. Check out some you tube videos on some Russian metal detecting stuff, those guys find plenty of mines, bombs, and grenades. The Germans also have a lot of detectorists whom find UXO on a regular basis. I would also google search UXO of Vietnam to find out the most common type of mine or bomb you might find. Cluster bomb bomblets and mines seem to be the biggest problem. The key is to not go crazy with the shovel. Use your hands and if you must use a tool, make sure its a small hand tool or a rubber coated probe.

http://www.quanloi.org/ABattery14On...ntations/OriginsOfFrenchRubberPlantations.htm

Small villages are going to be your best bet, ask to speak to an elder and offer a gift (Bottled Water or Oranges, sometimes even Tobacco will work)
 

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From my experience in S. NAM you will find a lot of spent yak,yak 47, 5.56mm and 7.62 rounds.
Marvin
And not to forget all those dandy little can openers, the "P-38's", could be like pull tabs here.
 

And not to forget all those dandy little can openers, the "P-38's", could be like pull tabs here.

And magazine loading spoons.
dts
 

"Atw......what do you mean by #10?"

If I recallcorrectly, the exact quote was "You numba 10 GI" meaning you were very bad or worthless. If you were "numba 1" you were in like Flint, a real keeper, until the next GI came along.
HH
dts
 

You may find more demand in finding live ordinance in order to feed yourself....
 

Welcome to TreasureNet. Be careful, Cambodia is the 2nd most heavily mined country in the world behind Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estimated over 10 million mines, 143 per square mile. Vietnam has a lot of unexploded ordinance as well as mines and traps left over from the Vietnam war.
 

Yes this is great advice P.Allen. The cops here try to fleece me daily. My technique is stay happy, shake hands alot, don't speak english. I go back and forth from French to Spanish to Thai and they give up pretty fast as I'm wasting their time shaking down others for not violating non existent road rules. Yes I will be very careful not to blow my legs off.......anyone have any experience with land mine/UNO signals? Now about these maps......where would you look online for one? Any map resources you have found useful in the past?

GA boy all I find on the beach is spent rounds. Instead of caps it's spent rounds here but they are still more fun. Very wide variety of calibre. Everything except .22 which is what I would mostly find in Canada and not on tourist beaches and city parks.

Atw......what do you mean by #10?

The local South Vietnamese used to say, "Joe, you #1"
That meant that they liked you. #10, not so much.
 

Wow grantler thanks for the sites they are great. There is so much to be discovered in this country and not many people looking really. Very hard to explain to a vietnamese person what you are really looking for. 90% of the time they point you to tourist spots to buy coconuts thinking thats what you really want to do. They mostly have a hard time grasping that i want the old rundown areas that i can detect. They always seem to think i am very lost. I was looking at old maps and found a naval base that was fairly large and on googlemaps today it shows nothing there. I went there to find a walled compound that is still very active but not on the map. But there was a very old stone semi circle out front which was probably an oldguard post. It had a huge durian tree growing out of it and a huge solid concrete sign with the words aged off of it. I would have loved to detect it but was afraid of how curious the soldiers were of my presence there. They kept asking about what hotel i needed to go to. Was i looking for shopping? No im in this old crummy area because the ground is not concrete or asphalt and there is history here. They just laugh and point me away to leave. All this tien viet practise for nobody to get me anyway. I show people targets and they laugh and throw them on the ground thinking they are helping me realize its not gold.
 

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