Phu Quoc, Vietnam beach finds

[perdidogringo]

Hi All,

It's been a while since I've done any detecting with COVID and all. I'm now based in Vietnam and had a chance to search one of the beaches yesterday on the island of Phu Quoc. Didn't find anything too great, however, I did find a couple of rings and a 10k gold earring. Hoping the beaches here will eventually treat me better (Beach Pirate on Youtube over in Danang makes it look easy!). lol

 

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[perdidogringo]

Yeah I did some googling ,what a change ! And Hotel rates under $30.00?

Cost of living is dirt cheap here if you reasonably look around (and I live in Hanoi in an expat neighborhood which is probably the most expensive in the country). But if you look around, you can find some amazing deals on hotels, food, services, etc.

 

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[RTR]

Cost of living is dirt cheap here if you reasonably look around (and I live in Hanoi in an expat neighborhood which is probably the most expensive in the country). But if you look around, you can find some amazing deals on hotels, food, services, etc.

Hey,do you have any Pix. of what Hanoi looks like now ?

 

[perdidogringo]

Hey,do you have any Pix. of what Hanoi looks like now ?

Sure, we live in the expat neighborhood of "Tay Ho," which translates to "West Lake." It's along the largest lake in Hanoi, north of the the old French center of town where the Hanoi Hilton was (It's technically part of the lake tha John McCaine parachuted into when he got shot down). We just took a tour of what is left of the Hanoi Hilton- they knocked down most of it and put up a modern hotel. However, they kept the entrance and one wing of it for a museum. Is there anything in particular you'd like photos of? Or just general street scenes? My wife is the photographer so I can ask her tomorrow for some of the photos she has taken here.

 

[RTR]

Sure, we live in the expat neighborhood of "Tay Ho," which translates to "West Lake." It's along the largest lake in Hanoi, north of the the old French center of town where the Hanoi Hilton was (It's technically part of the lake tha John McCaine parachuted into when he got shot down). We just took a tour of what is left of the Hanoi Hilton- they knocked down most of it and put up a modern hotel. However, they kept the entrance and one wing of it for a museum. Is there anything in particular you'd like photos of? Or just general street scenes? My wife is the photographer so I can ask her tomorrow for some of the photos she has taken here.

No,nothing in particular just a general feel of what it looks like now,thanks.

 

[perdidogringo]

No,nothing in particular just a general feel of what it looks like now,thanks.

Here is a link to a recent video of a guy walking around Hanoi: . I think it gives a good overview of what Hanoi looks like near the old and French quarters.

Also, I've attached a few photos- the first 3 are in Hanoi and the last is the beach on the island of Con Doa (off the coast of Saigon). We actually don't take too many photos here in Hanoi and we're currently on lock-down so can't get out and take more right now.

 

[RTR]

Thanks much for the pix. & video . The place has really grown . Now ...hit those beaches

 

[perdidogringo]

Greetings, RTR,

I arrived in Nha Trang on vacation a couple of days ago and hit the beaches. Haven't found anything amazing yet, except a lot of Russian Rubles, a rusted chain, toy truck, a bunch of worn, dime-sized silver coins, and a bullet that (I believe) is Vietnam-war era (see attached photo). There is also a pin I found (bottom center of the photo), which I am hoping is some kind of military pin but I have to clean it better since it is encrusted. Of course, I didn't take a photo of all the pull-tabs and unidentifiable metal bits I uncovered.

This afternoon, my wife and I will be heading South about 2 hours by taxi to visit your old stomping grounds- in particular, the beach outside Phan Rang air base. There's a bungalow we rented right on the beach so I should get in a couple days of detecting to see if I can uncover some of the things you and the other American servicemen left behind. I'll be taking videos via my GoPro so I'll be sure to share when I get back to Hanoi in about a week.

 

[RTR]

Many Thanks for the update Looking forward to see what the old beach area looks like now
It would be interesting to see what the base looks like Now...
>> https://duckduckgo.com/?q=phan+rang+air+base&t=chromentp&iax=images&ia=images

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

Hunting a beach in Vietnam - very cool - congrats on the great finds !

 

[perdidogringo]

Many Thanks for the update Looking forward to see what the old beach area looks like now
It would be interesting to see what the base looks like Now...
>> https://duckduckgo.com/?q=phan+rang+air+base&t=chromentp&iax=images&ia=images

Hi RTR,

Apologies for the delay on my Phan Rang Air Base beach hunt, but it took me a little while to figure out how to create a video with my new GoPro 10. Here is the link to the video: Phan Rang Beach Hunt

The video is pretty basic but I hope to improve my skills as I film more of my hunts. I mostly found old corroded Russian and Vietnamese coins, keys, and garbage. We are currently in winter so the water was rough and was very difficult to detect without being knocked over (not to mention hard to recover finds there). So unfortunately, I was only able to detect the dry sand and some of the wet sand. I suspect I would have found way better stuff had I been able to go further in the water.

I hope the video gives you a sense of how the beach looks now and brings back some memories. It's now mostly made up of a few resorts lined around the little bay- it was very quiet when I was there. One thing that stood out to me when I arrived- the beach is A LOT longer (in terms of coastline) than I had anticipated! I didn't know which end (North or South) to start from (or where the GIs mostly hung out). Since my cabana/cottage was approximately in the middle of the beach, I started there my first day when I arrived in the afternoon and then went South. The next day, I only had about 3 more hours to detect in the morning before returning to Nha Trang so I detected more in the North part of the beach and I am guessing that is where the road from your air base entered the beach? It's hard to tell nowadays since there are several roads but the reason I say that is there is a small, rocky hill/mountain (with a road from the west coiling around it) which intersects at the North part of the beach (I could imagine it would be a good spot for some snipers to position themselves). I didn't have the time to go to your old base, unfortunately (and I don't know if they would have let me since it is now a Vietnamese military base).

Anyway, thanks for your recollections and I hope to get back to Phan Rang again when I have more time to comb it properly and get into the water a little more (summer months). I will also be uploading another video soon of my detecting in Nha Trang, where I spent more time and had better luck.

 

[Relicific]

Wow detecting in Vietnam
So cool

 

[RTR]

Wow great video .Thank you so much ! Almost seems like yesterday.
Hey,there use to be a snack & beer bar next to the tree line.Maybe some coins were dropped ?

 

[Hunk-a-lead]

Hi All,

It's been a while since I've done any detecting with COVID and all. I'm now based in Vietnam and had a chance to search one of the beaches yesterday on the island of Phu Quoc. Didn't find anything too great, however, I did find a couple of rings and a 10k gold earring. Hoping the beaches here will eventually treat me better (Beach Pirate on Youtube over in Danang makes it look easy!). lol

always nice to score some gold, wtg

 

[RTR]

Dug out some old pix. of the same exact beach from 69 & 70 with buddies on a little break from it all.
Notice the snack bars

locations .That tall (lone tree in the 1st pix.) might still be there for a reference point. Might be something good there
Many thanks again...........stay safe

 

[RTR]

Also as a reference point..... look at your video at 0:07 see the mountain in the background ? Now look at the Mountain in my 4th picture above. Its a match It looks to me like your standing in the exact spot I was when I took that pix
Could it be ?

 

[Gare]

Very nice. Do you ever find us dog tags on that beach

 

[texjim]

cool find. Hope you find some more goodies.

 

[perdidogringo]

Also as a reference point..... look at your video at 0:07 see the mountain in the background ? Now look at the Mountain in my 4th picture above. Its a match It looks to me like your standing in the exact spot I was when I took that pix
Could it be ?

Wow, yes it's very close! So that must be the right place! For that initial panning shot at :07, we checked into the TTC Resort and ran out to the beach behind it to record since it was getting late in the afternoon (we just arrived from Nha Trang). So if you can find the TTC Resort on Google Map, that is exactly where we were.

Was the photo below your ride back and forth to the beach in those days?

 

[perdidogringo]

Very nice. Do you ever find us dog tags on that beach

Not yet. But I'd love to find dog tags, old zippos, long rings, military pins, etc. Really anything personal that US GIs lost. My dream would be to find something with identification details and reunite with the owner after all of these years.

 

[RTR]

Wow, yes it's very close! For that initial panning shot, we checked into the TTC Resort and ran out to the beach behind it. So that must be the right place. Was the photo below your ride back and forth to the beach?

View attachment 2004624

Yes it was(close to the bar)