Market Day


Every few weeks we had to make a trip to the market in the Vietnamese town several hours away. We usually took both trucks and the Jeep. At least three of us went to drive the vehicles along with a group of Montaingnards and several VNSF as interpreters and guards. For the most part the trips were uneventful, the drive along a narrow dirt road through the valley was bumpy but easy. Until we reached the outskirts of the town traffic was practically nonexistent.
Once in town it was off to the market, park the trucks and set a guard

Then the VNSF interpreter and the cook for the troop's mess started arranging for the supplies to be gathered near the trucks. They would buy rice, vegetables, 5gal tin cans of fish sauce, chickens, ducks, pigs and cows (all live), and anything else that the needed.
   Our arrival always drew a group of spectators, some just watching, and others angling for a ride

Every thing is gathered and ready to load into the trucks. Sacks of Rice, tins of fish sauce, baskets of chickens and ducks, pigs each in their own snug little basket, and one or two cows.

Fortunately the cows were small so they could be hoisted up into the trucks by many willing hands.
After the supplies were in, the troops claimed their spots and the villagers looking for a ride tried to find space for themselves and their baggage.

Everything finally sorted out, we head back down the road to Gia Vuc.

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