Hardwear Sessions

By Jon Bowermaster

I went to Vietnam the first time because I knew so little about the place, especially its people. During seven years I returned four more times, spending most of my time exploring its long coastline, where one-third of Vietnam's 85 million live. Along the way my teams and I spent days with rich and poor, fishermen and entrepreneurs, almost all beach dwellers who live and depend on the sea. For many, we were the first Americans they had ever met. During our longest exploration, in 2001, I was accompanied by photographer Rob Howard who made beautiful portraits of many of those we met.

Perhaps my most compelling travel was done with Ngan Nguyen, a Vietnamese refugee who'd fled the south with her family in 1975 and had grown up in the U.S. Traveling with her, especially through what was North Vietnam, was eye-opening for us both. The most emotional day for Ngan was when we kayaked along the Ben Hai River which had been the man-made demarcation separating north from south. The river symbolized for us all the tragic loss of more than 3 million Vietnamese lives, as well as more than 56,000 Americans ... which still today seems hard to rationalize, no matter where in the world you were born.