Chapter 10

Mike still has the Narrative

We set out for Prathae just before 1330 hrs. and stopped to fill the fuel tanks of both bikes. Sergeant Bounmy had assured me that there were a couple of fueling stations along road #17B, but I believed that starting with full tanks was better than depending on them having gas. We were soon cruising down road #17B at about 60kph (37 mph) on our bikes. The road’s surface didn’t improve any from what we had seen previously. There were numerous potholes and ruts plus the occasional washout. With the bikes, we were able to maneuver around all but the largest potholes and other obstacles, so we were able to maintain a decent speed most of the way.

We passed a number of villages on the way. It seemed there was one every couple of kilometers. They all seemed to either have the road going through them, or to be located just off the road to one side or the other. The road itself followed a long valley between two ranges of mountains. The slopes of the mountains were covered with trees, except where the farmers had planted dry rice fields on their slopes.

Because of the noise the bikes made, it wasn’t possible to talk while moving, and I followed Bounmy, as he knew the way. The other thing that I noticed along the way was that the people in the villages didn’t pay any attention to those using the road. In fact, the noise of our bikes seemed to actually turn them away from looking at us. It was probably a good survival factor. We had been riding for a good fifty minutes before Bounmy signaled for a break. We pulled over to the side of the road and shut off the motors.

“We are close to Prathae now. The turnoff to Ban Phoc Hane isn’t far past it. After we turn on to it, we can hide the bikes in the brush and trees off of it. We will need to slow down going through Prathae as the village is quite busy. We can keep that speed to the turnoff,” he told me. We pulled out again at our normal speed.

Prathae was larger than most of the villages that we had seen on the way here, but it was nowhere near as large as Sing. We definitely needed to slow down going through it, as the main road ran down the middle of the town, and there were a number of carts and people out in the road, partially blocking it.

Bounmy was correct. Once out of Prathae, the turnoff to Ban Phoc Hane wasn’t far at all. It was just as well that we were still going slow, or we would have missed it. It was really no more that a small break in the weeds and brush along the side of the road. He had done very well to have spotted it previously.

After pulling over to the side of the road, we shut the bikes down and pushed them through the break and onto what was obviously nothing more that an occasionally used trail. It certainly wasn’t a road or even a soi. It wasn’t even like the well-defined trail that Chanthra and I had followed on the way to Korat in 1855. It did resemble that trail, however, only because of the animal droppings along it.

“Do they just use this to move things to and from the market in the village?” I asked Bounmy after looking around at the area.

“Yes, that’s its main use. Mostly it’s foot traffic, but after the harvest, they move rice to the village to be sold,” he told me. This brought back memories of our trip on the back of a rice cart with its large wheels and the two water buffaloes pulling it on the way to Korat. We, however, didn’t have time for memories now.

On looking around, I could see that there were a number of trees well back from the road and the trail, but they were spread a good distance apart, and wouldn’t provide sufficient to hide the bikes. However, a short distance off both the road and the trail there was a very large clump of tall weeds. They didn’t appear to have been trimmed recently if ever. Bounmy and I spotted them at the same time.

“Yes, the weeds,” he said. “If we move into them from the back, no one will ever notice the bikes hidden in them,” he finished.

“Alright,” I agreed, and we carefully moved the bikes over to the weeds and were able to hide them in there. We had been careful to not leave a visible trail indicating what we had done.

“We need to check this trail out very carefully. Those trucks are going to need to move very slowly and will need ground guides to make it back to the road. It will definitely need to be a daytime operation,” I told Bounmy in a whisper, as we moved up the trail into the mountains. We mostly kept off of the trail so as not to leave any boot prints on it. The local people usually only wore sandals or went barefoot. The trail wound around trees, large boulders and rock outcroppings. At times the space available between obstacles was very narrow. It took us nearly two hours to cover the distance to the village moving carefully and slowly to check the trail.

Ban Phoc Hane, when we came to it, was just a collection of small houses, barns, and animal pens on a reasonably level area on the side of the mountain. Bounmy and I remained back in the trees and the brush, but it was easy to observe what was going on in and around the village. Half-naked children were playing, pigs were rooting near the edge of the clearing, and people, both men and women, were working in the cleared fields. There were, however, several men, men with guns, who were not working but appeared to be guarding those who were.

“At least four guards, that we can see,” Bounmy said in a whisper.

“There could be others with the trucks or asleep,” I told him. “Where are the trucks though?” I asked just as quietly.

“Look for where the guards are keeping the workers away from,” he told me. With further observation, it was easy to see where none of the workers were allowed to go.

“Let’s move over to the area they are being kept away from,” I told him after a time. Moving carefully, we managed to easily approach the area from behind the guards. There was a break in the trees there and about 20 meters (66 feet) back in the trees, we found the two trucks or lorries. They were of Chinese manufacture, as all of the markings were in Chinese. As an added bonus when we checked the backs of both trucks, we found that they were loaded with boxes of weapons and ammunition.

“We definitely hit the jackpot,” I whispered to Bounmy on seeing this.

“Yes, you’re right,” he said with a smile.

We had checked the area around the trucks for traps or mines, but hadn’t found any. We did find the prints of shoes or boots from those who checked the trucks regularly, but no one was there presently.

“We need to see where the guards sleep before we leave. It’s going to be a trick moving down that trail in the dark,” I told him as we moved away from the area of the trucks.

“We could wait and see when they check on the trucks,” he told me.

“Good idea. If we can get some of them away from the villagers, it would be easier to take out the guards,” I agreed.

Returning to our previous observation post, we kept a sharp lookout on the guards and the villagers until it was too dark to see well. I had brought some ‘C’ rations with me, and we ate them cold after it was dark. Later when the moon was up, we were able to see better. This was when we learned that there were at least two additional guards who were on the night shift. They had started a fire earlier in the middle of the village and walked around the village part of the time, but spent much of the time near the fire. They would need to be taken out first when we came to get the trucks.

Bounmy and I were ready to leave at first light, and noted that the nighttime guards were asleep near the fire. We hadn’t moved yet, when a man appeared from the house where the other guards were sleeping. He went directly to the fire, which had burned down, and began kicking hell out of the sleeping guards. He screamed at them and kicked and hit them. I thought he would shoot both of them when he grabbed one of their weapons, but he only hit the slowest one to get up with it, before marching back to the house to rouse the other guards. They were a short time exiting the house and most were only partially dressed and none of them had their weapons. He screamed at them and pointed to the other guards. A short time later, he and one of the daytime guards left to check the trucks.

“It’s a good thing that we weren’t too hasty in our departure,” Bounmy whispered to me, as we prepared to leave. We weren’t interested in seeing what happened to the sleeping guards. The trip back down the trail in the cold morning light was as trying as the trip up it had been.

On reaching the weeds near the road, we found the bikes were fine and had not been disturbed. We changed clothes before leaving, as we didn’t want anyone to know that we had been here. We even waited until we were out on the road and some distance from the turnoff to start the bikes and ride into Prathae, where we stopped at the market to eat. Bounmy ordered for us. The soup that he ordered soon arrived. It was hot and very spicy but was just the thing for a cold morning after a night of little sleep. We had each gotten some sleep while the other one watched, but it was far from a good night’s sleep. The ride back to Sing town and my house wasn’t a problem, as the day quickly warmed up from the morning sun.

At our house, Chanthra and Yuang had a good breakfast of meat, eggs and rice prepared for us when we arrived. Bounmy remained at our house, and we both got some more sleep. Chanthra had prepared a place for him using the sleeping mats that we had brought with us and a blanket. We had a meeting with Captain Vanh for that afternoon to report on what we had learned on the reconnaissance.

Chanthra woke me in plenty of time to make the meeting. I felt much better with a couple of hours of sleep. I woke Bounmy, and we both showered, changed clothes, and had a quick lunch before leaving for the meeting. It was in the same house where I had previously met with Captain Vanh. On arriving there, we found Captain Vanh, Lt. Keo, and Sergeant Ai already there. Lieutenants Kham and Souk arrived shortly after that with Sgt. Thao.

“We’ll start the meeting with the report from the reconnaissance team,” Vanh said after we were all seated on the floor.

“Go ahead,” Bounmy told me, and I launched into the report of what we had seen and done before giving our conclusions.

“The attack will need to take place at night, to keep the villagers from being killed or wounded. This, however, presents certain problems. The trail up to the village is terrible. Our people will not be able to negotiate it in total darkness. They will need to move up it while it is still light out so they can see to follow it. It took us nearly two hours in full daylight to follow it the first time,” I told them.