MOLI VIEW™

Of course, I had to ask: Was there any surf in Vietnam? Turns out, yes, indeed. As seen in Apocalypse Now (everything we think we know about Vietnam comes from American war movies, right?), GIs were helicoptered into China Beach to surf and find other forms of R&R (like hookers and heroin) during the war (we call it the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese call it the American War). Fast forward 40 years and pretty China Beach (or in Vietnamese, My Khe) is rated the best beach in the country. No wonder it's now home to the sumptuous five-star luxury retreat the Nam Hai, the most expensive in all of Vietnam.

But wait a minute — before I start sunning and wave-riding, I want to know what exactly happened at China Beach? I know there was an American TV series called China Beach that ran from the late '80s to the early '90s, but those were the years I was stuck in a boarding school in Hawaii, banned from watching TV. Apparently, this is where the American GIs who had seen the bloodiest battles came to blow off some steam. One can only imagine what this meant to them and what they needed to ease the pain, but there are no hedonistic vices here now. They've all been banished (along with any beggars — locals can collect $13 U.S. just for reporting one to the police), driven underground by the government to make way for this new, serene, PG-13 breed of R&R.

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