As two Vietnamese brothers were floating in the Gulf of Siam in 1983 they found a bottle with a note in it. The message led to a friendship that helped the two and their families arrive in 
the U.S. after two years in a Thailand refugee camp.
The touching story is featured on CNN as one of “5 amazing messages in bottles” – here.
The note in the champagne bottle was thrown by Dorothy and John Peckham overboard a cruise ship in 1979 during a trip to Hawaii. They asked anyone who found one of their bottles to write them back, and even went so far as to include a $1 bill to cover the postage.
Four years later, on March 4, 1983, John’s birthday, the couple received a letter from Hoa Van Nguyen.
Hoa, a former soldier in the South Vietnamese Army, said he and his younger brother had found one of the Peckhams’ bottles as the two men were floating in the Gulf of Siam.
Hoa and his brother were boat people escaping communist Vietnam. When Hoa and his brother saw the bottle, they felt as though a prayer had been answered, giving them the strength to carry on, they said.
They would land in Songkhla in Thailand. Songkhla was one of the largest refugee camps in Southeast Asia and was among the most dangerous to get to as Thai pirates crowded the Gulf of Siam, robbing, killing and raping Vietnamese refugees.
After reading the letter, the Peckhams looked for Songkhla on a map and were shocked to find that the bottle had traveled 9,000 miles from Hawaii.
The Peckhams corresponded with Hoa for years, sharing in his joy when they received a photo from his wedding, then again nine months later when they saw his newborn son.
But most of all, the Peckhams empathized with Hoa’s desire to give his family the best life he could. So when Hoa asked if the Peckhams could help his family move to the U.S., they didn’t hesitate. After months of working with U.S. Immigration, the two families finally did meet in 1985, when a plane from Thailand landed in Los Angeles — Hoa’s new home.
Many thanks to Bolsavik reader Mai Pham for pointing out this item.
Shoot…..I did opened a big-ass plastic jar awhile back when fishing at Catalina just to find out some a…hole pooped in there and wrapped it up in nice silk towel…..so just a warning here people…….don t just read all these romantic stories and start throwing bottles at sea, fricking Harbor Patron will not hesitate to write tickets for littering.
And the key thing here is….”a big jar usually is not for a cute message….”
I should have known better……Well.
I found a bottle of beer….
Sonny, you cracked me up!!! lol
Is this a safe practice, sponsoring VN commies to the US? Rather dangerous if you ask me…Viet-AM should form a committee that investigates the background of all VNmese arriving in the US to determine if they are truly commie or some sad refugee.
I recommend a certain individual who is in politic to head up this organization; they can travel throughout the US and stare these newly arrived Viets in the eye and determine whether they are a menace to our society…
May be the two rogue cops from San Jose could participate too if enforcement is needed to control unarmed hungry refugee to show how mighty people in the US are…
Oh I also want to add that people who throw bottles in the ocean should be fined, especially ones who leave their address, to prevent further littering. Imagine all 6 billion people decided to be sentimental and threw a bottle into the ocean. I don’t want to fanthom the global nightmare or possible water level rise from added displacement in the water.
So, with their address in the bottle, cite them, sort of like speeding and videotaping the trangression and show it off on YouTube. Total disregard for law and order…
The person who should head this task force is a certain V politican who once served on a trash committee…he seems to be very keen and adept on this matter because he ain’t worth a damn serving in a different capacity.
Dingo, you’re just a common Vietnamese dirtbag….. people like you are dime a dozen.
Dingo, in other words, you have so much bitterness and hate that you’re comments are rarely constructive.
Obviously you’re just projecting your shitty life onto others. You have shitty feelings on the inside from living a shitty life and you project that shittiness onto other people…… I see it all the time from Southeast Asians and Vietnamese like yourself.
Holly smoke my friend Dingy….what s wrong with your heart dawg?….
Technically speaking, it s not safe to let any foreigners into a different country, so should US install 50 caliber machine guns along those Mexican border?
And it also s not safe to marry a totally stranger, born and raised in a totally different family, not known or related to you….but you will call it a wife at the risk of losing half of your shit if bitch decides to leave?…Does it means humans should not be coupled?
It s not safe to eat anything because you don t know if your immune system can fight any germs from foods?..Stay hungry?
It s not safe to give a gun and a badge to another human to protect you at the risk of that same baton might rain down your own head?.So does it mean we don t need them good policemen?
It s not safe to spend your whole life raising your kids at the risk of someday those kids might turn around and wanna kick you out, so no family?
It s not safe to vote for your fellow countryman to represent you just to see him get drunk and crash, so might as well let Coco the monkey of Michael Jackson to represent your community?.
Now you tell me Dingo buddy dawg….WHAT THE HELL IS SAFE?..
You really ruin a perfect romantic story here.
I don’t get this…Pose a simple question and get rebuked! Not only that, I did not say that I would be the judge to assess an individual’s immigration status and deferred that judgement to an expert commie chaser…
You’re both right xu and Sonny…I lead a rather sad life…I don’t have the courage to run for office and spend other people’s money or lie to them where their financial contribution goes…Playboy mags, alcohol, hookers, traveling, and spending on uselss stuff.
I can’t afford a house, and somebody was able to secure two without holding down a job…WTF!
My wife won’t get her chiropractor brothers to join in the insurance scam, and I even told her that there is a catch-22. If we get caught, we just tell the feds that we don’t know what the hell the other is doing. The time we spend together we talk about the moon and the stars, anything but family related even though we share kids.
The feds are stupid and suckers for this sort of stuff…
So, you’re right, I need to get real huevos and start small politically and work my ass up the totem pole and reap the rewards and lead a happy family life…
I m not picking on ya Dingo….totally understand what you mean bro. I copy this story below just for you.
His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish
> farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his
> family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog.
> He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.
> > There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a
> terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free
> himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could
> have been a slow and terrifying death.
> >
> > The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the
> Scotsman’s sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed
> nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of
> the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.
> >
> > ‘I want to repay you,’ said the nobleman.
> ‘You saved my son’s life.’
> >
> > ‘No, I can’t accept payment for what I
> did,’ the Scottish farmer replied waving off the
> offer. At that moment, the farmer’s own son came to
> the door of the family hovel.
> >
> > ‘Is that your son?’ the nobleman asked.
> >
> > ‘Yes,’ the farmer replied proudly.
> >
> > ‘I’ll make you a deal. Let me provide him
> with the level of education my own son will enjoy If
> the lad is anything like his father, he’ll no doubt grow
> to be a man we both will be proud of.’ And that
> he did.
> > Farmer Fleming’s son attended the very best
> schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary’s Hospital
> Medical School in London, and went on to become known
> throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander
> Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.
> >
> > Years afterward, the same nobleman’s son who
> was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia.
> > What saved his life this time? Penicillin.
> >
> > The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill
> .. His son’s name?
> >
> > Sir Winston Churchill.
> >
> > Someone once said: What goes around comes around.
> >
> > Work like you don’t need the money.
> >
> >
> > Love like you’ve never been hurt.
> >
> >
> > Dance like nobody’s watching.
> >
> >
> > Sing like nobody’s listening.
> >
> >
> > Live like it’s Heaven on Earth.
> >
See what i mean?.There must be a God of some sort up there…whether he s Jesus, Budha or Alah……
but something bigger than human lifeform.
Gotta go now…..but let s hope i cheer somebody s day up and not to draw some heat toward my comments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Fleming#Personal_life
Ahhhh…Come on FYI.
I know it s false, but just trying to romance the story of how shit goes around?…You mess it up man.
Anyway, good freeken day…
Pinche Vatto Chino assemblyman,
I’ve been reading entries written by Dingo, and I know that amiga. I can help you but it will cost you. I can make “things” happen if you catch my drift. Give me a call and we can arrange something.
1-800-382-5968
assemblyman:
My name is Pablo Escobar, and I would like to offer my service to rid your problem. I know you have the scanner on all the bloggers at home and that’s fine and dandy. To solve your problem permanently, my colleagues and I have tried and proven methods of alleviating unnecessary headache.
Don’t call Jesus because this is a small scale gang banger style that does not emphasize your importance in the community and the “trade” that we both in. Do it in style like the ending of Scarface when all of those nice people entering Scarface’s compound and unload. That’s the way to do things.
Give me a call on my encrypted satellite telephone 1-800-scar-face. Leave a message if I don’t pick up.
Hammur, don’t hurt them!
Yo yo my assemblyman, yo got prob; gotsta solution but this ride ain’t free my man. A couple of keys and we’s even and I’ll even bring back his scalp to make a lamp shade. How about dawg? Buzz me, bro, at 877-dogg-dog.