Kuku Island, Indonesia »   Re-visit Kuku

Dear All,

In one week, myself and three families who had lost their loved ones in the refugee camps in Indonesia, will go back to the jungle to find the graves. I shall give everyone updates and photos when we return.

Note: we will go to other islands, in the Anambas region, that used to have refugees and will have ceremony to pay respects for the spirits of the unfortunate ones who did not get to leave the camps. We will (doc Kinh Cau Sieu vua dao Phat vua dao Cong Giao) for them. If anyone has name of the deceased, please post them on the forum or send me an email, we will specifically pray for the individuals as well as others. According to the official, there were 2,000 boat people died in refugee camps in Indonesia.....

Please send us your prayers, the journey is expected to be challenging and demanding.

Carina

Me too, I wish I can go with you too. Take great care of yourself. We wait for you to come back.

Best of luck to all who will make the trip. We will be waiting for your return with news and pictures.

Carina, Tony and friends,
Have a safe trip. My thoughts and prayers are with you. We'll be here waiting for your safe return.

dangdthanh,

you are correct about "ma hai", indeed I learn a lessson about sleeping with mosquitos from the "Con Son" trip with him, then practiced in the Tangjung Pinang refugee camp. He told me when being a VC soldier in the swamp of Ca Mau jungle, sleeping in a mosquito net, they chase following him by a fleet, get in inside the net, all the way to the other side so they all following your heated body, but suddenly turn backward get quickly in the net, so the mosquito fleet dont have a chance to make an u-turn, but there are still some low speed mosquito be trapped inside the net. Now, cover yourself, but leave your buttock skin open as the free bite landing zone for few of them sharing the net inside, then you just slap them, one by one. I practiced this method of killing mosquito in the camp, waitting to kill the last mosquito in the net, and thought of "ma hai". I slept well with the red buttock.

Dear Carina,

Thanks for your generous time and resources in open this site, reminding people, especially the next generations of us, in remembering our parents, yours sacrifices in continuing our freedom quest for the Vietnamese people.
As you all known. The VN commies always try to destroy this history story chapter of the VN Boat People by using their money to buy the Indonesian to destroy any marking of this exodus, in trying to hide their crimes toward its own people. They destroyed the Memorial Plaque in the Galang refugee camp.
Your site is one of many actions to keep our Boat People Spirit going on as the true Freedom earning by our endurances at very young age, as young as such a child. The commies never can rewrite the history to their wish. We are the “talking memorial marks” in honoring of our relatives who lost their life in the freedom quest.
Reading each of your stories, I have tears in eyes … and I am very proud of my Boat People membership …

Thanks all

PS: Carina, if you have a chance stop by the Tangjung Pinang Ferry dock, could you go off to shore, for hundred yards, taking pictures of the Post Office near by for me, I appreciate in advance very much.

Carina

I think it might have been the first night when we arrived in Kuku Island. My sister and I wanted to relieve ourselves and we were looking for a place to do that. We passed some houses still in construction and a man followed us. We just walked and looked back at him and wanted him to go away, but he stared at us and kept following. (It will be rude for a man follow ladies in this situation in this century), he knew our purpose and he finally warmed us not to do it here.

We settled under a tree on the far left side (facing the water) of Kuku Island with a pile of black pointy rocks in the water facing us. This is the area that became our public toilets later on. Can you take a photo of these areas under the trees and in front of the rocks for me? Thanks.

I hope you have a safe trip. We will wait for you to come back.

Carina,
Very glad to hear that your trip was safe and you are heading home, cant wait to hear your stories. A happy ending for many sad stories of our people freedom quest.

Dear all
I am back in one piece. Everything went well. I also met some INTERESTING PEOPLE. Will share more stories when I arrive in U.S...

Tony

I second that. I am very glad to know you guys had a safe trip and now are out of there. As you are now aware, there was an earthquake in Indonesia and there are more than 4000 lives unaccounted for or believed to be buried...

From what Carina said, it looked like Tony accomplished what he has been dreaming of doing for the longest time.

Great job!!! Carina is unbelievable!!! You got such a huge heart...unmeasurable!!!This is not your first time and you just keep on doing it out of the goodness of your huge heart!!! I am speechless!

Dear All,

I am glad to be home in one piece; we were in front of the earthquake/tsunami by hours and did not know about it until the next morning when we heard the news on CNN.

anh Tien, I did take photos of the post office in Tanjung Pinang for you.

Tina, I have the photos of yours and mine 'favourite toilet' on the beach of Kuku.

I thank all of you for your warmth and concern, to me all of you are my second family, and it feels great to know that you care.

There are many photos and specific/important information to share with the community. I am going to first load the photos and information on my website, then contact the media (newspapers, radio, TV,...) to help broadcasting the news. So, if anyone (I know anh Hung and Thuc are working on this) can think of ways to make our website more known to people, it would be helpful. Few people I know will link this website to theirs.

The journey was successful and quite demanding, physically, emotionally and mentally (because we had to deal with corruptions which are expected!)

Highlight of the journey: we found a graveyard of boat people died of a taxi-boat accident between Air Raya and Letung on May 30 1979. About 60 casualties, however, not all bodies were found. We hired local people to clear the area and uncovered more than 15 graves of Chinese and Vietnamese refugees died of this accident. We painted the tombstones and took photos so that I can post them on the website. We did the same for many graves found in the jungle of Kuku.

Briefly about the journey:
Tony and his brother - I am certain that they are celebrating with their families this weekend; I wish that their mother finds peace in her heart. I am going let Tony share the rest with us.

The family in Sydney – we were in Kuku last April, searched for two days and could not find their father’s grave. This time we found the tombstone lay on the ground, among other graves. We were not sure which one was the father’s grave. We prayed, used a pendulum for direction and excavated one grave (after pre-negotiated with local authorities for permission). We found the father’s hat, clothes, and belongings, laid in the same position as he was buried 30 years ago, but no trace of his bones (similar to the one we unearthed last April) - The brothers and spouse are very happy and feel great relief. I must mention here that three times, when we excavate the tombs, regardless how unsure we were, they were the RIGHT one. I can only say that it’s the spiritual guidance of our loved ones that made it happen.

The family in Adelaide – first I was contacted by a lady from Japan, told me that her sister, Mrs Hoang Thi Tuyet (HTT) was buried in Kuku in 1989, and she was all alone when she died. So no one knew where and how she was buried. Then a young man from Adelaide called me, he is the only child of Mrs HTT, who was in Australia with his father when they received the sad news, he was just a boy then. Initially, both of them were coming with me. The aunt came from Japan to Adelaide, and then changed her mind due to health problem, so only the son was coming, then the last day, there was a tragic death in his family, he could not come. I decided to look for the grave of Mrs HTT and re-build her tomb on their behalf. Incredibly, anh Thanh Dang sent me a sketch of 10 graves that he found in the jungle of Kuku 20 years ago, when they still have names. And among them was one of Mrs HTT, which is how I found her grave, without this map there is no possible way that her family could find her grave because it was unidentifiable and they had no idea where she was buried and how her grave looks like. I will post the before and after photos on the website. Once again, thanks anh Thanh, I know that at that time, you would not have thought that what you did came to good use 20 years later…..

Hang in there; I will do my best to have the website updated as soon as I can.
Love, Carina

Hi Thuc and HG, thanks for your compliments. I am grateful that I am able to do what I can while I can.

It is humbling to think of your experiences. After all, we are all on the same boat.

Carina

Carina

When you, Tony and other families were on this trip, my mind always thinks of a picture; on the boat there was about 40 people who was on a grey-dark sea, the wind was strong, the boat was a bit rocky… I could not stop worrying.

Thanks for the photo. I can not wait to see it. It was a very 'cool' toilet, wasn’t it? At the time when we kneeled between those rocks, the sea view was great, the wind blew freshly, it was so cool… All of us had those experiences. :)

graveyard map:

Carina,

Congrats to your team on the extremely captivating video. A glimpse of today’s Kuku brings warmth to the heart. I can’t imagine how difficult it was to locate the graves in the jungle. I like the parts where the video shows Huynh’s tombstone and grave from when it was first discovered, cleaned, excavated and very appropriately, a handsome picture with the living at the end of the video clip.

Thanks for sharing the documentary with the forum.

H.

Dear All,

This link shows a provision video clip of the Sept. journey.

Dear Friends,

We just came back from Indonesian jungles, there were 12 of us, including 4 families from Vietnam, US and Australia looking for the graves of their loved ones. The journey was challenging, we ran into few obstacles and storm, but everyone accomplished their goal and came home safely. It was such a Joyce and amazing for me to witness the changes in the way these families feel after they re-build the tomb, it was as if a heavy load was instantly lifted off their chest. All together we re-build 6 graves. Needless to say, it was very emotional for us as well as for local people to witness the re-visit of our tragic past.

I came to realize that it means a great deal to us (Chinese and Vietnamese) to be able to give our loved ones proper burials, or bring 'them' home with us, even just a piece of their remains, and most of all, to show the deceased that they were never forgotten. Without a doubt, anyone seeing the site of the abandon graves, could not help but feel sad and lonely for their wondering soul/spirit..... Almost everyone who contacted me revealed that over the years, they always wanted to go back to find the grave, but don't know how too get there or they don't know if the grave are still there. Some people did tried but could not reach the destination. Note: few years ago, anh Thanh's friend did go back to Kuku amd managed to bring back the remains of their families.


During this trip we found more graves on Kuku, and 5 of us went to explore Air Raya and found a graveyard.
Air Raya has not been revisited since it was closed in 1986. In this graveyard, there were about 40 graves, only a handful has tombstones that are legible. Due to heavy rain we could not return to find more graves nor to repaint the tombstones as planned, however, soon I will send the list of names and photos of graves that we can read, hopefully some ones will regconize them. Note: before the trip, I was given a hand-drawn sketch from a friend from California, who was on Air Raya in 1979, he gave us an idea where about the graveyard was.

I am on the road again, so cannot write too much on the forum, just a quick note to update you with the progress. Soon, I will pass all photos of this journey and the ones in Sept to Thuc and Hung so they can help post them on the website/forum for everyone to view.

Carina

Carina

I can imagine what the storm looked like when all of you were in those jungle islands, it would have been like heavy rain pouring down and swallowing the group. It is great to hear that all of you arrived home safely. You are very brave and have a strong will to help people.

I watch the video a few times, I could see the emotional faces (worried and excited…) of the group on the ferry at the time they approached the island. I wish I was there as well.

Take care.

Tina

Dear All,

I just returned from Indonesia then California few hours ago. It will take me a bit of time to get back to 'normal', and will send more photos and details of the trip to be posted on the website.

Meanwhile, I would like to share with you that another family from Southern California just called me to confirm that one of the graves on Kuku was their Mother's, whom they had no news since she left Vietnam. In fact, they had not heard from their parents and three sisters since they said goodbye. Imagine the emotion this family is going through right now. Speaking of which, it's grave #1 among photos of graves, Quach T Mai . Apparently, the year she was born was incorrect, she is much older, and the death date was correct. If anyone was on Kuku around 80/81 and know anything about her death please let me know.



Carina

Chinh,

Welcome to the site.

Thuc