Long before December 1978. The military was drafting males of Chinese decent, at that time Vietnam was at war with china and the military was afraid that the Chinese people were spies. The family gathered money together and got a spot on the boat with a bunch of small families. It was rough sea, had to leave the city and go to the sea port and hide. If found the communist will put them in jail. Pitch black, bunch of families tip toping in the black night trying to get on this small dingy that took them to the fishing boat further out in the sea. 12 oz of gold per person, 7 oz of gold for children. Rich people mainly got on the boat, left at night. It took 20-30 minutes to get to the main wooden fishing boat anchored further away so they weren’t exposed transporting these refugees. 3 days and two nights to get to the Malaysian sea. A lot of people got sick, Thailand pirates. They look deceiving tried to help etc. Food on fish boat: Dehydrated rice, dehydrated beef jerky. Plenty of water, many people there are city folk and many people got sick, so many people didn’t want to eat. Many of my family members today, traveled with them on the boat. 3 days two nights. Next thing, found this flame in the dark night horizon, man made flame. The boat went towards the flame because they saw no land. Turns out it was an American Oil rig drilling oil in the water. Since they weren’t allowed to bring them on the boat because it was only 24 meters long and there’s already 300 people on there. they purposely sunk their own boat to call a navy ship to come rescue them. If they sank their own boat the navy would have to rescue all the people in the water. Taken to the Malaysian sea, the small family and others had to hold their suitcases over their heads so they wouldn’t get wet from the waist deep high waters. The weight of the suitcase plus jumping out of the boat into the coral infested sea bed, Stephen’s feet were cut up and bruises with pieces of coral that made its way inside of the sole of his foot. But the journey had to continue in order to make it to the shore. Living on this refugee camp in Malaysia, the struggle was real. The only tools given to the group of people were a knife, sardines, no fruit, rice.