This is the O.R's canteen "The Sandbagger's Inn". My first job in Vietnam was to manage the bar. I was given this job in line with the army's policy of selecting the most unsuitable person possible to fill the position.
I don't think I was the most compitent manager ever. In fact a pail of pond scum scraped from the local lagoon would probably have done a better job. But it was interesting and I got a lot of good material for my play.
Not that I was thinking about writing a play while I was in Vietnam. I didn't take notes, or anything like that. But I did soak up the behavior, the attitudes of the people around me.
We lived in each others pockets. There was little privacy and no chance for a life beyond the group.
The town of Vung Tau, just a taxi ride away, might as well have been on the other side of the planet. It was totally alien, separated by language and culture.
You visited it as a tourist, but the points of contact were few.
A few people shacked up with local girls, but it was an artificial relationship at best. Not in the culture. A fragile bridge across a considerable gulf.
For most of the blokes the "Sandbagger's Inn" was home, the centre of our small world.