Captain Vietnam

This picture says it all.

On the evening of November 22nd, 2013, Ashley suggested grabbing dinner in Happy Valley to take a break from our last minute wedding planning. I went through all the trouble of looking up a restaurant and making a reservation, and Ashley’s just taking her sweet time. Then she insists on walking through Ventris Road, a smaller side street running parallel to Wong Nai Chung Road, under the pretense of wanting to check out a local bakery. I know which bakery she’s talking about, so I stick on the right-hand side of the road, but she inexplicably drags me across to the left-hand side, and I kind of don’t question her at all. Suddenly, five masked men dressed in all black everything jump out from behind a nondescript van, and the scales fall from my eyes. As they force a bag over my head and push me into the waiting vehicle, I register that Ashley isn’t even pretending to cry for help. A few hours later, I emerge onto the streets of Ho Chi Minh City with my five groomsmen for a weekend of good-natured challenges, amazing food, and blessed company.  What happens in Vietnam, stays in Vietnam, but there’s a video of the weekend floating around somewhere.  With the successful completion of all challenges thrown at me, I was finally ready to take that sweet plunge into marital bliss.