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Operation Làm Quen: Motorcycling Rural Vietnam, One Landing Zone at a Time
A journey through Vietnam’s hidden war history—told one back-road, battlefield, and roadside beer at a time.
Operation Làm Motorcycling Rural Vietnam, One Landing Zone at a Time is a unique blend of travel writing, historical investigation, and personal reflection. Weaving together untold Vietnam War history, rural adventure, and wry observation, this memoir follows one man’s solo motorcycle journey across Vietnam in search of the forgotten front lines of a war that shaped both nations—and continues to echo through their landscapes.
From crumbling airstrips in the Highlands to jungle-claimed bunkers near the Cambodian border, the author explores abandoned U.S. and South Vietnamese bases, PAVN tunnel complexes, and makeshift war memorials rarely marked on tourist maps. Traveling by motorbike, he traces old supply lines, firebases, and ghost towns, encountering local veterans, roadside taverns, and small-town rhythms that reveal a Vietnam far from the polished tourist trail.
Part travelogue, part battlefield archaeology, Operation Làm Quen blends sharp historical insight with dry humor and moments of quiet reverence. The result is a portrait of a country where the past is always present—beneath the soil, in the stories of villagers, and in the tension between modern life and lingering memory.
Whether navigating the misty passes near the DMZ, trading stories with war descendants in noodle shops, or stumbling across rusted base complexes in the jungle, the author remains an outsider trying to make sense of Vietnam’s rural soul and the emotional residue of war. Along the way, he wrestles with his own uneasy fascination with war relics, the aesthetics of destruction, and the emotional dissonance of dark tourism.
This book is
Vietnam War history buffs who want more than the usual battle summaries.Veterans and expats revisiting the places that defined their youth or shaped their family history.Travelers and armchair explorers drawn to off-the-map journeys and authentic cultural encounters.Motorcycle adventurers with a soft spot for dusty roads, roadside coffee, and the beauty of the long ride.
Rich in detail and deeply human, Operation Làm Quen is a thoughtful, sometimes funny, and often poignant look at Vietnam today—and the ghosts that still travel its roads.
Vietnam War history, motorcycle travel Vietnam, abandoned Vietnam War bases, travel memoirs Southeast Asia, war tourism, rural Vietnam, battlefield travel, cultural memory Vietnam, postwar Southeast Asia, solo motorbike adventure, Vietnam military history, forgotten Vietnam War sites, dark tourism
Operation Làm Motorcycling Rural Vietnam, One Landing Zone at a Time is a unique blend of travel writing, historical investigation, and personal reflection. Weaving together untold Vietnam War history, rural adventure, and wry observation, this memoir follows one man’s solo motorcycle journey across Vietnam in search of the forgotten front lines of a war that shaped both nations—and continues to echo through their landscapes.
From crumbling airstrips in the Highlands to jungle-claimed bunkers near the Cambodian border, the author explores abandoned U.S. and South Vietnamese bases, PAVN tunnel complexes, and makeshift war memorials rarely marked on tourist maps. Traveling by motorbike, he traces old supply lines, firebases, and ghost towns, encountering local veterans, roadside taverns, and small-town rhythms that reveal a Vietnam far from the polished tourist trail.
Part travelogue, part battlefield archaeology, Operation Làm Quen blends sharp historical insight with dry humor and moments of quiet reverence. The result is a portrait of a country where the past is always present—beneath the soil, in the stories of villagers, and in the tension between modern life and lingering memory.
Whether navigating the misty passes near the DMZ, trading stories with war descendants in noodle shops, or stumbling across rusted base complexes in the jungle, the author remains an outsider trying to make sense of Vietnam’s rural soul and the emotional residue of war. Along the way, he wrestles with his own uneasy fascination with war relics, the aesthetics of destruction, and the emotional dissonance of dark tourism.
This book is
Vietnam War history buffs who want more than the usual battle summaries.Veterans and expats revisiting the places that defined their youth or shaped their family history.Travelers and armchair explorers drawn to off-the-map journeys and authentic cultural encounters.Motorcycle adventurers with a soft spot for dusty roads, roadside coffee, and the beauty of the long ride.
Rich in detail and deeply human, Operation Làm Quen is a thoughtful, sometimes funny, and often poignant look at Vietnam today—and the ghosts that still travel its roads.
Vietnam War history, motorcycle travel Vietnam, abandoned Vietnam War bases, travel memoirs Southeast Asia, war tourism, rural Vietnam, battlefield travel, cultural memory Vietnam, postwar Southeast Asia, solo motorbike adventure, Vietnam military history, forgotten Vietnam War sites, dark tourism
342 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 7, 2025
2 people are currently reading
2 people want to read
About the author
Stephen F. Berlinguette
1 book2 followersArrested for underage motorcycle riding in 1985 at the age of 14 while cruising Manchester, New Hampshire’s French-Canadian West Side with a friend (after that friend’s older brother handed him the keys at a keg party) Stephen F. Berlinguette has been riding motorcycles since he was 13, when his own older brother first taught him how to work a clutch and shift gears.
The arrest landed him in the back of a police wagon, sharing space with a heavily intoxicated, perspiring, shirtless French-Canadian man in dungarees and hi-top basketball sneakers, followed by a few hours in a holding cell. On the ride home from the station, his parents laid down the law: “No motorcycles.”
It didn’t stick.
He’d already been placed in the saddle of a Honda CB350 as an infant, and by the time of his arrest, he was surrounded by bikes, memories, and family mythology. His father, a former Matchless owner with deep regrets about the “former,” passed down a love of riding through motorcycle camping trips and stories about annual pilgrimages to Laconia Bike Week and the “Blessing of the Bikes” in Colebrook, New Hampshire. His mother rode her own Suzuki.
Eventually, the rule became “motorcycles.”
He kept going, from a 6,000-mile cross-country USA ride on a 1974 Honda CB750, to wrenching on a temperamental BSA Lightning, to more reliable Hondas, Triumphs, and Yamahas in the years since. He’s ridden all over Laos, Rwanda, Liberia, and
Vietnam, where he lived for nearly a decade. He wants very badly to move back.
He spent fifteen years working for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) overseas before losing his job in 2025 when the Trump Administration dismantled the agency.
He studied History at the University of New Hampshire, and International Relations at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
He has a son, Oscar—the greatest boy in the world.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/RoyalKingDy...
https://facebook.com/sfberlinguette
The arrest landed him in the back of a police wagon, sharing space with a heavily intoxicated, perspiring, shirtless French-Canadian man in dungarees and hi-top basketball sneakers, followed by a few hours in a holding cell. On the ride home from the station, his parents laid down the law: “No motorcycles.”
It didn’t stick.
He’d already been placed in the saddle of a Honda CB350 as an infant, and by the time of his arrest, he was surrounded by bikes, memories, and family mythology. His father, a former Matchless owner with deep regrets about the “former,” passed down a love of riding through motorcycle camping trips and stories about annual pilgrimages to Laconia Bike Week and the “Blessing of the Bikes” in Colebrook, New Hampshire. His mother rode her own Suzuki.
Eventually, the rule became “motorcycles.”
He kept going, from a 6,000-mile cross-country USA ride on a 1974 Honda CB750, to wrenching on a temperamental BSA Lightning, to more reliable Hondas, Triumphs, and Yamahas in the years since. He’s ridden all over Laos, Rwanda, Liberia, and
Vietnam, where he lived for nearly a decade. He wants very badly to move back.
He spent fifteen years working for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) overseas before losing his job in 2025 when the Trump Administration dismantled the agency.
He studied History at the University of New Hampshire, and International Relations at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
He has a son, Oscar—the greatest boy in the world.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/RoyalKingDy...
https://facebook.com/sfberlinguette
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 11, 2025
wonderful, insightful, sympathetic book of contemporary VN, and the vestiges of war. several external factors may have contributed to my openness to this travelogue as I share a few background elements with the author, who I have not met. I took went to SAIS for grad school, with a focus on Asia. my ex and son both recently lost their jobs with the Trump/DOGE evisceration of U SAID and I've worked in East and SE Asia for 35 years. I also have a dear friend who served as a medic in the 1st Infantry Division serving in the rubber plantations around Dau Tieng covered early in the book. Finally, I read the book hanging in the coffee shops in Saigon. Enjoyed the authors observations of workers and peasants in the countryside, and the retelling of the campaigns that were fought in the areas covered in the book. highly recommend.
July 8, 2025
Loved it - So many travelogues skip over the mundane or the minor challenges, giving the reader an overly curated experience. Stephen relishes in the banal conversations and the roadblocks he encounters. In doing so, we get a better understanding of how modern Vietnamese are dealing with ghosts of the past while looking to create a better future. Stephen offers us a unique perspective of an outsider - an outsider who has a deep appreciation of Vietnamese culture, history, and language - who wants to see the relics and realities of the Vietnam war before they completely disappear.
May 25, 2025
This book is much more than I expected. Being a Vietnam War veteran, I have read enough veteran memoirs of their times in Vietnam to expect a description of their activities and feelings about their participation, written in a standard style. Although this book covers military history through the means of a motorcycle trip through Vietnam surveying former U.S. bases or points of conflict, it is really an exposition of Vietnamese culture, past and present. The author provides the known history of each destination in his tours. While the author is not a war veteran, he is an archeologist and historian. This helps him to provide a fresher look at these war sites.
I have lived in Vietnam for the past twenty years, but I learned a great deal reading this book. It is thorough in its coverage of culture, and I can attest to its authenticity and accuracy. The author writes in a creative style more common to novels, but this is very effective in evoking Vietnamese life. Once you start reading this book, you will find it difficult to put down. The author is particularly good at describing objects and situations, making the writing very interesting. It leads you through the book.
I highly recommend taking the time to read this book.
I have lived in Vietnam for the past twenty years, but I learned a great deal reading this book. It is thorough in its coverage of culture, and I can attest to its authenticity and accuracy. The author writes in a creative style more common to novels, but this is very effective in evoking Vietnamese life. Once you start reading this book, you will find it difficult to put down. The author is particularly good at describing objects and situations, making the writing very interesting. It leads you through the book.
I highly recommend taking the time to read this book.
July 16, 2025
Lam Quen is an engaging read - part history and social observations in the vein of Bill Bryson, part motorcycle diaries, part Bourdain-esque window into food and drink culture, part love letter to Vietnam, Berlinguette makes the reader feel part of his adventure discovering the human aspects of Vietnam's turbulent recent history. The book is filled with charming and often laugh-out-loud anecdotes describing the reality of rural Vietnam life; but are side-by-side with profound discussions about the affects of conflict. The author clearly has a deep connection to Vietnam - events are described with a respect for the individual participants and how present day lives and situations have been affected. If you want a unique window into life in Vietnam, its history and current development, give it a read. - MP
June 17, 2025
A wonderful and glorious tale of the author’s motorcycle trip into parts of Vietnam where locals rarely, if ever, encounter Westerners. His love of Vietnam is obvious, and his ability to develop friendly conversations with the Vietnamese he meets along the way, provides the reader with a rare view of the culture. Also, his knowledge of the Vietnamese battlefields he visits will appeal to individuals who have studied that war. This book is a page-turner that will have you considering a visit to that amazing country.
Leo St. Germain
Leo St. Germain
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews