Sunday 13th August 1967, myself and Peter Wingfield leave Chesterfield at 2.20pm. Meet Welsh miners Ben Woods and Bill Evans at 9pm in the Royal Hotel London.

Monday 14th, up at 6am, arrive at airport terminal at 8am. Leave for Paris in a Caravell at 8.40am, arrive at 10am. Leave Paris at 12.05pm in a Boeing 707 F-BHSL flying at 23,000 feet at a speed of approx. 550mph. Arrive Athens 1550 local time, temperature 88'F. We have a half bottle of beer each and I receive the following change for £1 and the beer:
Australian currency - 2/-, 1/-  and 2/- and 6d
English currency 3d
Cypriot currency 50 mills

Greek currency 1 drachma

not bad change for what is a terrible drink!

We then leave for Cairo flying at 29,000 feet, arriving at 1855 local time.

Buy two postcards at a cost of 6/- inclusive of postage but as soon as I'd buy them we are called to our flight. Temperature here 94'F. Peter sends one card I send the other (not much to say though....)

Leave for Karachi at a height of 33,000 feet.

The flight over the desert is something I shall aways remember. The sunset produces brilliant colours of every dimension each one seems to fill the horizon as far as you can see. After this the stars have to be seen to be believed, they appear to be as large as apples in the sky.

Tuesday 15th August, arrive in Karachi 2.50am, temperature 84'F. We are not allowed to leave the plane here (much to our discomfort). The airport officials inform us that there won't be a flight to Hanoi until Friday the 18th August.

Arrive in Phnom Penh 1125, temperature 89'F. The airport officials don't keep us long after charging us 10/- for a visa. Mr Barchett, our contact here, is not at the airport to meet us. Airport officials telephone the North Vietnamese Embassy and inform them of our arrival. We then take a taxi, costing £2, to the Royal Hotel after being told that a Vietnam Embassy official would meet us there. The reception here is very cool and almost hostile. The manager informs us that we can stay for one night but it would be better if we go to another hotel. We wait one and a half hours and no-one shows up. Peter makes some phone calls to find out what the delay is and finally Mr Bic the Vietnamese official arrives. He books us into a different hotel, the Khemara, and proceeds to make fuller arrangements. There hasn't been a flight to North Vietnam this week and he confirms that we have to wait until Friday at the earliest. It is apparent from our Vietnam contact that we must pay our own hotel bills in Phnom Penh. This is going to be quite a problem if we stay long, although we are informed that Henri, a man in room 10 (next to our two rooms) can help.
Bill and Ben (the two Welsh miners for future reference) are sweating cobs as they are both rather stout to put it mildly. They are very likeable men. Pete is feeling the heat and as for myself, I'm OK so far.

Wednesday August 16th, a rather restless night. Bedroom is OK at first and then half way through the night I am very hot, but still quite good in myself. Breakfast is two cups of lemon tea (getting quite a taste for this) and a roll of bread. Receive a call from the embassy that we can't get tickets for the onward journey and other arrangements are being made. Spend the rest of the morning sat around waiting or walking round the block. In the afternoon we are taken on a tour round the city. There appears to be plenty of food i.e. fish and vegetables of all kinds. The fruits are very interesting, I only wish I knew what they were. Bill (19.5 stone) and Ben (16 stone) are giving the locals quite a "big" joke but they're taking it all in good spirit. The beer is expensive so we appear to be going teetotal.
3.35pm raining. It's a very fine rain, almost like mist. Have chicken and salad for dinner. These chickens seem to have very long legs, costs about 15/- for a simple meal.

Thursday August 17th, Mr Bic returns our passports with visas. Difficulty arises with regard to payment of money for a ticket to Hanoi. Mr Bic says he'll contact Hanoi but as a secondary measure he suggests we could ask the British Embassy for help. There appears to be no progress with Hanoi so we decide to try the British Embassy. We are interviewed by an Irishman, a Mr P. Murphy. He's very polite and helpful. He sends a cable to the foreign office in London to get authority for payment of the ticket money from the Miner's Union. Contact is made with the union rep in the evening and we're told payment is on it's way. Mr Murphy gives us  four 8 cans of Tiger gold medal beer and after what we'd been drinking before, it is worth a gold medal! Bill and Ben are much more restful after a good drink. At last we have made contact with someone who can be trusted and translate our problems (in the next 24 hours this man is a godsend to our delegation). Hanoi is aware of our problems and arrangements are being made. I feel that had our Mr Bic been able to fully understand our position our present problems would have been solved. (I possibly expect people to understand us whilst I do not appreciate their difficulty).

Friday August 18th. The flight is due at 1130.

9am, Pete phones the embassy and is informed that payment for the tickets to Hanoi has to be granted from London.
9.30am, Mr Bic telephones to say the the CIC airline office still won't issue the tickets as they haven't received a note guaranteeing payment.
9.45am, cars arrive from the North Vietnamese Embassy to take us to the CIC office to sign and pay for our tickets.
10.15am, arrive at the airline office to be told that the note has arrived and we could have our tickets to Hanoi!

With minutes to spare and thoroughly stressed out, arrive at the airport and board a plane to Vientiane, capital of Laos, the next leg of our journey to Hanoi. We are met there by a North Vietnamese rep. They seem to be very quiet and open people but one has to give them time to think. In Vientiane there is an open feeling of hostility towards us. No one says very much but you can feel the tension. There are huge numbers of American planes up here, one lands and takes off every 5 minutes. They appear to be supply planes with open backs. It takes about 10 minutes for one to land, be loaded up and then leave again. We stay here for about five hours and set off on the final stage at 6pm. We are finally going to Hanoi, this is it! After all our problems we are now roaring along at about 10,000 feet towards our objective. What would we find? Would there be anyone to meet us? Would we be again the last flight in or out of Hanoi for three weeks? All these thoughts appear in my imagination.
After about half an hour, the stewardess comes round with drinks. Shortly afterwards we feel the plane veer sharply to the left and a happy looking stewardess informs us that we are returning to Vientiane as a monsoon storm has hit Hanoi (instead of the usual bombs). At this moment in time I do not recall ever the feelings of despondency and utter hopelessness that I now feel. To be beaten by the weather after we had overcome all the difficulties of the last six days.
The Vietnamese embassy officials meet us on our return, informing us that Hanoi had been notified. An airport official tells us that the plane would be returning to Phnom Penh on Saturday morning and that we have to be at the airport for 8am.
We are bundled into a taxi and an embassy car and driven into Vientiane. On arrival at the hotel Peter begins once again to try to make the Vietnamese understand our money problems. It's no good, they understand but say nothing and after about an hour it's agreed that for two traveller's cheques (about £10) we can stay the night including food. It's here that i start with diarrhoea and stomach pains. The room Peter and I share is quite good, apart from the mosquitos, lizards and a few spiders. I find out later from Henri that the Vietnamese ambassador is paying for our night's stay. This is the first encouraging sign of any financial help.

Saturday August 19th 7am, two Vietnamese embassy cars arrive informing us that the ambassador wishes to see us. We are taken to a very good looking building with air conditioning and comfortable furniture and here we have a very interesting discussion with the ambassador:
Question to the ambassador - did he see a third world power acting as mediator in the war?
Answer - yes, but who that nation will be he did not know because every big power is too afraid to jurisdict against American power.

Question - what does he think of all the surrounding countries assisting America?
Answer - it's bad that their neighbours have sold out to America but even now there is movement from sections of governments to stop the support. It is very sad for him to hear the non-stop traffic of airplanes going over his embassy to bomb his country.

Question - what does he think the war is about?
Answer - This is a people's war not only for the people but for all the peoples of the world. We are fighting for the right of self-determination to govern ourselves as a united people without outside interference.

Question - how long does he think it will take for the war to end?
Answer - we think it will be a very long time as there are many difficulties. We think the people can do it, even if it takes 5, 10 or 20 years.

Question - does he accept the 1954 Geneva Convention?
Answer - the 1954 Geneva Convention is acceptable to us.

It is expressed to the ambassador that many trade unionists and a large proportion of the British people did not agree with American policy. He accepts and understands this but does not understand why they are not doing anything to stop it. We have no answer, but Peter explains that many men who hold sympathetic views towards any situation sometimes change when they reach higher positions.

After leaving the ambassador we arrive at the airport at 8am but are kept waiting until 9.30am before we take off. It is very hot here and I'm feeling the heat for the first time. We have an uneventful flight back to Phomn Penh. On arrival we are surprised to find we have to pay for yet another visa, this time an entry visa to Cambodia! Eventually we arrive back at the same rooms we had before.
We are now in great financial difficulties. We are faced with a further three days delay before the next flight to Hanoi and our money is running out. We have a serious discussion and the conclusion is that if no help can be had from the Vietnamese, two of our delegation will have to return home in order to give the other two a better chance of succeeding in getting to Hanoi. We inform Henri of our discussion and he goes to see the Vietnamese ambassador.

Sunday 20th August the ambassador comes to see us in the morning. After a long discussion it's apparent that it's impossible for them to help us financially. He's very upset about the situation, almost in tears. It's now decided that Ben and myself will have to return home on the 4.35pm flight.

Mr Bic informs us that he's received a letter from his wife saying that travel from Hanoi was almost impossible, it's taking them 4 days to travel 20 miles! The bombs were coming much worse now and Bic says that even if our delegation gets to Hanoi he doesn't think that we'd be able to visit the coal fields.

As the time for our departure grows near I'm still hoping for a last possible chance to stay, but it doesn't materialise. I will never be able to explain my feelings as we depart from our two friends. We had overcome so many obstacles and formed a great friendship towards each other. I can't even wish them good luck as I'm too overcome with emotion at having to depart at this stage in our attempt to visit North Vietnam.

Footnote: the diary ends here. It's not known if Pete and Bill did get to Hanoi and the coal fields, but it does sound unlikely. If anyone can shed any light on this, please send an email to iancarrington58@gmail.com and I'll conclude the story.

Here are some of the interesting items we found with the diary. First of all, two of the infamous visas and his luggage ticket to Hanoi:

Next, a rather surreal series of postcards. The first set were of Hanoi. Bearing in mind there'd been a war going on for twelve years, they're very touristy until the last few:

The next set are from the famous Halong Bay and the surrounding area. Looking at these, you wouldn't believe that there was a war going on.