Story of the cache

Pham Xuan An was a quadruple agent who worked at various times for the French, South Vietnamese, American, and North Vietnamese intelligence services. He was a Viet Minh platoon leader during the First Indochina War and communist spy during the Second. He worked as a Saigon customs official, which is comparable to getting a Ph.D. in the black market, and as a censor at the telegraph office, where he butchered the prose of Graham Greene. The communists bought him a white suit and sent him to study journalism at Orange Coast College in California. On returning to Vietnam in 1959, he worked for the Vietnam News Agency, Reuters, and Time. As the country’s best-informed journalist, he ran what David Halberstam called “a first-rate intelligence network.”

He was called “dean of the Vietnamese press corps” and “voice of Radio Catinat” - the rumor mill. With self-deprecating humor, he preferred other titles for himself, such as “docteur de sexologie,” “professeur coup d’état,” “Commander of Military Dog Training” (a reference to the German shepherd that always accompanied him under the coffee table), “Ph.D. in revolutions,” or, simply, General Givral. 

At the same time, An was sending a stream of intelligence reports to Ho Chi Minh and his generals in North Vietnam. Written in invisible ink or hidden in spring rolls filled with film canisters, these reports gave the communists advance warning on strategy, troop movements, tactics—everything required to win a string of battles from Ap Bac in 1963 to the fall of Saigon in 1975. Even the battles the communists lost—such as the Tet Offensive—were spun by An into political victories. For his invaluable service, North Vietnamese Army Colonel Pham Xuan An, later Brigadier General Pham Xuan An, was awarded 16 military medals and named a Hero of the People’s Armed Forces. At the same time, his name was put on the masthead of America’s leading news magazine, and he became a fully vested member of Time Inc.’s retirement plan.

“He was an intellectual, dog-lover, bird-lover, chain-smoker, super smart guy, and we thought a great reporter,” says Peter Ross Range. “But An was also a little strange. He would disappear for days at a time and nobody had any idea where he was. Now of course we know where he was at least part of that time”. 

Did An report fake news, as some of his former colleagues believe? No, he reported the news, which is invariably an amalgam of brute facts, public perception, and political interpretation. 

An continued to work for TIME through the end of the war. When TIME’s staff was evacuated before the April 30, 1975, fall of Saigon, he was the one who stayed behind. An issue of F.Y.I. from that May noted that, a few hours after the evacuation was complete, the following message came over the Telex machine: “Here is Pham Xuan An now. All American correspondents evacuated because of emergency. The office of TIME is now manned by Pham Xuan An.”

“An thought, naively, that when the war was over it would be just like the end of the American Civil war, where Lincoln said ‘with malice toward none,’” Larry Berman says. “People hold onto him as symbol of war, but really he’s a symbol of peace.”

Cache Description

Hello and welcome to this espionage-style cache :D This is a 3-stage cache where you will need to solve a riddle to pass 1st stage and search for an info to overcome 2nd stage. If you find them too difficult, feel free to message me to know the answers!

1st Stage

The 1st stage of this cache is the house on Ly Chinh Thang street Pham Xuan An had been living during the war where he wrote his reports at night guarded by his dog, and remained there to the rest of his life. Nearby Nguyen Thong street is revered to be “Aquarium Street” of Saigon where numerous fish/aquarium shops could be found. Coincidentally fish is the third component in An’s menagerie: “Dogs are loyal. Birds are always hopping around in their cages, keeping busy. Fish teach you to keep your mouth shut,” An said. 

In Vietnam, “guppy” is a popular pet fish, translated to Vietnamese is "cá x màu" in which "x" is a number. Ask a local or use translate web to get the number and fill in the "x" position here for the 2nd stage’s coordinates: 10.776344, 106.x02516. 

Alternatively, sum up the three numbers in the address plate of the house for "x".

2nd Stage

The 2nd stage of this cache was the famous corner used to be Givral, a café on the old rue Catinat (Dong Khoi street) in Eden center, in which Pham Xuan An swapped stories with colleagues. Here he presided every afternoon as the best news source in Saigon. Eden center along with Givral cafe was demolished in the year 20yz upon which the current shopping mall was rebuilt.

Search for the year and fill them in “yz” position for the final stage coordinates: 10.77yz159, 106.7017481

Alternatively, in Continental Hotel there is a special room where the Time offices were established, in front of which is a bronze plaque in honor of Pham Xuan An. Sum up the three numbers of the room for "yz". 

Final Stage

The final stage used to be a hotspot for bird and dog lovers in Saigon as there was a bird/dog market where An met Mrs. Ba, his intelligence courier to handover reports. The long gone market sat on the perimeter of Cao Thang Technical College which remains intact till these days. 

Sorry those who came across this cache earlier and couldn't find the waypoints to 2nd and final stage, my bad for misinterpreting the hidden waypoint feature. Appreciate danozz for pointing it out to me!