Sean on the Island of the Coconut Monk

Per’The World According to Roger Steffens’:

Where is the most interesting place you’ve visited?

“The Island of the Coconut Monk. I went there for the first time in January of 1969 with John Steinbeck IV and Sean Flynn, Errol Flynn’s son. It was basically a mile-long sand bar in the middle of the Mekong River inhabited by thousands of drop outs from the war, led by a 4 and a half-foot hunchback monk who hadn’t lain down in the previous 20 years. Anyone who came to his island without a weapon was welcomed, no questions asked. They had deserters from the North Vietnamese communist forces, the South Vietnamese army, and daoists. They prayed to Christ, Buddha, Mohammad, Lao Tze, Confucius, Sun Yat-sen, Victor Hugo and Winston Churchill. The North bank of the river was controlled by the Americans and the South bank by the communists, and they’d fire rockets and mortars over the island, but never touch the island. It’s the only place in Vietnam that I saw happy people. It was there that I met my first wife.”

Per “The Coconut Monk” by John Steinbeck IV:

“I was happy here. Perhaps happier than I had ever been in my life. The island became my refuge for the next five years.”

——————– Roger Steffens, John Steinbeck IV, Crystal Eastin and Sean Flynn

— Tim