.9999
A memoir by Rusty Deluce
So what is this memoir about?
The Far Eastern Gold Triangle
The Set Up
On Oct 27, 1981 at the age of 23 after graduating from Queen's University (with an Upper Second Class B.A. in History/Film Studies) I left Canada for what was to be a six month backpacking adventure through Asia.
It was my gap year and Adventure-of-a-Lifetime before settling down to grad school.
To travel from Greece to Japan on an Around-The-World airfare (grad gift-thank you mom & dad) with $5,000 in spending money.
Then return home to do my M.A. in Journalism at the University of Western Ontario in the fall of 1982.
I made exactly one application to one grad school assuming Myself to be a shoe in for admission
6 Months and 10 countries later...
having myself a real good time
And off we go...
...
when something very unexpected happens back home
This F*** Off And Die rejection letter was the single greatest WTF crisis of my precious entitled life.
Devastated. There I was scared, pissed off, nearly broke & very far from home.
It left me reeling and between worlds in Singapore in the spring of 1982.
With less than $500 and nothing to return to Canada for except a shitty, useless waiting list...
what was I going to do now ?
What Plan B?
There was no back up plan
I was screwed! No grad school and my Adventure-of-a-Lifetime about to sputter out.
All I had was my Around-the-World-Airfare, $500 in American Express Travellers Cheques and the next stop just happened to be...
The Philippines
and I was headed straight to...
Why?
Because of Boracay's reputation as the secret "it" place in all of Asia. A hidden, pristine, pleasure filled Paradise of unspeakable beauty.
In the summer of 1982 Boracay was all that and more, a hedonistic, dollars-a-day Shangri-La...trust me
After some very wild weeks in Paradise I meet this guy at the Beachcomber bar
Enter Lucky Campbell
Born: 1951, Glasgow, Scotland
Occupation: gold smuggler
Address: Diniwid Beach, Boracay
Hobbies: alcohol, drugs, sex, fighting...and scuba diving
Turns out Lucky owns his own place on Boracay and smuggles (.9999) 99.99% pure gold into Seoul, South Korea for a Canadian boss in Hong Kong
who is always looking to hire new mules !
Lucky on right admiring the sunset from his Boracay home
View from Lucky's patio
And that means one thing...
Lucky is now my best new friend in the whole world!
(No not that way!)
summer 1982 Hong Kong
Lockie Campbell 2012 in the "My Dad the Smuggler" episode of National Geographic's Locked Up Abroad
Before you can say "Nothing to Declare" I'm hired into an international syndicate of gold smugglers who are muling a fortune of gold bars in their shoes through Kimpo Airport in Seoul, South Korea. And having the time of their lives doing it.
A year in the life of a Far Eastern gold smuggler
