Cremains...Vietnam -- Has an interesting story

[Rebel54]

Sooooo once upon a time there was a daughter that thought it would be  great idea to send her parents Ancestry.com DNA tests for Father's and Mother's day.  Her mother is adopted as was her bio mother so her tree didn't have a lot of branches and her father is very into tracking the family tree (linked to Ethan Allen and The Green Mountain men. so he loves doing the research).....Long story short, her mother's test came back as expected and through it she's been able to find her bio mother's blood relatives and some of her bio father's relatives.  HOWEVER.....something funny happened with the father's test.  Thought some how he got someone else's results  (human error happens).... so he was retested as was a cousin (his first, the daughter's second)....well....turns out, he had the right results and at the age of 51, this daughter (yes....it's ME) finds out that the man that raised her is not her bio father.  Shock and awe.  Mom has had a series of strokes and her memory is swiss cheese so she really can't remember anything.  It was the 60's so even without the strokes...who knows.  Turns out, there were two candidates, brothers, that could have been the "donor" and one is alive and one is deceased.  Both went Nam as Marines and came back highly decorated.  After a few more tests....turns out the living man is the bio dad and now I have a new half sister and a bunch of cousins and I'm not Native American and Irish...I'm German Russian.

So where am I going with this....well....Uncle Marine had one dying wish and that was to have his ashes spread in Vietnam.  Not sure why because going to war really messed him up, he didn't come back the same.  So totally coincidentally, I'm leaving for this Mekong Trip in April.  I've always been drawn to this area and to learn about the war....now maybe it makes more sense.  I'd like to help honor him and carry out his wishes but not sure if I can bring some of his ashes with me.  Has anyone ever done this?

If I can't I might print his picture and see if I can do a memorial float and put that on there...I don't know.  Any suggestions?

 

P.s.....think twice before you order a test. 😉

[jpalbny]

My sisters have carried and scattered bits of our Mom's ashes all over the world. Different from taking all of them, perhaps. I haven't heard of any restrictions on cremains, though admittedly I have never really looked into it. You might try poking around Vietnamese websites re: customs restrictions to see if they say something. Good luck!

[Coral]

Taking remains internationally is definitely more of a challenge than domestically. I looked into this a few years ago. Even domestically is different per airline.  Some friends did do this from one funeral home to another and that was easy as the funeral homes know how to do this.

 

If someone takes "a small amount of remains" on a trip, they probably won't be caught. If you take a container or urn issued by the funeral home, it gets more complicated and you have to refer to the airline (and probably country laws).

 

Rebel - interesting story. I have a coworker whose MIL died and wanted to return to Vietnam for burial. So they went through having the body flown over. Not remains.

 

I think I will not take the test! It does make for an interesting story though.

Edited February 5, 2019 by Coral

[Peregrina651]

Very interesting question but I think you will get more answers if you were to ask the moderators to move this thread to a forum that gets more traffic. I'm just not sure which one. Maybe Ask a Cruise Question. This question just needs more exposure than it is going to get in the River Cruising forum.

 

Google is always helpful:

Transport of Cremated Remains - Cremation Association of North ...

 

 

[Rebel54]

• Thanks all.  If I take any it will be a small amount.  I know here in Hawaii we floating lantern's for Memorial day ... I wonder If I could find a way to do something like that.  I will figure it out.  I want to honor him in some way.