Hoi An

We flew to Danang yesterday. Danang was the embarkation point for most GI's during the Vietnam War. It's the the northern tip of what was South Vietnam. The DMZ is not far. We drove by the old US army base with the cement bunkers. China Beach is there. From Danang, it was a short 30-minute drive to Hoi An.
We are in Hoi An now. It's a quaint town with a preserved old city center. It's a UNESCO site. It reminds me of the French Colonial buildings I saw in Laos, but with a fresh coat of paint and narrower streets. There are no cars allowed in the old city center. This town is full of tailors, so I am finally going to get some underwear made. You can get a tailored suit for $25 - $80 depending on the material. I am looking forward to wearing a three-piece wool suit around in this heat.
It's a three-day weekend in Vietnam. Yesterday was their Independence Day! No fireworks going on around here, though. Interestingly, it's a three-day weekend in the States too, Labor Day, a day off from work.
There are plenty of Vietnamese women wearing pointy caps and flowing white aoi-dai gowns, biking around town. As my friend Mike would say, "Verrrrry niiiiiiiice."
Rob and I visited a local Vietnamese restaurant a couple days ago with no English menu. We pointed to another table that had some boiled meat, and the waitress pointed to the sketch of a dog in the menu. That's dog?! Yes. No, thank you. Maybe later... Instead we enjoyed some hot pot. Great stuff.
More than anywhere else, I have been mistaken for being a local. It usually happens when we walk into a shop and Rob will inquire on the price of something in Vietnamese, and the shopkeeper will look at me expectantly. After a few moments, the shopkeeper will start speaking to me in Vietnamese, and I proceed to be embarrassed about not being able to speak. I smile, shrug, and wave my open hand by my ear indicating I don't understand. The shopkeeper frowns and asks if I am Vietnamese. Nope. Where are you from? Taiwan. Ohhh...I thought you were Vietnamese. You look "same same". No! You don't say? And then we proceed to the next shop where the same thing happens again and again.
We've eaten at road side stalls the past couple days. Like the food cart stands in Thailand, they are the cheapest place to get a meal. A bowl of pho noodles cost about 30 to 50 cents. The main difference is that in Vietnam they use children-sized plastic chairs, so Robert's knees are by his chin. Also, they use "sandpaper doilies" for napkins. These are actually small pieces of recycled paper that have the absorptive qualities as a sheet of notebook paper in the states. It is funny that in the States, we will use the paper napkins to jot phone numbers, while in Vietnam they use sheets of notebook paper to wipe their faces. Somehow we need to get the two groups to swap.
It's sad to see the complete chaos depicted on CNN and BBC in New Orleans. Robert remains completely calm about it all. We're half expecting to see footage of his neighborhood, but that has happened yet. A lot of the scenes from Biloxi, especially beach boulevard are very familiar.