Arrived in Vietnam yesterday to spend the day on the little stuff.  Orienting ourselves to the neighborhood here in central Da Nang, grocery shopping, eating a number of times, getting reacquainted with the family, and oh yeah, learning to ride a motorbike.

The grocery shopping went off without a hitch, we bravely avoided the aisle that featured every Oreo variation ever devised.  Many of the items we passed on I believe may be illegal in the US since to eat them means an immediate 911 call.

The apartment we have rented is adorable and functional. The kitchen table sits next to a window that looks out over central Da Nang from the third floor.

Because I need a bedside light in my room, Tam, Van, Lynda and I had to shop for the appropriate light.  And because the light needed a table to sit on, we journeyed to the market district nearby displaying furniture of all types.  As we are driving, me on the back of Tam’s motorbike, I see the very table.  Tam deftly U-turns in the middle of chaos and parks in front of a shop full to the ceiling with teak and fake teak furnishings.  The table is perfect.  I tell Tam so and the haggling in Vietnamese begins.  I can only follow through reading facial expressions, and that reading tells me it’s not going our way.  Suddenly, Tam wheels and starts off to the street.  I follow. A shout in Vietnamese from the shopkeeper, a middle-aged, weary looking woman, stops Tam in her tracks, me putting on the brakes to avoid a collision.  Tam smiles at me sweetly and says simply, “200,000”.  That works out to $8.92 US.  I peel off the 200,000 Dong, hand it to the woman with thanks, grab the table and we’re loading back up on the motorbikes when another shouted phrase erupts from the shop.  Lynda translates, “You bring an American to shop and the least you can do is let me make a dollar!”  I love the table.  Thanks Tam.

The motorbike thing sounds really simple right?  Anybody can ride a motorbike.  But as I sat at the controls, facing an unforgiving Da Nang city street full of motorbikes cleverly captained by people who knew what they were doing, a wee moment of panic set in.  And oh yeah, my precious granddaughter was on the back.