The flight from Bangkok was uneventful. Some turbulence on take off; there were low clouds but I didn’t recognize any when I left the hotel.

We landed at a high rate of speed but then coasted to a stop. I realized the the runway was one of the long ones built by the Americans during the war to receive crippled B-52’s that might have had trouble breaking. The war was far away but seemed to be all around us. Da Nang was one of the theaters of that war. There was no jetway in the airport for us; a bus pulled up to the airplane to ferry us to the terminal.

We arrived at the terminal, there were over a hundred people waiting in the immigration land. My APEC card got me into the diplomatic lane, I was through in three minutes while all the others waited. Next stop was to get a SIM card. Here’s where Apple phones struggle to compete with Android. My Xiaomi took seconds to configure with a physical SIM. Unlike the US of A, Chinese and Thai iPhone models support a physical SIM. With an American SIM there is yet another line. Everyone passed through the same Customs line, travelers were picked out at random to have their bags x-rayed.

Outside, traffic drove on the left, French style, and signs could be read. Not understood, but at least read. The Vietnamese alphabet is the Roman one with added diacritics not found in the Romance languages, but it can be read nonetheless. Coffee is ca phe plus a few diacritics, but at least understandable, unlike the Thai alphabet which is based on ancient Khmer and contains Pali and Sanskrit letters which are only really used in religious rituals. All the other Southeast Asian languages rely on fiendishly difficult scripts. The only exception are the Vietnamese and the Christian Mizo of Northeastern India. Before the Missionaries came to Mizoram, the people were cannibals. The people left their old ways, stopped shrinking heads and accepted the language of the Romans.

The French brought their Catholicism to the Vietnamese. Because that language was so close to power, there were political ramifications to worship. Post-war, I don’t know how strong the Roman religion is here. Perhaps I will find out. The were two orange-robed monks on the flight. I have seen red-robed monks here, they follow the Buddha of Sri Lanka and Tibet. The orange bonzes follow the Buddha of Siam and the Khmer Empire, a Buddhism with deep Hindu roots.

Tiger prawns and soft drinks for dinner cost $10. Not too bad. The exchange rate is $1=D26,480; a calculation not easy to perform without a conversion not easy to perform without a calculator.