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We just spent a wonderful week-end with Tiffany and Leslie in Hoi An. I've been in Vietnam on full-time or part-time basis the last 15 years, but never made it to Hoi An.

I picked up Tiffany just after school and we took a taxi to Saigon airport to join Leslie and Mari for our flight to Danang. Due to the traffic, they even made it before us to the airport with their flight from Bangkok. It's a pretty cheap and straight forward one hour flight from Saigon to Danang. From there is a "new" route to Hoi An, which is basically just over 30 minutes drive to Hoi An by taxi. So far so good, till we reached Hoi An, everything went fine. We reached Hoi An just before 10pm.

But...there is always a but...I hadn't book a hotel before. Why for, there is all the choices you want in Hoi An and this is not a special date in Vietnam. Well, nothing may have happened to Vietnam that week-end, but Hoi An was welcoming the 1st International Choir Competition. First hotel, full, next door, full...next door, full again. We are now at our tenth try, and I start to be slightly concerned...it's time to get a bed for Leslie and Tiffany!

At something like the 20th, and at least 2km walk, here we are...one room at the Hoi An hotel. The place look nice from outisde, big hotel with swimming pool. I first show myself, price is 100usd. Above what I planed to spend, but hey, the little ones need a bed. So show up with four of us. Staff is getting worry, it's only a king bed. I see already the next move from the vietnamese lady at the reception, so I jump ahead. "You know most rooms are booked in town, you have only one room...are you ready to let these kids sleep in the street"...ok, deal done, we will not sleep in a stable with the donkeys!

Ended it up that the Hoi An hotel is a pretty nice little 4 stars hotel. We had a wonderful breakfast, the kids loved the swimming pool, and for our second night, they moved us to a room with two double beds...so that part was safe, ouf! On top of that the hotel is just steps out of the Old Town.

We spent two days walking around Hoi An, taking time for nice food, even some pho, and time doing nothing and relaxing. We wanted to rent bicycles, but seems finding ones for the children was kind of impossible in Hoi An...so no riding, just a lot of walking for us.

On Sunday lunch time we made our way back to Danang and Saigon. Our last experience with Vietnam airlines was pretty dodgy in terms of on time performance. So this time I planed a serious waiting time in Saigon. We picked our bags and made our way to the Superbowl for some bowling...Tiffany is enjoying, and Leslie is finally becoming a little man with proper abilities with the bowl, nice!

Enjoy the pictures. We had a great time together. Our next week-end with Tiffany is in less than 2 months, and soon the summer holidays are coming with a lot of surprises for everyone!

For me, it's already back on the road, Leslie has his spring break coming in a few days....more adventures to come....

Next entry very soon, and this time I've got a view on the water from my room...

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