Hoi An 2019 Day 1 – Arrival into Da Nang and transfer to Hoi An

Our last trip of the decade started really late as we woke up from an afternoon nap on Xmas eve and only had slightly less than 2.5 hrs to get to the airport. We got out of the house after our baths and getting ready.

The traffic was pretty smooth, with the exception of one accident on PIE which we had to divert to ECP. Arrived at terminal 1 with about 1.5hrs to spare before boarding.

Checked in at the shared automated auto check in machines between Qantas and Jetstar but went to the wrong bag drop. Luckily the Qantas staff was quick to stop us and we embarrassingly walked back to the Jetstar counter to bag drop.

We took a few photos with the Xmas trees there with our parents before biding goodbye. The immigration was busy since everyone seemed to be leaving Singapore for travel and after a wait at the queue, we finally got through and proceeded to the food court for dinner. Chicken rice, quick and tasty choice but more importantly, acceptable to K’s increasingly limited acceptable choices for dinner.

We realized we forgot to pack our lightning cable for charging our devices and I quickly went into an electronics shop to get one for 15ish dollars while mom and K went on their way to the gate first, which was at the tail end of the terminal.

After a quick visit to the toilet, I caught up with them and found ourselves being the last passengers. The displeased staff let us through after the Xray scan and reminded us about being timely for our boarding and we moved quickly to board the almost full plane.

Our flight took off only after 20mins of taxiing on the tarmac and it was a smooth 2.5hrs flight and almost too boring since there weren’t any entertainment onboard. My phone provided the main source of entertainment of games when we alternate turns. Bought ourselves an apple juice for 4 bucks and tried to go to sleep but it didn’t work out and before we knew it, we were landing.

Went through the initial single counter immigrations that quickly opened up to another 3 lanes and we were quick to get to the first of the queue when a new one opened but had to wait for our luggage anyway. After picking up, we visited one of the many counters there selling SIM cards for unlimited data at irresistible prices, like 240k D for 10days throughout Vietnam and we installed that onto our IPad mini for hotspot use.

Immediately outside the Arrivals I found a man standing there with a board with my name on it and he was the driver for our private transfer that we arranged with the tour agency( which we engaged since being with them for our Hanoi tour). He brought us to wait by the road and while waiting for him to return with a vehicle, we took some photos with the Xmas tree there. Soon he came with a huge vehicle and then we were on our way to Hoi An River Town hotel, about 40mins drive away.

It was quick an easy drive without much traffic but nothing much to see along the way, as colourful restaurants were sparsely located. The big roads became smaller roads before we crossed a bridge to the island where our hotel was situated. The driver got lost for a moment before I tried to explain that he had gone the wrong way with my google maps but in no time, we disembarked at the entrance of the hotel.

The bell helped with the luggage as we checked in, that came with welcome drink and cold towels, then we were brought to our room on the 4th floor. It was a huge room and had a huge toilet and we were pretty satisfied with it. K had some time to play his toys and after a quick shower down and some milk and story books, it was time to get to bed. Tour starts early the next day so we had to catch as much sleep as early as possible