Thursday 3rd November 2022
We don’t usually eat breakfast, but today we’re going to Ba Na Hills. It’s a giant amusement park, so we’re expecting the food to be overpriced (and probably mediocre) so decide to take advantage of the free breakfast offered by our hotel. There are a few options, but we go for the Vietnamese meat one, which is chicken noodle soup today. There wasn’t much soup to it, but the chicken and noodles themselves were very tasty, and had a nice crunch of peanuts.
We then had a 20 minute walk to the hotel that the bus departs from. We found it easy enough, and had a comfortable bus ride to Ba Na Hills.
The first thing we noticed when we arrived was the clear sound of Jingle Bell Rock being piped into the air. It felt odd in the bright sunshine, and way to early to be thinking about Christmas!
The second thing we noticed is they employ a lot of people to greet you as you arrive – and by greet, I mean grinning very enthusiastic and manically waving.
When you enter Ba Na Hills, you get the cable car from the Hoi An station. Apparently it’s meant to replicate the town of Hoi An, and it’s actually quite a pleasant and picturesque walk to get to the cable car entrance.
It’s an impressively long cable car ride up to the top. At 19,000 feet and a 20 minute journey, it apparently holds the world record for the longest nonstop single-track cable car. The views over the mountainside were gorgeous.
At the top of the cable car is the famous Golden Bridge. We were luck that is a beautiful clear day, and the bridge looked stunning.
Behind the bridge were some quite attractive gardens, I particularly liked the peacock shaped flower garden.
We continued walking until we reached the big Buddha statue. I found the gate opposite it more stunning, it looked out over the mountain and so you could just see clear blue sky through the gate.
We went through the gate and down the steps. At the bottom, a bench was half blocking the onward path. It didn’t look like it had been properly blocked off though, so we continued down the hill to the The Linh Ung Pagoda.
We were planning on getting the funicular or one of the cable cars back up the mountain. However, when we reached the station, everywhere looked closed. The only person in sight was a lady cleaning the stairs, who gestured us to follow her and led us to an office. Another lady came out of the office. She spoke a little English and told us all except two of the cable cars were closed, which was a bit disappointing. She led us to a minibus, which gave us a ride to the top of the hill. On the way up we came across another group of tourists, and the minibus pulled over and made them get in. Clearly we weren’t the only ones who didn’t realise the funicular and mid level cable cars weren’t functioning.
After being dropped off, we walked to the second of the two working cable cars, and rode up to the very top of the mountain. Near the cable car station is the Grand Cascade fountain, which seems to be modelled on Ancient Greek or Roman fountains. Its an immense fountain, and you get sprayed by a mist of water as you walk down the steps at the side of it.
A little further on was the French Village, which is meant to be a replica of a medieval village in France. It was actually extremely well done, and even included a cathedral that was very true to life.
If you walk through the French village, you then end up in Japan. Or China. Somewhere with tea houses, a big pagoda, and an ancient house with a robot ringing the bell at the top of the bell tower.
We then walked back through the French Village to Fantasy Park, an indoor area, filled with rides such as the Drop Tower with a 29m freefall summit (which we didn’t go on). We had a go on the journey to the centre of the earth ride, you ride through on little carts and have to shoot various targets as you go along. We also went on the bumper cars, which was fun, and the 360 degree cinema (you sit on rotating chairs and the film is screened all around you in 3D).
The final ride we experienced was advertised as a 5D ride, we had no idea what to expect. Inside the room are rows of horses, which you sit on to watch the film. As the film plays, the horses move about, and you have to shoot various targets.
Just outside the Fantasy Park is the big Alpine coaster, which Pete went on before we caught the cable car back down the hill. There’s a lot of construction work going on, which was clear to see when we rode down the mountain. I’m not quite sure why all this work is happening, as the park seemed very empty when we were there are quite a few things closed.
We got the minibus back into town, then walked to Mỳ Quảng Cô Sáu for dinner. This restaurant just serves Mi Quang (in a few different varieties), a specialty from this region, and is highly rated on google. I can see why, they were very good noodles and we really enjoyed the meal.
On our way home we passed CHAY corner – Vietnamese Dumplings, and as we both love dumplings decided to share some as a late night snack. They were a little disappointing, pleasant enough, but definitely not the best dumplings we had. Pete also ordered a banana smoothie with ice cubes, which turned out to be little frozen cubes of banana smoothie – I think it’s meant to be a dessert rather than drink!
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 