Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Thursday was one of the best days I have had yet in Vietnam and I think it was because we kept busy and went out for almost the whole day. After grabbing some crab cake noodles in the morning for breakfast Ha's friends came round for about 8am to join us. Sharing the scooter driving between Ha's brother, and Ha's two friends, all six of us headed our to Marble Mountain; a mountain about 30 minutes south of Da Nang. First though we had to kit ourselves out with jackets, hats and masks to cover up as it would be a long ride with no refuge from the sun blazing down on top of us; so for the first time I too looked like a Vietnamese ninja.
On our arrival I first thought we had taken a detour to a statue-making factory, but there were just many statue workshops at the bottom of the mountain. Ha got us our tickets and we climbed the many steps up to the first point where you can choose a path to different caves. There are five natural caves each with a different legend about Buddha. The first one we visited had Buddhist monks singing and many people will go and pray to their ancestors, the whole cave was filled with incense smoke. We followed the winding paths to the other caves and in one climbed up a chimney like passage to the top of the mountain. From here there was a 360 degree view of Da Nang and the surrounding area. The pathways were a little slippery as the mountain really is made of marble and so had to go carefully on my bum at some points. I then visited my first pagoda and learnt a little more about the Buddhist culture.
We then decided to go to Hoi An, the famous ancient town, for lunch. As it was another half an hour away, we wrapped ourselves up again. As it neared the middle of the day, the heat had progressed to a steamy temperature that was very difficult to cool yourself down in. We had traditional Hoi An dishes involving rice-cake and rice cracker sandwiches dipped in fish sauce as well as a really tasty pork noodle dish.
There was little to do after that as it was so hot and there were few cheap places to take refuge. I must say I was amazed at the number of westerners I saw in Hoi An, there seemed to be just as many westerners as Vietnamese people! After a little look around, we got back to Ha's in the afternoon and cooled down with some watermelon to snack on.
If I hadn't thought I had seen enough that week, on the spur of the moment I booked a cheap tour, meant for Vietnamese people, to go to the Ba Na Hills; a tour that takes you on the highest and longest non-stop cable car in the world. Tours for English speaking people are much more expensive and are difficult to find. Not sure of what my day would hold and a little apprehensive, I was picked up last by the minibus. Thankfully the tour guide spoke a little English and we chatted a bit on the half hour drive there.
On arriving a girl my age, from the tour group, introduced herself in almost perfect English. Her family were visiting from Hanoi and her Gran soon took me under her wing and adopted me into the family! We waited to collect our tickets and were then herded through a queuing area to the cable car entrance. We took our seats, just five or six to a car and then were soon flying out into the open and, at quite a lick, were on our way to our first stop. The views were quite spectacular and with a little nervousness about the long drop down tried to take confidence in the new and updated cable car system that made for a very smooth ride.
We came up to a large building about ¾ of the way up the mountain and hopped out to queue for a minibus to take us up a bit higher where we would start the day's activities. I had no idea of the itinerary but new there was some kind of pagoda, so much to my amazement I was soon being told that we could buy a ticket to visit the wine cellar. Ignorantly I didn't even know that wine was made in Vietnam and went along with the whole thing. Following a girl with a loudspeaker, we trundled through a series of tunnels, me in a sea of Vietnamese people who kept laughing at what the girl was joking about. Clueless, I followed the crowd up some stairs where apparently I could claim my free drink. It was great that this girl could help me; otherwise I think I would have felt very lost!
After the winery we walked down to the very large Buddha, and I mean huge (height, not width). And then carried on to a pagoda. While the family I was with went in to pray because they were Buddhist, I took an opportunity to admire and photograph the view across Da Nang. It was a brilliant bright blue day with few clouds in the sky and because we were so high up, it was far cooler and more enjoyable than down in the city at the same time of day. Nearing lunchtime, we walked down many series of steps to the bottom of the hill where we met back up with the rest of the tour group again. We had to take another cable car up even higher to the Ba Na hills fantasy park; basically a castle that would not go amiss in a fantasy video game. The stone had been weathered to give it an 'old stone' look and there were turrets all over the place with a shimmery sheen.
As we neared it, we spied a go-kart-come-rollercoaster track that was dominant at the front of the castle. I was informed that we would eat our included buffet lunch and then have a few hours in the entertainment centre to do as we please. We entered the restaurant building and climbed a huge spiral staircase to where we would get our lunch. There was an array of Vietnamese cuisine and we could eat as much as we liked; I had to hold myself back from stuffing myself silly but enjoyed the few courses I did have. Then the girl, her brother a friend of theirs and I all went down into the entertainment centre; three levels of game machines, rides, and general theme park fun. We tried out the haunted house, a shooting game which took is on an 'Adventure to the Centre of the Earth', and also some of the free things. The rollercoaster was quite expensive so we had to give that one a miss.
I enjoyed my time with them and I was so happy that I had found someone my age that I could talk to. We met up with everyone back at the 'down' cable car building and got a bigger car all the way back down, non-stop, to the entrance to the hills. We travelled over waterfalls and trees and had a glass bottom to peer through at the flora below.
I was dropped off first back in the city and said goodbye to the friends I had made on the trip. I was absolutely exhausted after my two full-on days of fun but I'm so glad I have managed to squeeze them in before we travel to Hanoi next week.
- comments
Matthew MacKrill You tourist! :)
Mason How long have you stayed in same city? Come to Bangkok which located near Vietnam
Esme I'd been in Da Nang two weeks, I'm preparing for my brother's wedding and keeping a tight budget! How's your travelling going??