Danang, day four: Ba Na Hills

The fourth day of the old farts' stay in Da Nang proved dreary. The day started well enough but the weather turned dreary -- cold, wet and dreary -- when we left for the Ba Na Hills.

Now, the Ba Na Hills was about 45 minutes to one hour away from the One Opera Danang Hotel where we stayed. It was a long drive but time passed rather quickly before we found ourselves at the spacious parking area which had the potential to hold, maybe, 100 tour buses. It was tremendously huge. We were suitably impressed.

At the onset, I would want to say that the Ba Na Hills has been developed into a theme park. It comes complete with a cable car system -- more than one system, if you count the various lines -- and tourist attractions like a funicular train, a golden bridge supported by gigantic hands, other gigantic disembodied body parts, flower gardens, French villa, pagodas and temples, indoor amusement theme park, wax museum and, of course, several hotels and restaurants. There are no casinos on the Hills though, or otherwise one of its favourite attractions would surely be to bet on the fast-changing weather. Sunny, misty, wet, all constantly changing by the hour.

Meanwhile, my take on Ba Na Hills is that the Ba Na Hills is to Da Nang just like Penang Hill is to Penang. Both sites offer a cooler respite from the warmer climes of the lowlands. But I wouldn't want Penang Hill to suffer the same fate as the Ba Na Hills. It's fun to go up the Ba Na Hills for all these tourist attractions but to me, it loses its appeal after a while. I prefer the laid-back beauty of Penang Hill anytime. Okay, I've said my opinion.

Entering the building, we were to take a 20-minute cable car ride up into the mountains. We looked upwards and that was when we saw the first sign of ominous clouds forming. Clouds turning a hint of grey and then becoming darker. But we old farts from The Old Frees' Association were already committed to this trip.

Now, where the Ba Na Hills are concerned, you have to take a chance with the weather. It can be incredibly clear with blue skies and you can see around for miles. Or it can be damp, wet, dreary, cold and incredibly misty. We drew the short end of the straw. Wet and misty would be our experience.

Their cable car ride is supposedly the longest in the world. Imagine that. A South-east Asian country possessing the longest cable car ride in the whole wide world. And we were on it. Zooming up into the clouds. Mist all around us. Below us, the lush green tropical vegetation.

Soon, we arrived at the end of the line and we were quickly bundled by the guide to the Golden Bridge which consisted of a pair of hands seemingly holding up a 150-metre long pedestrian bridge. This attraction was only finished last year and it explained why it was one of the most popular places to visit at the Ba Na Hills. Despite the inclement weather, we all clambered onto the bridge for a very bleary group picture. But what else could we do but to make the most of this weather?

We were to remain there for about half an hour before taken to explore somewhere else. But two of my tour members got themselves lost. Okay, we acknowledged that it was not the fault of the tour guide that they got lost. They simply wandered off by themselves. And with there being 32 of us, each having a mind of our own, it was very difficult for the guide to herd us together.

Somehow, after about a 45-minute search, the two missing members were found. By then, it was too late to be shown more of the area. We had to take another cable car -- a shorter trip this time -- to go up the hill again. This was to the French village. By now, the weather had gotten worse. It was raining and the mist was thick. So thick, in fact, that all the buildings were shrouded in grey. Our group had either to don raincoats or open their umbrellas. My wife and I preferred to use our own umbrellas and so, with an umbrella in my left hand and camera in my right, hoping to be able to take some clear pictures which was impossible, we marched from the cable car station to the restaurant to take our lunch.

After lunch, there was little time to explore the place before the guide led us indoors somewhere to visit the wax museum. Along the way, we had to pass through an indoor theme park. All the attractions here were filled with people. We hurried through the place into the museum. Spent about half an hour there before we headed back to the cable car station for the trip back to the base station and thence, back to Da Nang.

My first inkling that the Ba Na Hills was a theme park was when I saw this sign. Not once, but everywhere. You just can't avoid the name of this corporate entity.

I don't know what  the stone carver was thinking of, but he made this stone monkey look like it was enjoying itself tremendously

Soaring into a misty world

One of the huge disembodied sculptures

And that's us on the Golden Bridge. There's another hand somewhere in the distance, which we couldn't see because of the mist. But it's there, all right!

I could get Saw See to point her finger at the stone finger....

....but despite showing her how to, she couldn't get my finger to touch the sculpture!

Luckily, a friend happened to take this impromptu picture of me, which sort of compensated for all my frustrations

If you look hard enough, you'll see me holding the OFA logo 

A very welcome lunch, if only to get out from the cold and damp. Temperature outside was 16 Celsius

What's there to see when it was wet, wet, wet through and through?

Sun World? It was more of a Wet World!

The indoor theme park

Wax museum

Wordless scream. And I guess the reflection of my hand in the mouth added to the terror of the moment.

Fancy that, a heater fan

And here we go back down the hill

Market

One last place for us to visit in Da Nang, and that was the market. Huge place but we could only spend about half an hour here. Many of us picked up tidbits of food to bring home to Penang.

The next morning after breakfast, we checked out from the One Opera Danang Hotel for our flight home to Penang. An exhausting 96 hours in Vietnam. Despite some slight misadventures here and there, the vacation was well worth it, especially among the other old farts from The Old Frees' Association. Hope to do this again next time!

I wonder what can be cooked with dried shrimps this size?