Tuesday 8th October 2019

Ba Na Hills, Da Nang

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Today we were heading bright and early to Ba Na Hills, a famous hill station and resort on top of the highest mountains in the centre of Vietnam.

The station was founded in 1919 by the French colonists who intended to build it as a leisure destination for French tourists.

When the French invaded Vietnam they named these hills Ba Na after the banana as there were many banana trees growing in the area.

In 1945 the French destroyed mostly everything on the hill during the war.

However the Vietnamese have rebuilt and we paid a visit!!

Once arriving we were heading up Ba Na Hills via a Cable Car.

This is the most modern Cable Car in Southeast Asia which gave us a brilliant view of Da Nang and the coast in the distance.

We then continued to a 2nd Cable Car to visit the French Village, which sits almost at the top of the mountain.

It’s like something from the French Alps. Cobblestone streets and European-style buildings are beautifully built and at an elevation of 1,500m (,4,921 feet) and in Vietnam, well it says it all!

We enjoyed the street music and generally just the walk about admiring the romantic French architecture.

After having lunch we realised Ba Na Hills which is only accessible by cable cars was also the place to have fun.

So we went to the Fantasy Park and enjoyed a 4D death race ride, a 3D ride, entered Jurassic Park and rode the rollercoaster..then went for coffee!

We then visited the Golden Bridge an architectural masterpiece and the main reason we actually visited here today.

This is located in the middle of the mountain. The bridge is designed to be soft, and the entire bridge is covered in magnificent yellow.

From a distance, the bridge is like a silk strip floating in white clouds. What makes the bridge even more spectacular is the huge supporting hands.

I am amazed and impressed – two giant stone hands emerge from the mountain and hold the delicate gilded bridge.

With a magnificent backdrop view from a height of 1414m, this construction is something else, pretty outstanding and dream like.

We then visited Debay wine cellar, built by the French in 1923 and of course tasted some wine. I think I’ve just tasted my most favourite red wine in the world – Veronica – it was the most fruitiest and sweetest flavoured ever!

The French dug through Ba Na mountain to create this wine cellar which is 100 metres long and is in good condition…this was one of the remaining things left after the war as it was dug so deep inside the mountain.

We returned to the Cable Car and left Ba Na Hills utterly exhausted!

The sun was setting, we strolled the beach before hitting the hotels roof infinity pool and we were the only people there…perfect just what the feet needed!