Da Nang

Our very kind host in Hué organised us a great shuttle van to get to Da Nang, stopping at some tourist spots along the way for the same price as the train.

We saw the Thanh Toan bridge, built 200 years ago by a lady and took the Hai Van Pass route through the mountains and stopped at a very peaceful beach.

We didn’t know what to expect when arriving in Da Nang, we knew it was the third biggest city in Vietnam and by the beach and that’s about it. It turns out that Da Nang is nothing like the other big cities. It kind of reminded us of the Gold Coast in Australia. Super modern, lots of high rise buildings and really relaxed atmosphere.

We were particularly impressed with the modern architecture in regards to the three main bridges that connect the city side to the beach side. The dragon bridge was quite incredible. We walked over it at sunset which was also peak hour traffic time.

Travel from Huè to Da Nang

Dragon Bridge, city and beach

BÀ NÀ HILLS – SUNWORLD

After our time in Hoi An we returned to Da Nang for two nights to catch a plane to Ho Chi Minh City. We decided to spend our full day going to the Ba Na Hills.

About a year ago we watched Jack Whitehall, Travels With My Father on Netflix where they visited this weird and wacky theme park in the hills of Vietnam. At the time we said how crazy it looked and when we realised we’re staying 45 minutes away from it we knew we had to go.

We learned that in 1919 the French colonists built a resort 1500 metres up in the hills as a leisure destination for French tourists. This eventually became abandoned in 1954 and has since been rebuilt starting in the early 2000’s with construction still ongoing. There are also some traditional temples and a giant Buddha statue on the hill. We aren’t sure if they are new or old 🤔.

The admission is super expensive for Vietnamese standards, about $45NZD for a day pass. The only way to access the park is via the worlds longest cable car which is included in the ticket price. Cable cars are also used to transport people around the parks different zones.

The park is designed to be like a European (mainly French) village with all sorts of buildings, European restaurants and castles. The whole thing is quite ridiculous but also spectacular at the same time with the main target audience being Chinese, South Korean and Vietnamese tourists (they love to take pictures with Matt, which he loves 😂).

We made a game plan of arriving when it opened at 7am, armed with some peanut butter baguettes for breakfast so we didn’t have to buy the expensive food. Our lovely home stay owner arranged his father to drive us there at 6:15am!

Arriving early was the best idea, especially as the main reason we wanted to go was to see the golden bridge which opened last year. It is designed to look like Buddhas hands are supporting the bridge from the rock face. Going early meant we could get some good pictures without too many people in them (except for the three brides having their wedding pictures) We took a couple of pictures as we were leaving at 12pm to show how much busier it was.

We went on a couple of rides, visited the louvre, saw an underground wine cellar, watched some Ukrainian dancers dressed as princesses perform a show, took many cable cars and watched the construction of a ‘very old castle’, all 45minutes from Da Nang beach!!