Ba Na and Hue

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Plans for the day are to go to someplace called Ba Na and after that off to Hue.

Had breakfast at the hotel buffet...similiar to Nha Trang but not as good. Overall the hotel last night was nice but not as nice as the one in Nha Trang. Guess we were spoiled in Nha Trang. I would say that the hotel last night is in a learning process for guests, etc. and the one in NT has more experience due to the volume of tourists.

We headed up the highway to Ba Na, no idea what it was other than it had something to do with old temples, etc. When we arrived it was a new facility that is set up with a cable car run to the top of the mountain. I wasn't sure what to expect other than it looked just like the cable car in NT we used to cross the ocean to the resort. We loaded up in the cable car and started up the hill, it looked pretty simple, maybe a 1/2 mile or so up but once it reached the peak you could see that it went WAY up the mountain. I later learned that this cable car set a Guiness record as the longest and highest complete cable car run in 2009. It goes up to the peak which is about 4200' up the mountain and is about 3 miles long. The steepest drop looked to be about 400' down to the ground. It goes across all jungle...literally...you could see banana trees everywhere. That's where the name "Ba Na" comes from...all the banana trees around the area.

At the top you take a short cable car, about 1/2 mile long up to another peak. It's the highest spot in that area and lucky for us the clouds were absent so you could see forever. To get to the peak you had to walk this sidewalk path which varied from about 4' to about 15' wide up a hill for about a 1/4 of a mile. It got everyone a good cardio workout...:-)

We walked back down to catch the little cable car ride and hopped on a minivan that took us up to a different area which had a bunch of temples, etc. Spent about 3 hours doing everything and then headed back down the cable car.

Went back to Da Nang for lunch...shrimp/port stir fry, yucca root soup, veggies sauted in garlic, fish egg rolls, beef/lettuce salad, hot pot fish and fruit/fresh coconuts for dessert.

Jumped in the van for the ride to Hue. We stopped about 1/2 way there at a cafe/store and we picked up some snacks. I decided to get a Pepsi and a Snickers bar. The Snickers tastes pretty much the same except the caramel is thicker. The Pepsi is made with sugar (same as Coke is here) and they taste like the version we buy back home that is made with sugar (like the kind you can buy from Mexico). One weird thing happened when we checked out...everyone bought this sesame candy that is made in the Hue area and no one was charged the same price. Evidently if you don't ask a price, they just make something up at the register and if you want to pay it you do, if you don't want to pay, then you leave it. The price varied from 12k to 20k (12k is about .60 cents and 20k is about $1)...strange.

A few miles outside Hue we ran across this huge group of people on the road. They were Buddhists following a monk. Ly told us the monk had started walking in Saigon and is walking to Hanoi. He walks one step and then bows all the way to the ground the next step. So far he's been walking 3 years!!!

Got to Hue around 4pm...saw my first accident on the way in...3 scooters crashed into each other...no one was hurt thankfully. They just got up and started pushing the scooters out of the way or trying to start them.

Checked into the Romance Hotel...funny names on all the places here...:D

Got cleaned up and headed out to dinner and a show...;-) Really...we went to Gung Dinh for dinner and had mostly local Hue type dishes...banh with pork (which is a rice type pancake), fish, grilled pork, fried shrimp, shrimp soup and watermelon for dessert. The restaurant was new but designed in an old royalty way...it even had a fancy table where you could dress in traditional clothes and sit in a king/queen chair/table setup.

After dinner we headed over to the river and took a boat ride out to the middle of the river. On the boat they have a musical group...4 musicians and 4 lady singers. They did about 30 minutes of traditional music and we lit candles in lanterns. The lanterns we put in the river and make a wish. I've seen this on tv a few times and thought it was cool. Tien found out they offered this on the tour and set it up...thanks Tien!

Walked about a 1/2 mile back to the hotel and are heading out tomorrow a.m. to see more of Hue and then off on our next adventure!

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Comments

[Ruben]

Hello Chris looks you are having fan. The Da Nang hotel looks nice and the cable car loos interesting could you see a mokey while you in the cable car or there is no monkey there just banana threes.

[hceptj]

Nope, couldn't see any monkeys...and I think your right, not the right part of the country, too cold there...it's kind of in the mountain area, so it only gets into the 90's for a couple of months, the rest of the time it's much cooler...:-)