Over the Easter Holiday, my wife, Tracy and I got to experience Da Nang, Vietnam with a group tour. I had been to Vietnam once before with some friends maybe 15 years ago. It was a short more budget friendly trip. Tracy had never been to Vietnam. Growing up, I heard about Vietnam in the context of the Vietnam War. It left sort of a bitter unhappy taste in my month. I was born in 1973 and the “American War” as it was called ended in 1975. I didn’t realize that the war with the US went on for 20 years. I knew it was long and that there were lots of people who opposed it, but actually going over to see the Vietnam’s people, and hearing about the war from their perspective made a big impression on me. It’s hard to imagine 2 million people being killed in this war. As sobering as war is, the museum was only one part of our trip. The other parts Bana Hill, the beaches, the water park, the fashion show and delicious food all made this a trip to remember.
Hotels and Beach Water Front
Our Tour Guides
EGL tours did a great job organizing our tour. They took care of all the details and we just followed their lead. For Tracy and I this was perfect because neither one us had the time or energy to research things ahead of time. Sure it’s true. If you go on a group tour you will pay extra and you won’t have the freedom of stay longer at certain sites, but neither will you have the headaches of trying to communicate in the local language, looking for someone who speaks English, trying to figure out what a fair price is, not get taken advantage of, or trying to arrange the details of your schedule. Don’t get me wrong doing all of that can be very rewarding, but it is usually stressful and we prefer to try to avoid stressors when possible. Are you okay with things not working out as you planned? A lot can be learned when you step out and take risks. It depends on how flexible you are or if you are married you also need to consider how flexible your partner is. I have come to really appreciate what I will call “lazy luxury tourism”.
Taking the Cable Car up Bana Hill
Besides going to the war museum, we went to Bana Hill. Apparently, the French build Bana Hill as a resort city. I doubt whether they envisioned it becoming the tourist attraction that it is today. There are 3 main levels to visit. On the ground floor you walk through a series of halls to get to the cable cars to go up to the mid level. There are shops selling stuff here, but we didn’t have time to stop. We just followed the crowds in front of us to the cable cars. At the mid level, there are nine gardens and a wine cellar. The flowers and statues here are pretty. The level of detail and design is breath taking.
The Golden Stone Bridge
We continued up to the top. The cable car ride is impressive. In fact, it is the longest cable car network system in the world. If only the windows were clean I would give it a 5 stars. Thankfully I’m tall, so I was able to stand up and use the vents at the top of the car to take pictures through. It was difficult though. The lens I planned to use for this part wouldn’t fit through the opening. Fortunately, I had another one that did. We enjoyed the castles architecture, the French villages, the walk up to the Buddha complex, and the French Catholic Church. I think there were only about 3 other people there at the Catholic church, when we visited. The Buddhist areas were much more popular. Some of them were crowded. The golden bridge with stone hands was very crowded. Everyone and their brother was there trying to take pictures. I knew that there would be a lot of movement on the bridge, so I decided to shoot in 60 fps so that I could slow it down later. It was a good decision
Some of My Favourites From Bana Hill
Breakfast Buffet Every Morning
People from around the world come to visit Bana Hill. We saw a lot of people from India. I also met a couple from Australia. It truly was a Fairly Tale land. It wasn’t like Disney World, but still it was magical in it’s own way. Besides Bana Hill, we also went to beaches, took water rides, made crafts, saw night scenery, and went shopping. Almost everything in our trip was covered by our tour fee. We had two tour guides both of them were very experienced and supportive. One guide was from Hong Kong. He handled the logistics and the other was from Vietnam. She guided the tour and handled more of the cultural aspects. We stayed in a 5 star hotel across the street from the water front. Every morning we ate breakfast buffet on the 3rd floor. There were lots of choices. It seemed like we were always eating. It wasn’t always buffet, but there was always more than enough to eat. We barely had room on our tables for all the dishes.
