Da Nang City, Vietnam

After a good night’s rest, we, the babes 😊 were ready for the grind of the second day. And as in any of our trips, we are up and ready, as early as 6.30 am.

This day's excitement was a different kind, as we were all going to dress in similar costume.  The pictures will tell you that.  We had planned it well in advance and we picked it all up in November last year and that gives you a little clue about the way we plan our trips.

One of the marble structures at Marble mountain - Buddha teaching his disciples

Dragon at Marble Mountain, Da Nang

The first stop on day 2 was Marble mountains. The Marble Mountains are a cluster of five marble and limestone hills located in Da Nang. The five mountains are named after the five basic elements of life – Metal, Air, Water, Plant and Soil. We had to cross villages that are involved in marble crafts from Da Nang and we stopped at a huge locally owned crafts store before we landed at Marble mountains. Its interesting to watch the varying colour tones of the marbles that are used for the craft depending on the mountain they came from.

The Marble Mountains were not named by the Vietnamese, but by the French after studying the chemical element of the mountain’s soil. In Vietnamese, it is known as Ngu Hanh Son (The Five Element Mountain). Named by King Minh Mang, the five mountains were once a favorite destination for either the noble classes to visit or the anchorites, a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism emphasizing the value of meditation and institution, to set up sanctuaries. However, the history of this mountain cluster can be traced to hundreds of years before that, when the whole region still belonged to the Cham Kingdom ( The Chams are a Malay people and the remnants of the ancient kingdom of Champa, which ruled southern Vietnam and Cambodia for more than 1000 years).

Girl squad in front of the Pagoda at MM

Upon arrival at the base of Marble mountains, we saw lots of souvenir shops around.   Nyugen warned us that most of them are fake stuff so we didn’t try to even check them out.   Nyugen took us to the ticket booth for the elevator which took us to the top of the marble mountain – saved us both time and energy. As the elevator climbed higher and higher, we couldn’t help but admire the beautiful trees and lush greenery growing out of the mountain. The first thing that we saw on our landing was the Pagoda. And as we walked the path at Marble mountains, we were presented with options, and none that disappointed us. Pathways split off left and right, each twist and turn leads to yet another cave, temple, or viewpoint. None of the paths were too challenging, and each one had a nice surprise at the end.

White Buddha Statue at Marble mountain

Over millions of years, the rain has eroded these limestone karsts decorating them with incredible fractal patterns along the stone walls and carving out giant caves that just beg to be explored. In some caves, our pulse quickened as the cave we wandered into suddenly becomes narrow. The daylight becomes useless as we moved into the shadowy passage and out of its light. The people in front of us disappeared as they round the corner and descend the staircase into the next room. The air is subtly scented with incense and a dim light beckons from ahead.  We four unconsciously slip into silence and communicate just with our eyes and gestures.  I was greatly worried if any of us would have a fall as the steps in certain parts were quite slippery.

In most significant points at Marble mountains, we were welcomed by the warm glow of candles, smoky scents of incense sticks and sounds of hushed voices you find inside of a temple. A giant stone carved Buddha watches over as you take in the scene.

A giant Buddha at Marble Mountain within one of the caves

Stepping on each rustic stone stair, listening to our own heart beat among the swinging rhythm of the forest, we could still feel the hundred-year-old statues whispering stories of the old days. Crowded and taciturn, high-tech and ancient, crafted and pristine, the Marble Mountains stand as a bridge leading us from the present to the past.  Visiting the Marble Mountains, walking  the steps and touching  the stone walls of the ancient caves  we understood more about this country , their people, and our own inner peace, more than any words can attempt to describe.

Some crazy shots we are capable of taking.

Getting all the four into a single frame is always a challenge and we  either have to take help of our guide or ask strangers unashamedly for pictures to be taken, which we are quite used to, by now.  In one of the caves, we approached a solo traveler, and he graciously obliged and we asked where he was from and he courteously answered "England".  When he wanted to know where we were from, I answered - one of your ex-colonies. Pat came the reply from him, " which one?"  and yeah we had a good laugh at that. When your country has habitually colonized most of the parts of the world, you are so right in asking such a question !!

yet another one in Marble Mountain

We had to make the most of the time that we had in Da Nang city as we were flying to Ha Noi city the same day, and so our next stop was the Dragon bridge and Love Lane.  Da Nang is one of Vietnam’s principal port cities. Located in the south-central region of the country, at the mouth of the Han River, Da Nang is an important commercial and educational center as well as a critical transportation hub. 

The fire breathing, water spitting Dragon Bridge across Han river

Close up of the Dragons face

Dragon Bridge in Da Nang is the longest bridge in Vietnam, offering a dazzling display of lights, fire, and water. Measuring at 666 meters in length, it is located in Da Nang City and constructed in the shape of a golden dragon. The six-lane bridge crosses the Han River and was officially opened in 2013. According to local beliefs, which date back to the Ly Dynasty, the dragon is a significant symbol of power, nobility and good fortune. While it’s a magnificent sight at any time of the day, Dragon Bridge Da Nang is particularly cool (and packed with sightseers) in the evening as it is illuminated with colorful LED lights. On weekends and annual festivities, the state-of-the-art bridge is also scheduled to spit water or breathe fire from its mouth.

There are also plenty of riverfront bars, restaurants, and cafes offering terrace seats that overlook Vietnam’s longest bridge. Our itinerary was so packed we could not see the fire breathing Dragon bridge in the night.  Yep.  We missed that one too.

My favourite pic of the day - at a cafe overlooking the dragon bridge

Adjacent to the Dragon bridge on the sides of Han river is a lane that is lined with posts on which a number of red heartines are hung.   This is the love lane and the bright red hues of the hearts did make us feel teenagers again.

Inside the Cham museum

The last pit stop for us at Da Nang was the Museum of Cham sculpture.  The museum houses the world's largest collection of Cham sculpture and is a popular tourist attraction in Da Nang as well. For us four, who are from Chennai, ( Jay really is not, but yeah she’s been living here for a considerable amount of time), after seeing all the sculptures at Mahabalipuram, this really did not awe us.  But yes, it did give us a cultural perspective with the Hindu deities including Murugan and other popular Hindu goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswathi, on display.  And most importantly we could see pictures of My Son Temple, that was destroyed in the Vietnam war, along with the early day history, their music, crafts and festivities of the Vietnamese people. Looking at the galleries of the My Son temple ruins, we got a peek into how violent conflict and warfare could ruin a country’s infrastructure and economy, and also create physical and psychological damage to its citizens.

Outside the Cham Museum

Psychedelic art

Looking out through the window

Her mind draws a blank

She’s overwhelmed

Time is the most precious gift, she knows

You were bent on this for hours

Using your precious tools

Thinking it through

Shaping it one chip at a time

She’s over the moon

Just cannot comprehend

How you could spend so much time

Creating a masterpiece from scratch

Covered in wood shavings

toiling in the confines of an artroom

you put them all back every time

to take it out another day

Numbing her rationale

She’s on a constant high

Like the clean one you get when you smoke pot

That she once heard of

Days after days, for months together

Marking, snipping, shaving, buffing, drilling,

Embossing, painting, carving, shedding blood

But most importantly, thinking it through

And the fancy wood chime blew her away

You could sweep her off her feet

Completely hypnotize her

And you leave her with this one question

What has she done to deserve this?

To be made to feel so special

And while floating up in the clouds

She wonders how to repay this destiny’s debt.

Vincy Joseph

Ba Na Hills, Da Nang, Vietnam

Statutory Warning  :  Picture heavy long post.  Don't tell me you weren't warned ahead.

The place we chose this year to visit for our girls trip was so well unraveled by Ramesh, ( which I knew he would) from the name of our guide, I guess. And the place was V for Vietnam. 

Birds eye view of Da Nang while we touched down 

Ba Na Hills was first in the list of “places to see” in Vietnam for us.   Sudha had shown, forwarded and pushed down our throats information about Ba Na hills and we were all excited about this place.   In fact, I remember Sudha telling me, (when I actually forgot the name of the Hills), remember Bana Kathadi ( it’s a name of a flying paper kite in Tamil) and you will remember Ba Na hills.  I kept asking myself, what Kathadi, all the time, till I actually set foot there.  😊

To save ourselves time, we skipped checking into the hotel and went straight to Ba Na hills from Da Nang  airport.  We were impressed with the breathtaking views of Vietnam from the aircraft and were filled with tranquility even as we touched down Vietnam.

One of the cable lines at Sun World Ba Na Hills

During our planning stages, we’d seen so many great pictures of the new golden bridge which is held by the enormous stone hands of Buddha, and also we’d heard about the legendary cable car-ride up the mountainside (which holds 4 Guinness world records, including the longest cable car at over  5 km in the world) and that it might just be worth the whole trip.  We thought we knew what to expect, but actually being on it was spectacular than our imaginations and the virgin forests of Vietnam & un spoilt greenery that these cable cars took us through will take a lot more time to fade from our memories.  The cable ride takes around 20 minutes approximately and there are multiple lines of cables with amazing frequency.

The excitement of the babes trip had started even when we had booked the tickets, but the flutter in our hearts just broke loose during the famous cable car ride to the top of the mountains.  It gives a real perspective on the geography of the surrounding area.  It was so cool to see Da Nang laid out in front of us and its not every day that you get the opportunity to ride world's longest cable car.  The ride is smooth and thrilling, similar to the ski lifts in resorts around the world.  Although this is just a transportation to the park itself. riding it is easily one of the days highlights.  And our guide Nyugen was getting used to our chatter in the cable car ride.

The Magnificent Golden Hands Bridge

  

A collage of our pictures of Golden hands bridge

The first cable car took us to the Marseille station, at the top, and we were dropped off at the first level of the mountain. We followed the excited crowds through the station to and across the Golden Bridge. This newly constructed bridge (opened to the public in 2018) is a semicircular bridge which appears to be supported by two giant stone hands, Buddha's hands, coming out of the mountain. The energy on this bridge is electric as the guests buzz around with their selfie sticks capturing every possible angle and we were not left behind.  The Golden hands bridge was also voted by TIME magazine as one of the “Top 10 best destinations of the world 2018” and admired by The Guardian as “The world’s most impressive pedestrians’ bridge”.

 

The Babes on the Golden Hands bridge

The only spoiler at Ba Na hills which we didn’t expect though, was the crowd.  So crowded, that the Ranganathan street of TNagar, Chennai would be no match for this place.  And since we are used to crowds, we managed to get some decent pictures. Apparently 20,000 people visit this place every day  and mostly Asians.

Oh, there was another spoiler too.  Nyugen kept telling us, that “The Bana Hills are so high up that the weather is different there. When it’s sunny in Da Nang, it could be misty and rainy on the top of the mountain”.  It must have been our bad luck, it was sunnier than a day in May at Chennai.  Pretty hot and humid, that I ended up with a headache.

Apart from our mobiles, Sudha’s DJI osmo  was being put to good use  and along with tons of photographs that we usually take, we are hoping we will have some awesome videos too.  The videos are in the processing stages.  Here again at Ba Na hills there are so many opportunities for photography with various displays set up for posing and having pictures taken. Huge stone statues beg to be climbed on, the well manicured flower gardens make for beautiful shots, there was this entire French village, the gigantic Buddha statue and faux ancient Greek statues are all created with an intent of creating photo opportunities.

View of the French Village - Jardin d'Amour

The queue for the funicular ride was so large that we didn’t want to waste our time standing up there and waiting, but it's the one thing we regret not doing. We were eager to get up to the French village, so then,  we were okay with skipping  the funicular ride to the Jardin d’Amour the French village dubbed "Europe at the top of Ba Na Hills”. You will be amazed at the architectural style of Europe such as ancient buildings, magnificent palaces, adjacent fences in gothic style, paved roads, designed by a famous French architect. This is where we got to the Debay Wine Cellar and the Linh Ung Pagoda where the giant Buddha statue sits.

With the 27m high Shakyamuni Buddha

Another view of Buddha, through one of the gardens

Linh Ung Pagoda is located at an altitude of nearly 1500m above sea level and has a statue of Buddha called Shakyamuni Buddha which is  27m high ( humungous) in a meditation pose on a lotus. Buddha statues and pagodas are so common in Vietnam and they transcend the serenity of Buddha to us, in spite of the enthusiastic crowds.

From there we went to the Le Jardin D'Amour Flower Garden that  consists of nine beautifully landscaped gardens with 9 unique architectural styles. It's one of the most popular tourist place in Ba Na.  Among the 9 gardens there is one  for Love.  Ahem.

At the fairy garden

Peacock Garden

The fairy garden

Ba Na Hills also has a dizzily vibrant and fascinating indoor game zone,  Fantasy Park, one of the largest indoor game zone of Vietnam that includes countless games, recreations and sports for families.  By the time we reached this place, we were so tired, the four of us sat down in silence for some time. The day was still young.

Ba Na Hills  took up most of our first day and we actually checked into the hotel pretty late in the evening after a long travel, back to Da Nang.

In short, Ba Na hills is the Disney land of Vietnam. 

I am sure the westerners, though they were very few unlike our Bangkok and Bali trips,  would have felt their privacy invaded, by the mindless tourists from Asia.  Just a thought, from a cultural perspective.

The colourful umbrellas on our way

Post script : Girls, as I write this, I realized, we could have waited for that one hour for the funicular ride and spent more time at every location and ride there.  Yeah, lets go back to Vietnam and do it all over again.

Before you all go, just one last picture for you folks ...

They three and we three :-)