Wandergliding: Bizarre Ba Na Hills

December 6^th, 2024

From Hue, we were headed to Hoi An for 3 nights, which was only about 2 ½ hours away. Naomi had hired a driver and we were going to make some stops along the way. We felt kind of special as we were the only ones in a small van that could accommodate 10-12 tourists.

Our first stop was an oyster farm. I thought we’d be going into a facility and see how oysters were harvested but no, it was just a stop at a bay where there were some oyster farms in the inlet. We took some photos by the water and then checked out some of the pearl jewelry in a shop and Naomi ended up buying some earrings for herself and her mom.

The bay where the oyster farm was.

Seemed like this was erected just so tourists had something to photograph.

The next spot of interest was Hải Vân Pass, a 21-kilometre long mountain road along the coast that climbs almost 500 meters above the ocean. In 2005, the Hải Vân Tunnel, which at 6.28 kilometres in length is the longest in Southeast Asia, was completed to bypass the serpentine and two-lane road of the pass. However, we wanted to travel over the pass and enjoy the scenery. Mother Nature wasn’t completely cooperating as there were some long hanging clouds and the occasional bit of rain, but we did have some nice views looking north along the coastline from where we had come, and south to Danang Bay and the city of Danang. There was a small restored historic fort along with a few American pillboxes from the Vietnam War but there was no information about either of them.

Climbing the Hai Van Pass, looking north from where we came.

The old fortress near the top.

The American bunkers from the Vietnam War.

Looking south towards the city of Danang.

Our final, and main stop of the day was to the amusement park/resort called Bà Nà Hills, owned by one of the largest real estate developers in Vietnam, Sun Group. I knew nothing about this place, but Naomi explained that it was located high up on a mountain, and we would take a long cable car to get there. Naomi’s primary reason to visit this place was to see the “Golden Bridge”, a pedestrian walkway that is supported (or looks to be) by two large stone hands.

Naomi told me that our tickets had already been arranged by the driver. A few kilometres from the resort, we stopped underneath an overpass where a car was parked, and a man was just finishing up taking a leak. While zipping up his pants, he turned around and walked towards our van. As he approached the driver’s window, he pulled out a few tickets and handed them to the driver. I didn’t bat an eye at the transaction, but Naomi stated “Great, that’s how we get the tickets?!?” Justifiably, she did not want to handle the tickets.

Our driver dropped us off at the entrance and it did feel a bit like an Asian Disneyland. As we have found with SE Asian tourist parks, you are required to walk through a few gift shops and by restaurants or coffee shops while being serenaded by either Christmas jingles or music that sounds like you’re in a Disney movie before you can get to the main attraction. This one was no different.

Some statues in the preamble area.

We'll make it to the cable car eventually!

We lucked out an got a cable car to ourselves, even though it could seat 8-10 people. It didn’t take long until we were surrounded by clouds and rain was smattering the windows. We kind of expected this, but it was too bad we didn’t have better weather. The cable car holds the world record for "longest non-stop single track cable car", at 5,801 metres in length and took about 15-20 minutes from top to bottom.

In the cable car heading up to Ba Na Hills.

It didn't take long until we were into the clouds and rain.

Arriving at the top, we exited into a small, round covered area with some shops and cafes. The Golden Bridge was outside one of the four doors on the perimeter of the building. We donned our raingear, exited the building, and I apologized to Naomi for telling our driver that we had no need for his big umbrella as it was raining steadily. Since we were in a cloud, it was also hard to completely see the two concrete hands that were “holding up” the semi-circular bridge from below. Regardless of the conditions, we snapped some pics and then headed back inside to find the next cable car to take us to the main attraction area.

The main attraction: The Golden Bridge

Yup, we were blown away...not.

After a shorter, ten-minute cable car ride, we exited again to some falling rain and foggy conditions. The buildings in this area were designed to look like some European village, complete with cobblestone roads, turreted castles and even a small cathedral.

Yup, it's raining. Ironic that the park was built and is owned by Sun Group, a large Vietnamese real estate developer.

A strange fountain with gawdy golden statues:

Naomi mimicking the statue...unfortunately I didn't do my job very well and cut off the statue's head in the photo.

We popped into one of the first buildings, hoping to find the Alpine Coaster. Well I was as Naomi’s not into roller coasters. Instead, we wandered up and down the indoor, three-storey amusement park which seemed to have more open space than actual entertainment. There was a wax museum, but it cost extra and looked pretty sad, especially since Donald Trump seemed to be the star figure.

My opinion, and Naomi's opinion of Barack Obama.

Descending an escalator, we saw some bumper cars, video games and a 5D movie theatre, all of which we skipped as well. I also found this hilarious online review of the theatre: "The 5D movie was a joke. You sit on a pretend moving horse, wearing bad 3D glasses and randomly shoot at a screen. I’m sorry if that accidentally sounded like fun. It wasn’t."

We wandered into “The Jurassic Experience” which was a sad set of faded dioramas with pathetic replicas of dinosaurs and early man. There really wasn’t much to experience there.

Eventually we found the Alpine Coaster entrance outside, but it was closed. I guess it doesn’t operate when it is raining or foggy, which must be the case a lot of the time.

The one bright star was that we were given some coupons for free beer at the Sun Kraft Brewery. It took us a while to find it (the signage and maps need some work) but once we did, it was an impressive four level restaurant/bar with massive vats and other brewing equipment in the centre.

Not sure what Naomi was up to here.

Inside the Sun Kraft Brewery.

The place was busy too, but that wasn’t a shock as almost everyone likes free beer! We received the coupons for a 200 ml glass of beer before we got on the cable car to come up to the resort and the guys giving them out were super generous as we had multiple people offering coupons to us that they could not use. I guess the place assumes they’ll make the money back with food sales. They would have barely broken even on us as we only had one order of French fries but enjoyed a number of beers.

Enjoying our free beer.

"Wish you were Beer"

This is what we could have seen on a clear day.

That concluded our desire to stay any longer in this strange attempt at an amusement park. Sun Group has pumped a lot of money into creating this place, but we feel they missed the mark on a lot of things. Still, there were a fair number of tourists visiting, even on a rainy, foggy day.

Time to head back down.