Ba Na Hills and Golden Bridge - A Road to Wonderland

Ba Na Hills is a very popular destination in Da Nang City, especially after the construction of Golden Bridge in 2018. Ba Na was chosen to be a French vacation village for French officials in 1901. It was a result of a search by Captain Debay under request of Paul Doumer - Governor General of Indochina in French occupation.

After many years being abandoned after the war, Ba Na was developed into a tourist destination since 1997. I had an opportunity to stayed in a French mansion there in 2005. The temperature was pretty low at night and the weather was so cool in a summer day. I agree with the decision of French to choose this beautiful mountainous area to be their excursion place.
The development of Ba Na was awaken up since 2007 when Sun Group invested to turn it in to Ba Na Hills with hotels, cable cars, restaurant and many many facilities in French style. The complex is a good combination of European village and Vietnamese temples so people can enjoy the cross cultural experience on Ba Na Hills.

In 2005, I had to go up Ba Na by car and tried a short trip of cable car. However, with newer and longer systems of cable cars, I had a 25 minute trip from mountain route to the top. With an altitude to 1487 meters on the peak. Ba Na cable car ride is one of the great rides I have had so far.
When I joined tourism, I have travel up Ba Na Hills many times to by different systems of cable cars, but I prefer the ride from Hoi An station to the Golden Bridge. There are many stations for cable car named Louvre, Hoi An, Marseilles, Bordeaux... which connect different places on this complex.

I always remember the time visit Ba Na Hills with my wife in a foggy day. All French village with church, castles, hotels, boutiques were dip in fog which we thought we were in France. It is a reason why many Asian people choose this a chance to experience the European atmosphere while it is to expensive to travel to real Europe.

Even inside the game center, it is designed with colorful windows. There are three floor with dozens of games such as racing video games, mountain climbing, sky tower, slides, bouncing cars... Moreover, I also tried the wax museum with many celebrity statues. There were so much fun in this complex. We had good time together and it was so memorable in a strangely beautiful foggy day.

The road around the complex on that day was so foggy and we could see very short in front of us. However, it could not hide the beauty and different feelings of us. You can imagine the Golden Bridge in fog and compare it with my pictures taken in clear days. They are so cool, indeed. I felt like I were walking in a fairy land. Love it.

The Golden Bridge is the most wanted highlights of Ba Na Hills. When you arrive Marseilles station, you can go direct to it. Held by two giant hands, Golden Bridge is like a respect of a myth and the view is so great in clear day. I can even see the blue sea and green forest hugging each other. It is pretty crowded but if you find a good corner, you can get some good pictures.

Please follow me to walk around the French village in a foggy day. Every corner seems like in Europe, specially in this weather. My wife enjoyed it very much and so did I.

In the fog, festival and dance were going on. There were so many music band, parades performing in the way. Atmosphere of a carnival never ends here. There are many musician from all over the world, Russian played Russian music, Brazilian danced Samba and more and more.

It is only 1 hour from Da Nang center or 1 hour and 15 mins from Hoi An. Therefore, it so convenient for a day trip. If you start about 8 o'clock in the morning, you will finish a great day at your hotel about 5 o'clock in the evening. The entrance fee with cable car for adult is around $40.
Because the high altitude, the weather up there is always cooler, and wetter sometimes. Even it is sunny in Da Nang center, it can be wet on mountain top. However, it always has different beauty in different weather or different time of a year.

Besides, there are so many highlights for us to see such as a funicular, Linh Ung Buddha statue and temples, slide games, a maze, the peak, gardens and restaurants. One minus to this is food, I tried buffet food in restaurant but they are not too good. Food was okay, not bad but they are modified neutrally for everyone. In my opinion, I prefer authentic food rather than these fusion ones. Anyway, they were acceptable for a 10 buck ticket.

If you have opportunity to visit Da Nang, you should visit this place. It is so easy to afford it and you can travel there without guiding tour. There are many things waiting for you!

@tungphong
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