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| French insired chateau and buildings.... |
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| The Notre Dame cathedral |
I guess, the cable car ride is the highlight of the trip as it takes 25 minutes to reach the mountain top of the hill resort. Upon arrival, I could see bus loads of tourists and my greatest loathsome fear seemed to come to pass - China tourist! "Oh God! Why can't they go somewhere else to mess up?" was the first thing that struck my mind. Bus loads of them some more! Then my second loathsome fear also came to pass - the latest pain in the neck tourists - Koreans! Another few busloads of them again! I guess, hate them or loathe them, they do bring in the much required VND to the economy of Vietnam.
The main entrance at the foothill of Bana Hill is the replica of Hue's Imperial City. After we had seen the real thing in Hue, this, to me , is a lousy replica of the Imperial City. I wasn't impressed by it , actually. Tuan went to get the tickets for our cable car ride as we waited at the main entrance. I noted with interest that the performers were mainly European and they were collecting monies as people photographed with them. Guess, ang moh will always bring in the crowd,huh?
The nighmare for me started when we queued up for the cable car entrance. Boy! These Chinese were loud and so were the small eyed but equally nauseating Koreans! My God, I really couldn't stand them. It was a real nightmare every step of the way to our cable car. When we reached our cable car, it was a smooth ride all the way up and the scenery were beautiful. We even joked with Tuan and sought information on what was up in Bana Hills. I found out that the lovey waterfall was called Toc Tien Waterfall while the cable car's single non-stop track is the highest cable car track in the world at 1,368 meters and it is also the longest non-stop single track cable car at 5,801 metres in length. So, there you are - two Guinness Book of World records belonged to Bana Hills,Vietnam.
I must say that upon approaching the end of the cable car station, I could make out the spires of a French chateau. There is no mistaken that this is a theme park indeed. A village square with a fountain, surrounded by lookalike of Notre Dame in Paris and cobble stone streets greeted as we hit the streets. There were mime, French style apartment, look alike cathedral, perfomances and cars with flowers were note don the streets. The French village houses and apartments were rustic and alive with people, shops offering meals and plenty of European performers. Flowers were abound and we started to enjoy ourselves immensely especially with the carnivale ala Mardi Gras like atmosphere.There were flowers area of the hills and it was immensely enjoyed by the ladies in our group. There was just so much to see and so much more to enjoy. SLing and I took on the electric car ride whereby you could control the speed of your car through brakes on a spiral track. You could go very fast or slow down only to be bumped by some nutty Korean or even a loony Chinese riding the next car. All in all, it was a fun ride.
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| The hand bridge..... |
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| The hand bridge..... |
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| The Russian food....pretty expensive fare |
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| The garden |
However, lunch was an expensive affair. This is expected of a theme park and we had Russian food that day. I wouldn't know if it was Russian at all but I believe the portion was small and we shared the food together. It was great to see everyone having a good time though the food portion was rather small and expensive, I would say. Tuan eventually told us that it was pricey entrance fee that deter a lot of Vietnamese from going up Bana Hills. However, since it was school holidays, many Vietnamese took the opportunity to come up to Bana Hills through group tours. I was told that the entrance fee is USD 35 which is a hefty sum for Vietnamese. hefty or not, they were there that day. maybe the lure of cool mountain and getting away from the blistering sun pushed these folks to get tickets up here in Bana Hills. By the way, I was told by Tuan that this place is actually called Banana Hills by the locals as the hills are full of banana trees!
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| Flower Garden |
I must say that prior to going up with the cable car , a German restaurant was promoting beer festival at the special square and each visitor was given a free beer coupon. So , we had 8 complimentary beers and I must say that the German beer is quite smooth and nice. Accompanying our beers were a group of European violinist, a cellolist and a drummer who played great music to entertain the crowds. It was really nice music - new and old.
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| The lovely themed garden.... |
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| At the hotel lobby |
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| Rest area outside the hotel |
That day we left about 3.00pm and left the foothill about an hour later. We wanted to get back to Hoi An and moved in the old town of Hoi Ann. We were brought to a food court to have our dinner. We had Vietnamese food and Tuan helped us pick out the food. We had bun cha, fried noddles, pomelo salad and other fares that evening.
After dinner , we ended walking along the old city of Hoi An and passed by the Japanese bridge and crowds of people enjoying the night breeze. Street food was everywhere and so were the crowd of people. The sights, the sounds, the music, the cafes, the people - they made this place what it is today. I must say that night life in Hoi An is so vibrant but it is stunning that shops closed up for the day at about 9.30pm local Vietnamese time. By this time, the speakers on the street would inform the people of the time and accessibility of the roads to cars and other vehicles are announced. Music will continue to play and announcements will be made on the traffic situation. You see, the old city of Hoi An is off limits to cars and vehicle from 8.30am until 9.30pm each day.
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| Lantana Boutique Hotel .....night time |
Lantana Hotel , our hotel....lovely...
As we trudged along the streets to reach our hotel, Lantana Boutique Hotel, we could see crowd of people cruising on the sampan along the river. The lantern in the streets were uniquely oblong in shape and colourful too. Guess, that is the beauty of Hoi An - the amalgamation of new and old.
Signing off due to extreme tiredness and the days' fun - filled time.....Come to papa, you lovely pillow and bed!
The nighmare for me started when we queued up for the cable car entrance. Boy! These Chinese were loud and so were the small eyed but equally nauseating Koreans! My God, I really couldn't stand them. It was a real nightmare every step of the way to our cable car. When we reached our cable car, it was a smooth ride all the way up and the scenery were beautiful. We even joked with Tuan and sought information on what was up in Bana Hills. I found out that the lovey waterfall was called Toc Tien Waterfall while the cable car's single non-stop track is the highest cable car track in the world at 1,368 meters and it is also the longest non-stop single track cable car at 5,801 metres in length. So, there you are - two Guinness Book of World records belonged to Bana Hills,Vietnam.
I must say that upon approaching the end of the cable car station, I could make out the spires of a French chateau. There is no mistaken that this is a theme park indeed. A village square with a fountain, surrounded by lookalike of Notre Dame in Paris and cobble stone streets greeted as we hit the streets. There were mime, French style apartment, look alike cathedral, perfomances and cars with flowers were note don the streets. The French village houses and apartments were rustic and alive with people, shops offering meals and plenty of European performers. Flowers were abound and we started to enjoy ourselves immensely especially with the carnivale ala Mardi Gras like atmosphere.There were flowers area of the hills and it was immensely enjoyed by the ladies in our group. There was just so much to see and so much more to enjoy. SLing and I took on the electric car ride whereby you could control the speed of your car through brakes on a spiral track. You could go very fast or slow down only to be bumped by some nutty Korean or even a loony Chinese riding the next car. All in all, it was a fun ride.
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