We had another long weekend here, so I needed creds, deciding to go to Da Nang on the Vietnamese coast. I’d been meaning to go for ages, but had been holding off for a while as some new stuff was arriving, which I’ll get to later.
I ended up flying from Shenzhen rather than Hong Kong since the flight departure/arrival times were very similar, but the ticket was about £200 cheaper. I’m guessing this was because Monday was a holiday in Hong Kong, but not in Mainland China. After I’d booked it, I kind of regretted it since I hadn’t really thought it through. I’ve used Shenzhen a lot for domestic Chinese flights since there are a lot of options and crossing the Chinese border in Hong Kong is often quicker than dealing with a busy airport later.
I didn’t really think about the international aspect of this trip though. I had to leave Hong Kong and enter China at the Shenzhen border, then go through immigration again at Shenzhen Airport to leave China less than an hour later, reversing that on the way back. It was all fine though. It turns out that the international area of SZ Airport is only small (domestic is huge), with not many flights, so security was very quick and I had no waiting time at all at immigration. It just meant a total of 6 passport stamps for one weekend trip though, so that’s annoying and I won’t be so quick to do it that way again.
First Evening
Anyway, I got to Da Nang at a decent time in the evening. The airport is only a 10-15 minute drive from the city centre, so I was at the hotel quickly. I don’t normally bother mentioning hotels, but this place was weird, trying to sell itself as “European classic”, while actually just being creepy. I got a free white-people upgrade to a bigger room with a huge bath though, so it was all good.
Asian travel tip - I always do this in China as well – book into larger “local” hotels rather than big Western chains. The quality is usually similar, they’re equally well-located, but they’re cheaper and since they get fewer Western guests, they’re more keen to impress and will often give you a much better room than you actually paid for. You’re welcome. Yes, it’s blatant white privilege, but hate the game not the player.
From the room, I could see Dragon Bridge.
I just went for a walk across that and back. The other side of it was a popular hang-out place with a bunch of cafes and stuff. Have some blurry night time pictures.
There are creds over there, which were still open for another two hours from this point. I managed to control the cred anxiety and leave it though.
My camera didn’t want to play nice for pictures of nearby boats, but had no problems photographing something 385,000km away. Fuxake.
Some subtle advertising along the surrounding streets, which also acts as some foreshadowing for this report:
Day 2 – Sun World Bana Hills
A park day then, and a very unexpected one. It’s a 45-minute drive out of the city, and there are only a couple of alpine coasters out here, so while I was planning the trip, I was in two minds about it. Vietnam is so cheap though that it seemed stupid to just not bother.
A Grab car (no Uber in Danang) would’ve cost around £10 each way (meaning a regular taxi would’ve been around £14), but I arranged a car through the hotel for around £22, with the driver waiting for me to take me back. There would’ve been no issues getting a taxi/Grab back from there, but I didn’t know that, so for the sake of £2…
The place is now operated by Sun World, who have four parks in Vietnam – two in Da Nang and two in Halong Bay which I reported on a few months ago (http://coasterforce.com/forums/threads/hanoi-halong-ptr-dragon-park.42337/).
As you can see from the map, there are three ways to get up to the top. I bought my ticket quickly and easily – no line at the ticket desk – but then went to get on the cable car:
Ugh, that’s not good, but it was moving steadily and wasn’t as pushy/shovey as it looks. The cable car station must be right around that corner anyway. Oh…
Surely by the end of that stretch. Nope.
F**king awful, but it “only” took about 90 minutes. When I rounded that corner and saw the sheer number of people, I thought it was going to be at least twice that. It’s all run relatively efficiently though. One problem is that the ticket check doesn’t happen until right at the last moment before you’re getting onto the cable car and there were a few people queuing for the whole thing who hadn’t bought their tickets at the entrance. This sounds dumb, but it’s easy to miss if you just follow the crowds. There was no way to buy a ticket once you were there. Not great, but didn’t affect me, so f**k ‘em.
I quickly learned that Da Nang, for whatever reason, is massively popular with Koreans. No exaggeration when I say that around 85% of the people at the park were Korean, as were the vast majority of tourists around Da Nang as a whole. Most signage was in Korean, and even the staff at the park were speaking it automatically to everyone, even some Vietnamese guests who they had to switch for once they realised. None of this was a problem, just an observation. If I’d have rocked up to that many people from certain other places *cough – China – cough*, I’d have ditched it completely.
I ended up on that cable car in the middle if you look back to the map, meaning a transfer partway up, which took another 20 minutes. There were a bunch of gardens around the transfer station, but I skipped them. Sorry, pictures:
The ride up was stunning, but difficult to photograph because of the windows, sun etc. It climbs to a height of 1,290 meters. The non-stop car is almost 6km long. Towards the top, you see this:
And then you leave the station to be confronted with this:
What the actual f**k?
Some quick background. The mountain top used to be used as a reacreation area for French colonists, who built a bunch of villas up there, but they fell into ruin ages ago. Much later, the Da Nang Government decided to build a “French” resort on the old site. I think Sun World took over a bit later and added more.
Considering the horrendous number of people who were coming up here, the queue for the alpine coasters wasn’t too bad. At first, only one side was open, but by the time I got done with that, they were opening up the other one. I ended up waiting around 45 minutes each time.
People were such a f**king burden though. I’ve never seen people going so slowly on these, barely moving at times. People who do that are worse than Hitler. Fact. When it was my turn, I just refused to move until I saw a mostly empty stretch, so I got decent runs on them. Not bad, but kind of short. Spectacular location though.
A huge “castle” next to the coasters housed all of the other theme park tat across three floors. The queues for some stuff were ridiculous, so I only ended up doing the dinosaur walkthrough, a 3D cinema and a shooting dark ride, all of which were s**te. The drop tower looked a bit s**t as a ride as well, so I couldn’t bring myself to wait for what looked like at least an hour for it.
Throwing some more pictures in:
There was some kind of parade thing, with s**tloads of Eastern European and Brazilian performers mincing out of another “castle”. They then circulated/mingled around the whole area for a couple of hours taking pictures with people.
I wandered around the “French” town for a good hour or so. It’s not particularly big, but there are a few different roads and alleyways which make it feel bigger. I should point out that the buildings are not just fake facades either; they’re actual buildings, housing hotels, shops and restaurants, though some seem currently empty. For all intents and purposes, it’s an actual “town”. Massive photo dump to see how f**king ludicrous it was:
A bit of a view, including all three cable cars systems:
The queues at two of the stations to get back down were also ridiculous.
I chose the longer, direct cable car this time, waiting about half an hour to get on it for the 25-minute ride back down, calling the driver to come and get me near the main entrance to take me back into town.
So, this place then.
Wow. I absolutely did not see that coming. I’ve been to a park or two by now, and I’m rarely shocked these days, so this was something else. I knew there was a decent cable car ride, but I was expecting to just jump on that, grab the alpine coasters, take some pictures of the scenery from the top of the mountain and head back. I had no idea of what was actually on top of that mountain, and would NEVER have predicted those kinds of crowds.
I don’t know whether to even classify the whole thing as “theming” in the theme park sense. It’s all 100% fake – well, real buildings, but “fake” as in not actually hundreds of years old French buildings – but it’s not just typical theme park facades backed onto nothing. The rides are all in one building, itself a huge French castle, but they’re sort of separate from the main “town”, which really is like a town with restaurants, hotels and even an actual church.
So, is it an amazingly themed theme park, or is it a ridiculously over-the-top resort with some rides thrown into one end? I honestly don’t know.
More parks later…
I ended up flying from Shenzhen rather than Hong Kong since the flight departure/arrival times were very similar, but the ticket was about £200 cheaper. I’m guessing this was because Monday was a holiday in Hong Kong, but not in Mainland China. After I’d booked it, I kind of regretted it since I hadn’t really thought it through. I’ve used Shenzhen a lot for domestic Chinese flights since there are a lot of options and crossing the Chinese border in Hong Kong is often quicker than dealing with a busy airport later.
I didn’t really think about the international aspect of this trip though. I had to leave Hong Kong and enter China at the Shenzhen border, then go through immigration again at Shenzhen Airport to leave China less than an hour later, reversing that on the way back. It was all fine though. It turns out that the international area of SZ Airport is only small (domestic is huge), with not many flights, so security was very quick and I had no waiting time at all at immigration. It just meant a total of 6 passport stamps for one weekend trip though, so that’s annoying and I won’t be so quick to do it that way again.
First Evening
Anyway, I got to Da Nang at a decent time in the evening. The airport is only a 10-15 minute drive from the city centre, so I was at the hotel quickly. I don’t normally bother mentioning hotels, but this place was weird, trying to sell itself as “European classic”, while actually just being creepy. I got a free white-people upgrade to a bigger room with a huge bath though, so it was all good.
Asian travel tip - I always do this in China as well – book into larger “local” hotels rather than big Western chains. The quality is usually similar, they’re equally well-located, but they’re cheaper and since they get fewer Western guests, they’re more keen to impress and will often give you a much better room than you actually paid for. You’re welcome. Yes, it’s blatant white privilege, but hate the game not the player.
From the room, I could see Dragon Bridge.
I just went for a walk across that and back. The other side of it was a popular hang-out place with a bunch of cafes and stuff. Have some blurry night time pictures.
There are creds over there, which were still open for another two hours from this point. I managed to control the cred anxiety and leave it though.
My camera didn’t want to play nice for pictures of nearby boats, but had no problems photographing something 385,000km away. Fuxake.
Some subtle advertising along the surrounding streets, which also acts as some foreshadowing for this report:
Day 2 – Sun World Bana Hills
A park day then, and a very unexpected one. It’s a 45-minute drive out of the city, and there are only a couple of alpine coasters out here, so while I was planning the trip, I was in two minds about it. Vietnam is so cheap though that it seemed stupid to just not bother.
A Grab car (no Uber in Danang) would’ve cost around £10 each way (meaning a regular taxi would’ve been around £14), but I arranged a car through the hotel for around £22, with the driver waiting for me to take me back. There would’ve been no issues getting a taxi/Grab back from there, but I didn’t know that, so for the sake of £2…
The place is now operated by Sun World, who have four parks in Vietnam – two in Da Nang and two in Halong Bay which I reported on a few months ago (http://coasterforce.com/forums/threads/hanoi-halong-ptr-dragon-park.42337/).
As you can see from the map, there are three ways to get up to the top. I bought my ticket quickly and easily – no line at the ticket desk – but then went to get on the cable car:
Ugh, that’s not good, but it was moving steadily and wasn’t as pushy/shovey as it looks. The cable car station must be right around that corner anyway. Oh…
Surely by the end of that stretch. Nope.
F**king awful, but it “only” took about 90 minutes. When I rounded that corner and saw the sheer number of people, I thought it was going to be at least twice that. It’s all run relatively efficiently though. One problem is that the ticket check doesn’t happen until right at the last moment before you’re getting onto the cable car and there were a few people queuing for the whole thing who hadn’t bought their tickets at the entrance. This sounds dumb, but it’s easy to miss if you just follow the crowds. There was no way to buy a ticket once you were there. Not great, but didn’t affect me, so f**k ‘em.
I quickly learned that Da Nang, for whatever reason, is massively popular with Koreans. No exaggeration when I say that around 85% of the people at the park were Korean, as were the vast majority of tourists around Da Nang as a whole. Most signage was in Korean, and even the staff at the park were speaking it automatically to everyone, even some Vietnamese guests who they had to switch for once they realised. None of this was a problem, just an observation. If I’d have rocked up to that many people from certain other places *cough – China – cough*, I’d have ditched it completely.
I ended up on that cable car in the middle if you look back to the map, meaning a transfer partway up, which took another 20 minutes. There were a bunch of gardens around the transfer station, but I skipped them. Sorry, pictures:
The ride up was stunning, but difficult to photograph because of the windows, sun etc. It climbs to a height of 1,290 meters. The non-stop car is almost 6km long. Towards the top, you see this:
And then you leave the station to be confronted with this:
What the actual f**k?
Some quick background. The mountain top used to be used as a reacreation area for French colonists, who built a bunch of villas up there, but they fell into ruin ages ago. Much later, the Da Nang Government decided to build a “French” resort on the old site. I think Sun World took over a bit later and added more.
Considering the horrendous number of people who were coming up here, the queue for the alpine coasters wasn’t too bad. At first, only one side was open, but by the time I got done with that, they were opening up the other one. I ended up waiting around 45 minutes each time.
People were such a f**king burden though. I’ve never seen people going so slowly on these, barely moving at times. People who do that are worse than Hitler. Fact. When it was my turn, I just refused to move until I saw a mostly empty stretch, so I got decent runs on them. Not bad, but kind of short. Spectacular location though.
A huge “castle” next to the coasters housed all of the other theme park tat across three floors. The queues for some stuff were ridiculous, so I only ended up doing the dinosaur walkthrough, a 3D cinema and a shooting dark ride, all of which were s**te. The drop tower looked a bit s**t as a ride as well, so I couldn’t bring myself to wait for what looked like at least an hour for it.
Throwing some more pictures in:
There was some kind of parade thing, with s**tloads of Eastern European and Brazilian performers mincing out of another “castle”. They then circulated/mingled around the whole area for a couple of hours taking pictures with people.
I wandered around the “French” town for a good hour or so. It’s not particularly big, but there are a few different roads and alleyways which make it feel bigger. I should point out that the buildings are not just fake facades either; they’re actual buildings, housing hotels, shops and restaurants, though some seem currently empty. For all intents and purposes, it’s an actual “town”. Massive photo dump to see how f**king ludicrous it was:
A bit of a view, including all three cable cars systems:
The queues at two of the stations to get back down were also ridiculous.
I chose the longer, direct cable car this time, waiting about half an hour to get on it for the 25-minute ride back down, calling the driver to come and get me near the main entrance to take me back into town.
So, this place then.
Wow. I absolutely did not see that coming. I’ve been to a park or two by now, and I’m rarely shocked these days, so this was something else. I knew there was a decent cable car ride, but I was expecting to just jump on that, grab the alpine coasters, take some pictures of the scenery from the top of the mountain and head back. I had no idea of what was actually on top of that mountain, and would NEVER have predicted those kinds of crowds.
I don’t know whether to even classify the whole thing as “theming” in the theme park sense. It’s all 100% fake – well, real buildings, but “fake” as in not actually hundreds of years old French buildings – but it’s not just typical theme park facades backed onto nothing. The rides are all in one building, itself a huge French castle, but they’re sort of separate from the main “town”, which really is like a town with restaurants, hotels and even an actual church.
So, is it an amazingly themed theme park, or is it a ridiculously over-the-top resort with some rides thrown into one end? I honestly don’t know.
More parks later…
