Friday 29 June 2018

DaNang 2018 Day 1 - 3 : Danang -> Ba Na Hill Sun World

Day 1 :


Finally time for a holiday after resting for more then 2 months!

Boarding pass and baggage tag printed.
Self baggage check in now, same as when I went to Korea in March. Everything is so DIY now!

Have not had lunch yet so went to KFC to have our lunch.

Ready to go! we are taking the evening flight from Jetstar because that is the only direct flight to DaNang. Journey is about 2.5hr.

What a small flight from JetStar!
I have not been taking Jetstar for quite awhile, but I don't remember the seats being so narrow? No more room for my not that long leg?


Anyway... Hello DaNang! Fianlly reach after some delays!
First thing to do is the grab a local Sim Card as we need to use for calling Grab car later! Was thinking whether to buy at the counter inside the immigration or like what we did in Ho Chi Minh City, we buy only after we pass the immigration ( because inside sells more expensive ) but we decided to get inside. The counter that sells the local Sim Card is just beside the baggage belt area. All counter price are the same so we just go to the first counter.
I thought I took a picture of the price list but I didn't but anyway the price of the Sim Card for unlimited date for 7 days is 150000VND ( SGD$9 ).


Called a Grab car to hotel and it's so convenient! Even more faster then in Singapore! About 100000VND ( SGD$6 ) + 10000VND ( SGD$0.60 ) airport charge for all cars. ( What?! SG$6.60 only?! ) The reason why I prefer to use Grab car instead of taxi in Vietnam because some ( not all ) taxi driver will rip you off with what you think it's reasonable but is actually higher then meter or Grab price. And most importantly, if anything happens, you can contact Grab, but if is the local taxi, I am not sure who can I look for if things really happens.

Tada! Reached our hotel, Mandila Beach hotel in just 30 mins! What a colour hotel building! The beach is just right in front of the hotel but it's too dark so can't take a picture of it. Will walk over to the beach to take picture tomorrow!


The hotel is much better then I expected!

Front desk staff are very polite and friendly, and check in was fast.

Tada! Our room is also bigger then I expected! Most importantly is the room is very clean!

Big TV!

Toilet is big and clean as well.

Free welcome fruits from the hotel.

Oh ya! We received a complimentary afternoon tea voucher from the hotel because we had a long stay with them ( 5 nights is consider as long stay?)!

It's late already so most of the restaurant closes at 10pm which is actually in just an hour time so we didn't have many choice at this point of time. We still manage to find a seafood restaurant, Lao Dai, that is about 8 mins away by car, and it closes at 1am. So we called a Grab car there again and it's only 25000VND ( SGD$1.50 )!


Operating Hours : 10am to 1am ( Monday to Sunday )

Quite crowded even at this hour. Mostly locals here having gathering so it's kind of lively ( another word is noisy )!

Basically, NON of the staff can speak English here, so we asked for an English menu. The English menu look totally different from the local one and I'm not very sure is there any "special" meaning to this menu, which remind the staff that they can charge us higher price or what because all the staff that walk pass us will flap our menu and look at the front page before they talk to us.

And one of the staff straight away bring us to the water tank there to choose our seafood. Knowing that touristy beach area normally will rip off tourist money for seafood, so we carefully ask the price of each seafood. we wanted to order a grilled squid, at first they say 490000VND ( SGD$29.70 ) per KG, and when we say no to it, they suddenly write 90000VND ( SGD$5.50 ) will do. Not sure why but since it's so cheap now, we decided to order the grill squid.

World cup fever now! Anyway they serve drinks without ice so we requested some ices.

And... the ice is served... in a big bucket! Haha! I only ask for a cup of ice!

We also order a plate of seafood noodle at 70000VND ( SGD$4.20 ).

And a plate of shrimp salad at 65000VND ( SGD$3.90 ). But to our surprise, the salad is serve hot! Haha! Not the kind of salad we are expecting but taste is not bad.
We waited for the grill squid for about an hour and it's still not here yet even asking twice for it. We decided to cancel it and left the place. Personally not recommended to eat here as the food taste ok only, staff can't speak basic English, or if you would like to try, better come with a local friend.

After our late dinner, we decided to walk back to our hotel which is actually quite near and it's only about 15 mins walk.

Look what we found beside Lao Dai! Singapore restaurant! Haha but we will not try!
Back to hotel and good night people!



Day 2 : 

Good morning! That's our view from our room window. Went down to have our breakfast at the hotel cafe.

Wanted to go to the pool but it's kinda pack right now, so we decided to walk to the beach first.


Look at these big basket! This is actually their traditional boat!


Beautiful weather!





Surprisingly it is not crowded at the beach! I'm thinking that it will be full of people blocking the beautiful view! And most importantly, it's clean!



These beach chair there are actually chargeable. It's not expensive, at only 40000VND ( SGD$2.40 ) per chair but unlimited time.



Here, you can either play parasailing, or jet ski or just lay down here and do nothing!

We tried all the water sports countless time in different country already so we choose to lay down and do nothing! Haha! Sun bathing time!

Life of a girl who wants to have a proper tan but can't afford to tan my face due to the colour tone of the make up that you need to basically apply to work everyday! Changing whole set of cosmetic can cost a bomb too! If I didn't have to put on make up, I will definitely remove that tower on my face! Haha!





Went into the sea to continue my sun bathing too! When is the last time I actually walked into a sea? Omg... I missing tanning and dipping in the sea so much and by just siting there listening to the sound of the waves makes me felt so relaxing.


 Ok, back to the hotel and back to the pool and finally the pool is empty! We can have the whole pool all by ourselves!

Since it's empty, we shall not miss any chance to take many picture here right?!

So the photo taking session starts from outside the pool to inside the water! Haha!


Lunch time! Actually we are quite late for our lunch already so we quickly change into dry clothes and off we go hunt for our lunch.

Saw this Babylone Steak restaurant from google map so we decided to walk over to have a look but after checking the food and price, we decided to give it a miss.


Operating Hours : !0am to 10pm


Just a few walks away before reaching Babylone Steak restaurant, there is this Sophia Hotel and Restaurant, so we ended up choosing here because they sells more local food here.


Before lunch, let me have some Vietnamese coffee first! It's my first time trying their ice cream coffee and it actually taste better then I expected!

Ordered a mango salad and the portion is huge! But the taste is completely different from the Thai mango salad. The Vietnam version has more vegetable ( not surprise ya? ), lesser mango and most importantly, it’s not spicy! I personally prefer the Thailand version! 

 And we ordered the Hanoi spring roll to try and it’s actually not bad.

The staff told us to put a piece of lettuce in the bowl first, add the rice noodle on top, dip the spring roll in their sauce, lastly wrap all together and there goes into the mouth! 

Our main dish will be nothing but Pho! How can you not eat Pho when you are in Vietnam right? The Pho is ok, but I think can find better one in Ho Chi Minh City.



After lunch, walked about 8 mins from Sophia Hotel to the nearest local market, the Phuoc My market to have a look and because my mum gave me a mission, so I have to see if I could complete my mission there! Haha!


Operating Hours : 8am to 1am ( Monday to Sunday )





 Really a very local market. The main building of the market is mostly selling clothes. 

The side near the main building selling fresh fruits.

The other sides will be other shops. 


Behind the main building will be the wet ( not very wet actually ) market selling fresh fruits, vegetable and meat. 
My mum’s mission is to help her get some small size cooking utensil, and I think only local market will have. Exactly what I thought! They do have and only one shop sells the size she is looking for. Mission complete and its massage time! 

Googled the spa around our hotel area and found this Rendez Vous by Charm Spa and Massage is one of the highly recommended spa place and it’s only a few minutes walk away from Phuoc My market too. 


Operating Hours : 9am to 11pm

This place looks very atas ( Singaporean way of saying high class) ! Hope the price is not that atas! Haha! 

Here it is, the price menu. 
Ok price is still reasonable! *phew* 
We decided to go for the 90 minutes hot stone with herbal ball massage. Actually I do before hot stone and also herbal ball but this is the first time I see there is both combination in one massage session! 

They will ask you to fill in this to tell the masseur which area to focus on and which area to avoid. 

The room is clean too. Bye for now! I’m going to enjoy my massage now! 


Tea after a good massage!

The massage is sooooo good! I love the strength of my masseur! 
When we are about the pay, the staff told us that if we review our massage on trip advisor or google, we can have 5% discount off the bill! So of course we did! ( Now I know why they are highly recommend on google... ) But luckily they are really good and deserve the rating. 
Oh ya by the way, they do charge extra USD$3 each person for tips so you don’t really need to tips the masseur again. 


 After a good massage, we take the Grab car to Vincom mall to see if we could find anything to eat there and also get some drinking water from the supermarket there. 


Operating Hours : 9.30am to 10pm





Quite a few restaurant here. 

We ended up choose Kichi Kichi for their hot pot buffet.


Many hot pot dish on the belt but we are sitting right at the end and most of the nice dish is already taken when it reach us! Haha! We have to either patiently wait for the good food to come or call the staff to bring us some. 

After dinner, we move to next door to get some tea at Lyn’s. 

They have cheese cream black tea too!

And they have real peach in their peach tea.

Lastly, we went to the supermarket to grab so drinking water at our fastest speed because they are closing soon. 

Coffee in coke?! Let's bring one back to try!
After super mart, we book Grab car back to hotel and rest early because tomorrow we have to wake up early to go somewhere far and high! 

While writing this blog, I realise the bag of cooking utensil that I help my mum to buy is not in the room!!! I think I have left it in the Grab car... Contacted Grab about it and hopefully by tomorrow they will get back to me. Not anything expensive but it’s just not easy to find ( only one shop selling from the whole market remember? ) ! Haiz... how careless I’m! 

Day 3 :


Good morning! Woke up early and head off to Ba Na Hill Sun world which is somewhere far from our hotel.

Our Grab driver drop us somewhere near Ba Na Hill for us to buy our entrance tickets, he told us it's cheaper to buy from the tour agency then from Ba Na Hill ticket counter so we just buy here.

Price for Cable Cars and games : 
Non Da Nang people will be,
Adult : 700000VND ( SGD43.70 )
Children : 550000VND ( SGD$34.40 )
And for local will be, 
Adult : 400000VND ( SGD$25 )
Children : 300000VND (SGD$18.70 )

It seems like buying online is cheaper but not sure if the tickets bought online does includes games, if you are not doing any games, I will recommend to buy online because it's cheaper.


Ticket settle! Off we go again!

As expected, crowded day!

So we are queuing up for the free buggy service to the cable car area.


Super crowded!!




The place is big! After some walking, we just reached the entrance!



Still finding our way to the cable car...


Pass by some nice view while finding our way to the cable car station.

There is actually a few cable car station and finally we reach one of them! 





Saw the castle look alike place and which means we are reaching!


Here we are at the Sun World! Looks like our Universe Studio right?



This place looks like we just step into Europe and not Vietnam! 





All the building here gives me a very strong European vibes!


Continue to roam around to take pictures.













Not easy to find a spot to take picture without another photobombing!





Pass by a interesting café! 


Look at the seats outside the café! 



Not quite sure what's the purpose of this place but it seems to be like a place fore beer.



We thought of having lunch here but non of the restaurant there interest us, it's expensive and don't look good.


Not having lunch so we continue to explore the place.





Some performance going on there!



Went to the amusement park to have a look.

Performance going on here too!





We got nothing to do so we went to see dinosaur! Haha!



Guess what's this queue for?

Look at the long queue! They are actually queuing for a roller coaster ride! 


After walking for a long time, time for some tea and rest our feet!


Tea time and watch people!

Now, gonna take the cable car to another part.



Here we are at one of the famous place of Ba Na Hill, the Golden Bridge!


If you research Ba Na Hill, you definitely see many picture of these 2 hand holding the golden bridge.

View from the bridge!



And again, not easy to take a proper picture without anyone beside or behind you!



Continue our journey after finish walking the Golden Bridge.

Walk over to the garden to have a look.



The famous Ba Na Hill Buddha statue is in the garden too.





Time to leave the place so taking the cable car down and our grab driver who drove us here is already there to drive us back to hotel.

Back to hotel!

And off we go for a dip in the pool!


So it's dinner time! We are having Korean BBQ at Hong Dae BBQ & Beer tonight! Korean BBQ in Ho Chi Minh City are very cheap so I am sure it will be cheap here too.


Operating Hours : 11am to 11pm ( Monday to Sunday )


There is Live Band singing while having dinner!


So, as expected! Price are super affordable!




Kimchi soup! Yum Yum!

The staff cooking for us!

Looks so good! Time to eat!

The night is still young so we decided to grab to a café to have some coffee. Choose this Goblin Café because of it's nice interior and it's not far from our dinner place. 


Operating Hours : 8am to 10pm ( Monday to Sunday )



Nice place to chill!

Even their menu look so unique.




Pearlie's Coconut ice cream coffee looks good!

And I have peach tea to end the day!
Good night!