Da Nang, Vietnam - Day Two

We stayed here overnight.  Bob is feeling much better so we decided to go on our tour today.  It is  called "BaNa's French Past and Cable Car Adventure".

The view from the ship while docked here in Da Nang.

These fishing boats ride by all day long.

We were on bus 14 and drove to Da Nang which takes about one hour from the pier.  Once we arrived at BaNa, we took the longest cable car we have ever seen over the forest to a stopping point.  Since they were working on the pagoda, we took the second cable car to the resort which is still being built.  In America this could never happen.  This was a working construction site.  And here we were walking around the site.  At any rate, we took a van down to the large Buddha statue and then walked down to the pagoda.  I did not walk to the pagoda as if you walk down, you have to walk up and it was very uneven footing.  Sort of dangerous if you ask me.

This is at the entrance of the Resort.  The resort is partly open, I think.  It looks like they want to make it a theme park for the locals.

Our first cable car which holds about 6 - 8 persons.  Depending on the size of the person.  We were 6.
This cable car hold 4 Guinness world records.  It is the longest 10-MGD in one section with 5,771.61m in inclined length, the highest vertical rise in one section with 1,368.93m, the longest rope with 11,587m, and the heaviest rope with 141.24 tons.

The cable car system is built according to the standards of European associations suspension report by the Austrian technology.  It takes you up through more than 5km and up to an altitude of nearly 1500m.
The landing area for the first cable car.  I found it difficult to look as heights are not my favorite thing but I did it.

Still in the building phase.

The pagoda with construction all around.

Some of the workers.  These are two women working while the man sits.

And then the Buddha.  He is bright white and very large.  This is Asia's largest meditating Shakyamuni Buddha statue.

You can sort of get an idea of how high up this place is.  This is part of the pagoda which I did not visit.

All types of sculptures in the area.

Another view of how high this resort is.  The building on the left of the picture is the Debay Hotel.  It has 21 bedrooms and is the most luxurious hotel in the complex.  The building on the right is the Morin Hotel with 59 rooms.

And the walk up to the Buddah.

The man in the green shirt is throwing up a brick to the man in the gray shirt which he catches with one hand and then places in the pile.  The other side the green shirt throws up two bricks together which the blue shirt catches with two hands.  Some wear hard hats and others don't.

Part of the theme park.  This is a small car that travels like a roller coaster down the side of the mountain and then back up.  Looks like fun to me.  The yellow cable cars are the second ones we took up to the resort.

At the bottom of the mountain you will find very colorful gardens and fountains.

The fountains play to music.

Then the van back to the resort where we had a refreshment stop for a beer.  Then the cable cars back to the beginning and back on the bus for the return trip to the ship.

Lunch in La Veranda of soup and salad and then a well deserved nap.  So I missed the afternoon gathering of needlepoint.

Enzo had given us a great bottle of champagne which we discovered when we opened the refrigerator. Thank you Enzo.  Our butler told us later that Enzo ordered it.  What a nice man.  So we enjoyed a glass to toast our special day.  Wow - 45 years later and we are still in love.  What a ride it has been.

Cocktails in Observation Lounge where we sat at the bar and the bartender knew what we wanted.  We are getting too predictable.  Then down to dinner in Prime 7.  Route was our waiter.  Bob had his double order of oysters and then a steak and I had tomato salad and filet.  And then they brought us a chocolate moose cake and ice cream for dessert with Happy Anniversary written on the plate.  No singing which is good.

Back to the suite where Victor had made swans out of towels.  And Laksha had blown up balloons and stuck them to the ceiling.  A great anniversary.

Actually, the balloons were there when we came back from our tour and the swans showed up after dinner.

Victor wanted to make a heart out of rose petals but they could not find any roses on the ship.  We said that was fine, what he did was enough.