The Bana adventure
HERE’S WHAT WE CAME FOR:
Basically, Bana is a mountain resort about 40kms from Danang. My friends and I wanted to drive out there and check out the waterfall, cable car and accompanying sites. The day we chose was cloudy and we didn’t know if it would rain but as we took off, it cleared up. Once we got there, we walked up to the waterfall and the surrounding swimming area. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring our bathing suits so we’ll head back, I’m sure. Then we decided to head up the mountain to the resort and it was about 4pm by this time and it gets dark about 6 so we were taking a small risk but we went for it anyway. The ride up is steep so it’s not for all motorbikes. I left my beloved at the bottom and opted for a xe om which basically means motorbike w/driver. Mark and Sharon went on Mark’s new Yamaha so we were in good shape….until his tire popped midway up the mountain! It’s a mountain 16kms up and pretty curvy challenging road so when this happened, well, there’s no one around and definitely no repair guys on the side of the road! Luckily, my xe om driver knew the number of a repairman so this guy had to drive up the mountain to fix the bike….all for a pretty penny of course!
So there we were hanging out with ants and trees rustling. Sharon was lying on the ground and I was consoling Mark. My driver was chilling and muttering about how we had incredibly bad luck. Afterwards, we decided to head up anyway but it got dark and COLD quick! So then it was 7 and we didn’t know if we should risk the ride back down in the pitch black or not….we took the risk since we couldn’t see much at the resort (we’re definitely going back though…looks like a cool spot). On the way down, it was misting, raining so we were in rain jackets (me in hat and gloves for warmth) and Sharon got a branch in the face, but we made it down the mountain with our incredibly nice driver/guide.
HERE’S MOSTLY WHAT WE GOT:
But it wasn’t over b/c we still had to drive back to Danang in the dark of course! The road there was a bit bumpy and as we approached the turnoff for DN, which we couldn’t really find b/c of the darkness, Mark’s tire popped again! It was just not his day! We ended up finding a repair place, knocking on the door and fortunately the guy was nice enough to open up and help us. By the time we got home, it was 10pm and we were exhausted….sooooooooooo dirty and ready for bed. We agreed that next time, we’re staying overnight and only driving in the daytime 🙂