1 day exploring Ba Den mountain: What to see, where to play, what to eat?

5am - 6am: Hunting for cloud hats

This is an experience that many people, especially young people, love. Ba Den Mountain often has very rare cloud phenomena in the world such as lenticular clouds (cloud caps, flying saucer clouds), nacreous clouds, sea of clouds...

In particular, Ba Den Mountain is currently in the most beautiful cloud hunting season of the year when Tay Ninh enters the rainy season. The heavier the rain the previous afternoon, the more beautiful the cloud disk is in the early morning.

Clouds on top of Ba Den mountain. Photo: Minh Tu

6:00 - 7:00 am: Take the cable car to Ba Temple area

In the Ba Pagoda area, there are 5 places to worship Linh Son Thanh Mau Bodhisattva. This is a place where people from the South often come to worship and pray for peace.

Here, the important place of worship that you cannot miss is Linh Son Tien Thach Tu - the oldest pagoda on Ba Den mountain with an age of 300 years. Right next to the pagoda is Dien Ba, built from a stone cave roof, the main shrine worships Linh Son Thanh Mau with a black face.

Linh Son Tien Thach Tu is the oldest pagoda on Ba Den Mountain. Photo: Sun World Ba Den Mountain

10am: Go to the top of the mountain and worship the statue of Buddha Tay Bo Da Son

From the Ba Pagoda area, visitors only take 5 minutes to take the cable car to the top of the mountain. In the vast space of the cloud-covered mountain top, the tallest bronze statue of Buddha Tay Bo Da Son in Asia appears majestically with a gentle face.

From here, visitors will be lost in the peaceful land of Buddha with a meditative scene and paths filled with flowers blooming all four seasons.

12:00: Diverse culinary experience

On the top of Ba Den Mountain, there are many attractive culinary options. Visitors can try fast food such as: pho, bread, sausage, pizza, chicken rice... This place also sells Ba Den ice cream with extremely unique shapes such as: cable car station, 986m milestone, cable car or lotus.

Buffet is an attractive culinary option on top of Ba Den Mountain. Photo: Sun World Ba Den Mountain

Another culinary experience is to have a buffet at Nam Chau restaurant with hundreds of European and Asian dishes, combining traditional and modern cuisine. If choosing to have a buffet, visitors should buy a combo "cable car ticket + buffet" at the cable car station to enjoy a preferential price.

14:00: Explore the Buddhist exhibition

Right at the foot of the Tay Bo Da Son Buddha statue is a large 4-storey Buddhist exhibition center. The first floor shows a 3D mapping film about the formation of the universe under the Buddhist lens. The second floor is where visitors can visit the special room of the Kinh Luan pillars and models of 16 famous pagodas in Vietnam through modern 3D hologram projection equipment.

3D mapping film showing the formation of the universe. Photo: Sun World Ba Den Mountain

The third floor is a space to display replicas of classic Buddhist artworks from around the world. The fourth floor is where the Sakyamuni Buddha relics, presented to Vietnam by the World Buddhist Federation in Bodh Gaya, India, are kept.

In the underground Dharma lecture area, visitors will admire the cluster of 5 black granite pillars with golden sand, carved with the Heart Sutra in gold letters.

17:00: Participate in the lantern offering ceremony

Offering lanterns is a typical spiritual cultural ritual at the top of Ba Den Mountain, held every Saturday evening. Here, visitors will receive free lanterns, write their own wishes and pray together for peace and luck under the light of thousands of magical lanterns on the sacred peak.

If you come to Ba Den Mountain during this Vu Lan season, don’t miss the grand and sacred lantern offering ceremony held to express gratitude and pray for peace for parents on the evening of Saturday, August 24. This is also an opportunity for visitors to talk with monks about filial piety and watch meaningful Buddhist art performances during the Vu Lan season of filial piety.

8pm: Watch water music show

After the lantern offering ceremony, visitors will move down to the area of the Maitreya Bodhisattva statue, watching the water music show using the most modern technology equipment in Vietnam and a magical lighting system of 1,450 lights.