10 DAYS ON A MOTORBIKE - Ha Giang Loop Vietnam

[Music] [Applause] [Music] okay okay [Music] when we were planning our return to vietnam people ask why are you going back to a place you've been to to do the same thing again the answer is simple travel is ever ever-evolving the epic reputation of the hajjang loop which is located in vietnam's northernmost province and traces around the chinese border has only recently caught the attention of the entire world [Music] while saigon to hanoi is one hell of a ride you can make every argument that the hajjang loop is mile for mile the most stunning stretch of roads in all of vietnam [Music] roads are more remote the landscapes more dramatic in the sense of adventure absolutely redlined welcome to the ride of a lifetime [Music] this is a day that i have been waiting for for three years now last time we did the saigon to hanoi drive and for bonus did how long but this time we're going up to sapa which we totally missed last time and doing the entire hajjang loop and i'm totally mispronouncing that right now we are in hanoi on our way to go to ticket and pick up our motorbikes and i have been chomping at the bitten to get back on a bike in vietnam this time we are more prepared so we grabbed our bikes at tiggett in hanoi with the plan to head north this video is not sponsored by ticket nor are we even affiliates you know we owe you nothing but transparency we just use them for our first trip and we're using them now it's an easy way to get a newer reliable bike instead of trying to buy a honda win or something like that since it's a frequently asked question we did have international driving permits with us that we picked up at our local aaa in the u.s there's a gray area whether this is accepted in vietnam or not but it's just safer to have one rather than not it was suggested to us by the rental company if you are pulled over in vietnam do not speak english speak anything else but and hopefully the officer will take his time and then just let you move on it also helps if you're not doing anything illegal so no speeding this feature length video you're currently watching is a compilation of vlogs from our channel if you want to see any of these days in more detail like this drive through hanoi or the overnight train up to sapa you can visit the description below for the full vlog every vlog from our 10-day trip would be just too long to include here so you're just watching all the best stuff if you're already enjoying it hit that like button and let's hop on that train [Music] too dark [Music] good morning to get out of the station good morning and welcome to stop up [Music] we are currently down in the kai train station we took the overnight train from hanoi last night and we put our motorbikes on the train which of course was a saga and uh have now arrived at the train station where we will motorbike up to our hotel in sappa [Music] [Music] when you get your bike off the train they don't they have dumped all the gas so you're on fume so the first stop is to definitely find a gas station and the second stop is to just get reorganized because you probably did it wrong the first time around which you know we didn't i'm just i'm gonna be so hot i'm wearing lots of protection which we'll talk about later but that means that i'm very hot [Music] so what is this finn you just like ride motorcycles like catch me up on the story here so in 2015 we rode from saigon to hanoi with the intention of the two of us being on one bike because tim is a motorcycle rider back in the states this is no big deal for him days into the trip we realized we're way too heavy for these little bikes and we're bottoming out at every moment and tim's thinking uh finn you need to learn how to ride a motorbike so my motorbike riding experience is two months in vietnam two years ago three years ago four years ago the first two hours are going better than the first two hours of the first trip where the oil plug was out of the bike and luckily because we're getting such high elevation it's getting chilly so i'm chilling yeah so i'm gonna put a jacket on [Music] big city local city we're gonna look for a place to eat i think we're both picturing like a little farmtown thing and not this [Music] so so [Music] [Music] this is always hard [Music] [Music] [Music] hello [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh that feels so good wow [Music] [Applause] [Music] that was my most beautiful handstand ever [Music] this is so incredibly beautiful obviously but it's it's too much i i can't even see it it's too vast you just keep looking around and it's you know the mountains are far away and it just it looks fake i can't i can't even look at it it is the first morning of motorbike day bittersweet because we are in absolutely the most beautiful resort i think i've ever been in and now we're leaving to go to the hajjang loop if i learned anything three years ago in two months from saigon to hanoi on a motorbike it's to expect the unexpected so i have no idea what today entails to begin this trip we first need to get to hajjang we're in the sapa area so we need to go through lao kai through baka that's where we're sleeping tonight and then a big day tomorrow to get up to hajjang let's get on the road leaving paradise for adventure tim's idea never mind [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] day one here we go [Music] [Music] a minute after leaving the resort we've already pulled over three times to check the directions few things have become clear vinnie likes riding around with her right blinker on finney you're doing great you're just back on a bike and also if you're gonna be on a bike this gopro mount that's a terrible idea all it does is shake it's my fault [Music] driving out of sappa right now this is easily one of the most beautiful hours of roads that we've had even considering last trip there's twisties it's hills it's mountains unfortunately it's so hot today it's really hard to pull over and film but god damn is it gorgeous oh my god [Music] we pulled over for a minute and it was probably the most hop-in bar in town and we have shown pictures of coca-cola on our phone showing pictures of sprite there's a coca-cola machine right over there that's full of lettuce i don't think they have any of it and then finally the reason we stopped because tim has to go to the bathroom so we finally just showed a picture of a toilet and that worked so they do have that here hold on and we're making new friends welcome to wrong america that was the friendliest bar in the entire world so frustrating to not be able to speak to everybody so easily somebody came over and apologized for everybody drinking so much but i mean hey it's saturday everybody's partying all around the world no reason to be sorry [Music] [Applause] that was our first day one of those beautiful drives that we've had on one of the hottest days ever the hottest days we've ever had i think that's the only time we've ever had sun in vietnam on a motorbike but it's also one of the only days i've ever had protection on motorbike and i'm just in all black just just melting and it's melting all i've done is sweat here in vietnam and somehow i don't think i'm losing any weight because everything that we eat is like all you can eat so i'm indulging holy [ __ ] oh my god that feels so good this is exciting because i never quite know where i'm staying finney does all the booking obviously and we ended up with a room with a view it's these nice little perks like the lake view that i think cost maybe four dollars extra on the room that we couldn't really afford on our last trip but now with our online business we could just really live a life in luxury the lake view was 34 a night here but i think that you could get a cheaper room here maybe around 27 or so ballpark but that's about it we're starving let's go eat something oh my gosh i don't even know how you have enough energy to film right now because they just have to hit one button oh food took yeah long time but you know what it's just good this is so reminding me of the whole last trip i don't even know what i'm talking about i don't know allison needs a post late lunch early dinner i mean it was so hot today that took a lot out of us so i'm gonna go see how much gas we burn here it's way easier to fill these things up when our bags are off of them rather than pull up to the gas station pull the bags off put them back on it always makes a scene so i went over just over two liters of gas in that entire trip and i'm sure finney will put a map here i mean these things get such awesome fuel economy uh that barely costs over two dollars in fuel for everything so that's what my bike got now i can't wait i have to go fill up finney's bike to see how she did on gas that's weird first thing i'm noticing is that i had over half vinnie managed to go through a whole tank granted my bike's a little bit bigger the mystery will be solved at the gas station i'm sure okay finney with just over two liters too which means at least we're getting the same gas mileage which is nice i just have that much bigger of a tank on my big old adventure rider winter 150. that's just unbelievable how far we both rode on two liters each it's so so awesome i love these bikes and i'm loving finnies she's got the semi-automatic uh honda blade it makes filming so much easier because it works pretty much like a scooter only if you want to shift you can look second and a third i still got the gopro up just hit it push down no clutch it's cheating a little bit but i love it [Music] well sometimes food is easy so that food is hard because it's easy because you can actually see what it is but i can't eat wheat so i'm thinking this is rice paper so i use google translate the camera to look what it is it's translated into three birthday to make a member so tonight for dinner [Music] three birthday to make a member it has like egg and meat and some things in it what's up day two true timothy fashion we've already changed our plans we thought we could get from baka to hajjang in one day which i'm sure that you can it's about 200 kilometers but considering that 74 kilometers took us four hours last night we were thinking that's gonna be way too much so we found some random eco lodge that's a hundred kilometers in the right direction what is that this isn't in a town it's just like a random eco lodge in the jungle so um just just let's just keep going [Music] [Music] labs are looking a little bit darker this morning i think we'd both be fine with a little bit of rain it's just so pretty around here i mean i'll take weather any way we get it we've lucked out so far today we have cloud cover and we're at altitude i'm almost getting goosebumps it's so cold so i'll take it i love it right now we know we're in for a hot day though [Music] welcome to the suggested beginner's route oh my god you got this just go slow you got it just use your brakes take your time you're doing great [Music] so this stuff's hard for me to ride in film and it's tough for finney to just ride i mean not as much of a fun road so where are you taking us you're doing a great job you got it front and back [Music] brakes this is ridiculous i love it is this road a little better that was really hard we're done now it's nice holy [ __ ] as a reward for dealing with that really shitty road back there and that checkpoint that we did film where they just washed off our tires we don't film checkpoints with government people by the way it's never a great idea this is a perfect example of the biggest problem vietnam you stop every five minutes because it's just a crazy beautiful landscape it's hard to make any distance on a motorcycle when you're stopping every five minutes to take a picture of a video oh that was so scary coming down this mountain there's no rails or anything and it's just like the width of a driveway and you're coming around these curves and you're just like going downhill i was i threw it into third you know for a little engine breaking and just like coming down hot and you just like see off the cliff before you know you turn and you're just like no no no no no no i mean we're barely barely going to make it to the halfway point where we booked a combination tonight knowing that we weren't going to get the hajjang this is where we're taking our last and final break did we film anything at lunch yeah briefly an insta story for fast so unbelievably hot out even on the bikes driving constant speed you need to take a break get some and one of these we don't remember what we're doing on instagram and what we're doing for you guys but we um had lunch because we had to stop because we were brain dead and now we're just sitting around here talking about how hot we are and then we're gonna get to our really random eco homestay this is absolutely another incredibly incredibly beautiful drive i mean we spent months in vietnam doing this and this would have been like one of the most beautiful days so if you don't have two months to go from the south to the north you could just come up here and do this drive because this is everything that you would want we're just it's just really hot and it snows and rains in december which is why we couldn't do it last time so we've decided to choose both extremes for you is it snow yeah i think it gets frosty no so sometime between january and maybe like march i don't know no one knows [Music] here's some water buffalo poop well the 30 minute drive out to the eagle lodge from the main road was beautiful in fact partly because it was in the shade my brain is just boiled right now but i had 30 minutes to think about what we're gonna do if this ecolodge doesn't even exist here because it was so rural like so random so empty even for us to be driving out here well it's still just this hut building there are scooters here that's a good sign but then there's we're just in the middle of the jungle the river there were some piglets i saw a dog hopefully there's buildings over there this is how we're getting to reception this is scary walking on it much less driving the bikes oh my god no you got it it can't even go there's no wall i know you got long feet your long legs you got this i think it's too heavy with a backpack never done that before to go to a hotel they just went outside for two seconds he said oh and then they came in and grabbed the camera and we had like this rule like i don't want to know like don't just don't tell me so i'll see this later editing it's our old friend from the hike in the jungle with the caves we were wishing for a break from the sun and the hot weather and lo and behold we got our wish we got our wish this little ghost oh goodbye my spider friends um yeah tim is definitely driving the bridge because this is scary enough just to walk on not to mention all these wood boards shake and modulate as you walk on them i don't know if tim already said this the concern is not like oh we're going to get a little wet today big deal the concern is the road conditions and being safe on the bikes [Music] call it off let it go for nothing [Music] even when it's raining here though it just like sets the mood for all this stuff so i'm more than willing to be a little wet a little uncomfortable for views like this it's just insane [Music] [Applause] [Music] tell me how we lucked out and it's dry well it's not raining [Music] so we're taking advantage of the dryness to cool off a little bit just three coats when it's 95 degrees [Music] this is the theme of the day off on off on well we are in a cloud so wait you have to go in there and get it just get it yeah you just call me finney two coats it's the dumbest nickname ever dumbest outfit ever okay we're done let's go look tell me how pretty this is real quick come here you didn't even get the show that's pretty this is pretty that's pretty this is pretty i'll put some drone footage that's pretty waterfall [Music] so what happens a lot is i'll ride ahead and set up a shot and then finial ride by just to get something a little bit more cinematic and interesting than my stupid uh chesty footage what's happened though over the course of the day is she's cornered more and more whoa big landslide anyways she has gotten so much faster in the corner uh i'm not great at cornering to begin with even so i have more experience but it's been funny watching how much better she gets day to day good job minnie we made it we're dry and at the eco lodge [Music] i feel like we're just starting what we came here to do [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's now getting more popular to come to this hajiang region take a bus up from hanoi and do the kind of like three to five day route here and i can just see this maybe becoming a dangerous issue [Music] we're in city and finally heading north like this is where most people kick off this whole loop and we're here after three days of driving so we're finally starting the real trip now [Music] [Music] so here's like big trucks like this heading down the mountain here's another one you know whipping around the turns and stuff so you only have maybe like five kilometers of flat and now you're heading right up enjoy this drone shut heading up into the mountains i'm was like blowing past beginners who were coming up who are you know like making tweaks on the bike not sure how to shift there's people in shorts and tank tops and like a tank yeah but you have ridden motorcycles for the last 10 years it's still gonna hurt just as much when i go sideways or fall off the cliff of the mountain what's the point of me saying the point is it's a hell of a learning curve to start here so before you head up the mountain take a couple laps around town figure out where the brakes are how to shift up how to shift down and what you're going to do when there's a truck coming towards you and there's no road yeah and you are going on a 10 incline uphill in second gear and you're winding around and like look at this guy blowing around the bikes here and then he'll whip around the turn and then you're kind of like honking to make sure that you know you don't collide head-on with him coming around the turn that's just our comments if you're a tourist here if you're vietnamese you can probably do this drive without flip-flops and with three kids on the back of the scooter no problem we also left this morning next to a group of kind of like huge burly aussie guys who are all on um they're on like big like dirt bike looking thing guards on their back they were in full protection huge helmets that's that's kind of the range of anybody that's on the road local vietnamese carrying rice babies trucks going 50 miles an hour around the turns tourists in tank tops and i feel like we're kind of in the middle ground oh this is right here oh my god wait i gotta go ride that now [Music] [Applause] [Music] well one of the perks of being back into like where people actually are is there's a cafe at the top of this mountain this beautiful view having a cold mango smoothie it's not what we expected much different than the past few days this is so nice all of that is out there i cannot believe that this is here so this must be i don't know based on all the tourism that's been coming here recently and just plan on stopping you're gonna stop here if you come up here it's just but this is just like such a new area that people have only been starting to come to for the past few years and it's interesting to see how these things change over time i mean in a few years if this becomes this huge like photo op where there's like so many tourists a bunch of restaurants all here like right now it's just this little tiny cafe that was probably a street stall a few years ago that's now turned into this it's just interesting to see like how tourism changes areas it's funny just talking to the people at the cafe here we were talking about our gear earlier and i was saying i was so jealous they all look so comfortable because they're not so hot and then they were saying they're jealous because we look so protected so you know it's like give and take of what you want to do when sit and sweat or you want to be protected i don't think anyone's happy with what they've got [Music] this has been just a great day this is the best day so far 100 probably why it's the most popular route [Music] [Applause] where are we we're at the most expensive hotel in this city because we're just rolling in it one of the upgraded double deluxe at 15 us dollars i think you can get a room here for 11 and there's another place in town but it had 24-hour karaoke and i was thinking that was not a great place for us to rest uh right now we're looking for food so we found a place to eat we're at yummy and at yummy it's more of like a shake place like tea and snacks and stuff so we can navigate that menu pretty well all the juices and stuff but for our food so we're having flap food and i think we're gonna go with the sweet potato the sweet potato shakes cheese um i think we'll try [Music] dried chicken and then i really want some of the mango beans oh beans mango beans see that sounds good i'm laughing because tim was just talking about surprises fried them [Music] it's a hot deal on friday if you buy five you can get one free so but if you buy ten you get two free which is a good deal too right it's actually the same deal just even depends how hungry you are for him we need to google translate and see what the name is our jokes are stupid obviously translating but what isn't stupid enough look at those internet speeds [Music] we have booked very expensive airbnbs that would be lucky to have a temp on this speed we're just at yummy this is ridiculous it's more of the rule than the exception right it's like always fast [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] this is it today's day this is what it's all been about we packed up this morning and we're heading for the my paw pat probably not pronouncing that correctly everything's going great though and there's literally nothing we're not prepared for [Music] wow but it's a good drive [Music] well well well we were making fun of ourselves a few days ago for over packing and bringing warm clothes and now we keep pulling over to put on more clothes because it's chilly up here i lived in colorado in the mountains for like four months yet i always forget that just because it's dry at the base of the mountain doesn't mean it's dry at the top [Music] uh man all of a sudden with the difference in the trees and everything like if the road was a little wider you would think you're in the pacific northwest or something where did we just drive to we're so far north now they're not even growing rice anymore they're growing corn this is crazy like i don't know we just went to well i was gonna say new zealand but this is unlike any place we've ever been it's like uh the pharaoh islands or something this is crazy how about northern scotland in november yeah it would have to be 50 degrees colder though we're enjoying the clouds i'm sorry we keep talking about weather but that's like such an element to the drive and it's just fluctuating every 15 minutes so we appreciate you appreciating this the most plus like i really like the kind of mythical mood will you call it hauntingly beautiful hauntingly well haunting is me going up the 12 grade with trucks coming down that's the haunting part it's mythically beautiful how about that another one of allison's ideas we are here at the historic site there's bathrooms here you look like a terminator right now you're all in black do i look like tomb raider no why would that make sense i don't know i've never seen that movie you look like a turkey do i look like this other thing no you look like a germany there was a new trailer for a terminator movie that just came out and i tried to talk to allison about sarah connor and she had no idea who that was [Music] [Music] [Music] we have amateur videographer helping out while we have lunch thank you thank you very much let's show this egg coffee this here oh egg coffee and we've got a camera crew filming it very good in english you got it exactly is this well that's hot water to keep it warm coffee with an egg in it very good good now we've moved on to something a little bit more advanced that looks good oh the chesty yeah okay here yep okay okay okay [Laughter] thank you you're doing a great job [Music] wait this is stupid all the batteries there you go go nuts here take the whole bag take the whole bag here take the whole bag take it that's all you all of those good bad news i may have given your gummies away if you're ever here this place excellent food excellent excellent food really cute family obviously [Music] so [Music] oh [Music] oh ciao wow it's so cool up there too oh go up here and go oh my gosh are you kidding and then go zoom all the way down wait go all the way back up and river crazy and just those babies all playing in the road just highway babies oh they have a baby friend over there making noises a wild highway baby [Laughter] nature you're with the wild highway [Music] wow this is fun oh [Music] this highway baby we better get out of here before there's too many of us there's a gang of highway babies coming to attack careful babies careful on the turns babies [Music] we're in a different part of vietnam now just everything looks different little kids are waving again which i know that sounds stupid but that's so fun excited to see something completely different than what we saw on our first trip what a day oh yeah and this is where we're staying i think they turn on the hot water or something yeah the damn cute baby this is your hobbit hole this is my hobbit hole i started to make it cozy first i got connected to the internet and i would like to tell you that um whoa after i got connected to the internet i organized my room oh here's a little friend he wants to see the screen i'm at the back [Applause] and um i hung up some clothes on these hooks and there's a little spot right there for my backpack a little spot right here for my shoes remember how last night we were rolling in it and we booked the hotel for fifteen dollars this hotel is eight dollars a pod so we went really big and we got two pods this was the nicest accommodations we could find in town yeah i'm stoked your pod looks much nicer okay this is yes let's go see your pad well like just how you're just how it's like flaps in yours yeah we have so much shared stuff we're gonna be going between pods and we're not next door i think whoever gets put in seven is gonna get to know us pretty well yeah so yours is very well lit and like you're like letting the light in and it's organized yeah because you know i like it nice in here mine is like a computer charging that sounds good oh i want that let's see welcome to tim's pod oh no there's just crap everywhere oh no [Music] so [Music] it's calling me [Music] fresh out of the hobbit holes we start another day what day no idea maybe five or so we're leaving the loop now and we're going back kind of off into rural territory it was really fun to see people along the way you're stopping all the viewpoints there's other backpackers you know you're having breakfast with people and like seeing other people on the road i think today we likely leave that because a lot of people now complete the loop and go back to hajjong we're heading over east to cal bang for your entertainment this morning we're gonna watch allison finney get her scooter off the center stand this is like a culmination of your nightmares why is it so scary it's too heavy i can't like you have to like rock it you always like crash into nothing in front of you so you probably hit the wall here [Music] [Music] shadow box can you tell it's been too long it's been too long [Music] [Music] five minutes into the ride we already need to dress differently than when we left you just like you leave the towns that are down in the valleys and then you come over the mountains and the weather is just so different but i mean like it's only been six minutes uh the rainy pants they're awesome you don't wear them all the time but when you need them they're your best friend you need uh this on i'm going to put that one oh i think he was there returning to each other that makes sense [Music] that's better that way careful [Music] man today is beautiful but now that we're a few hours into the ride i mean there's so many rough patches through here i can understand if people aren't that keen to want to do this um luckily we're not that heavy and on nice bikes but if you were on some worn out like honda wind knockoff this would be rattling your teeth most of the day amiga [Music] [Music] he's calling me look at this little tunnel dodger look at her go look at her look at her you're my little puddle dodger she's calling me [Music] and avoided four trucks going through those little like indigenous towns yeah it was incredible and then just seeing like the signs to the i was assuming everybody was mum but i think it's all these different groups i think so too it was like the you know district for these people and those people and so many babies again today so many little babies yeah that was a meditative day it's nice i like just sitting me and finney we uh we booked separate rooms again here and the staff thought that was so funny oh oh peeking oh i can go for a tour by myself up here oh a little bit better than the dungeon oh there's the river view let's see plastic plastic garbage beautiful shame on you comcast you dirty bastards shame on you [Music] i'm just waiting for my favorite show this morning allison finney gets off the center stand what do i do getting off the center stand whoa like a pro careful [Music] well we elected to take the scenic way to kaepeng and i think that was a really good choice as long as these roads stay decent i mean this is unlike whatever we've seen before look at these cutbacks ahead of us i hope the gopro is doing a good job of showing these oh my god what a road what a road oh i was pointing to the cave over there yeah i know i thought you were gonna stop to film we just passed this huge cave and just in the middle of no there's nothing around like it's a huge it's a huge cave i'm like oh my god it's gonna take me there i'm thinking about how to best film the cutback should i just like go pro chesty and fast forward through it or that looks this is this is so epic i don't even know how to capture it it's too epic and there's just no one here well there's those pair of jeans well of course there's a little garbage yeah wow that is the most i'm showing like the most boring part it's like that's the most vertical switchback i've ever seen is it worth sending the drone up yeah okay i mean maybe you could even just like have it hover as we ride up i think i think that's the move insane can you ride my bike so i don't have to leave the remote down here and come get it can i learn how to drive stick shift clutch motorcycle in five minutes to ride up the steepest mountain i've ever seen um yeah tim that sounds like a practical idea oh if anything happens the nearest you know hospital is well we wouldn't even try [Music] [Music] me holy [ __ ] what are you doing you're flying flying because tim and i always argue about the shot and wait we never argue remember we never argue about anything and was like okay now like turn this way go over here and like photography is subjective so then we have to keep like he's like oh that's not what like i saw and i'm like yeah okay you do yours and then i'll do mine and it's called working together arguing together you're doing a good job though look at you [Music] [Music] bring him home i do the fun part land it i don't know if i've said this but one of the main problems on the motorcycle trip is there are so many beautiful places to stop that you're stopping all the time it's hard to cover any distance so after that big drone and we had a photo shoot out there no stopping one hour no matter how beautiful it gets close your eyes we've probably done 20 kilometers in two hours that sounds about right no beauty eyes shut let's go [Music] on our last trip we pulled aside when we got really close to the lao border because we thought that was neat this time we're so far north we're right next to china and that's it maybe not that bad but maybe just over that we're like so close to the border look at this no it's it's that because it's only like wait so that's that's china and then this is yeah this is us here's the border and yeah like it's it's that mountain i promise because there's no road or anything in between it's crazy hey china hug in the border i don't see anybody waving back no one's over there lonely mountains and ducks and some ducks at that house right there and a rooster maybe chinese china okay back on the road oh no we're never gonna get to kao bang oh my god are you i'm gonna start crying he's got water you probably shouldn't i don't know [Music] [Music] i'm worried about what just being nice to them in the road you want them to be scared of the road right okay they have to go see their mom now oh my god all right let's do it they're adorable they're just puppies they're having fun they're exploring they're live they're not lost they're going to see their mom is that mom calling yeah that's mom it's okay bye puppies buy china vietnam puppies [Music] we'll see pepper in two weeks good job [Music] no no no [Music] i'm not i'm not so we're obviously not going this way they probably laughed because we drove down here [Music] we're not just like going out of our way to try to get like ridiculous footage this is just the main route this is just how you go from point a to point b you figure it out as you go and sometimes you make locals day when you go the wrong way i'm like idiots i've never been here before though so [Music] look at us we're on a real road again it has things like lanes and a center line that's exciting right now only 30 minutes up from kao bang we're ready to get there do you know where we're going whoa how did you get us here are you just a local he's getting dropped at the door all the mud all the mess inside i took off three coats and one pair of pants now i need to take off my second pair of pants but i'm not gonna do that on the camera oh it's clean look it's clean oh a bathtub over uh halfway through our trip here one of the things we have to do is get the oil change you should tighten the chain on the bikes it's a nice thing renting from ticket their bikes are really well maintained as opposed to buying i don't know like some more than second-hand bike in one of the backpacker districts they're stuff just in good shape so you don't really have to worry about a breakdown out on the road what you do have to do though is when you're in a major city go to a real honda or yamaha dealership and get it serviced but it's cheap i think total is going to be less than eight dollars per bike for like 10 to chain lubit and changi oil that's easy i'm taking a personal day because for the past two weeks i've been underground and driving through the rain and mud and today is the first day that we have a round trip drive where we're staying at the same hotel for two nights in a row and with that four to five hour round trip drive i decided that i'm just not gonna go see the waterfall today which i am kind of bummed about not to mention all the things like we haven't even planned what we're doing in seoul in korea what we're doing in saigon so you guys are gonna have much more fun with tim so go play with him today what i lack in finn's charm and beauty i promise to make up for and boring flat camera angles and over long monologues so with that in mind i'm going to turn this off get some speed switch the throttle let's get there [Music] so such an unbelievable bummer that the weather is so wet out okay i feel like if i take a wrong turn here i'm gonna end up in china i went too far it's a good thing i turned back all right one two five really i somehow missed the left turn into the waterfall tourist area and almost went to china i'm sure somebody would have stopped me before i got too far it's 50 000 dong for a ride out here i guess i'm getting a private ride [Music] i know i hired a boat to take us out are you ready here's the waterfall [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] you don't want to deal with i guess tourist crowds when it's not raining down at the main waterfall entrance there is this pagoda at the top of the hill nearby you can look it's right off the main road i didn't see any signs like pointing towards pagoda or hey better preview up here so uh this is what it looks like up here absolutely incredible and you know what i think it's better than being right in front of the waterfall tim is back safe we thought it might be fun to take you into town for dinner to see what it's like when two people ride on one motorbike in vietnam in the rain here we go if you watched our first season you already know this trick but this is the trick everyone hides under the poncho i had to stick my head out because it's so crowded on the streets i didn't know if my arm extended was going to get hit by anything so i gotta look but uh since it's raining anybody on the bike let's get back inside so we're gonna just sit here and gorge for wow for a really long time now we're just window shopping along the way home maybe tim will get me a whole hello kitty cake i don't know look at the fruit [Music] this is all the aftermath of yesterday's expedition in the rain but i'm trying it's the beginning of tomorrow and we have to leave i don't want oh no no no we have two days driving back to hanoi from cowbank [Music] [Music] so [Music] you may have noticed through several of our vietnam videos that we are a little more geared up than almost everybody we're driving by and that's true because safety first so the first thing if you're contemplating coming to vietnam doing a motorbike trip over here no matter how long you've been riding a motorcycle you have not been riding a motorcycle as long and as with much experience as the people who live here so a little more about the safety gear that we're wearing on this trip and we're gonna go boots up here i brought leather boots that cover my ankles if you ever go off of a bike you sure are going to want something on your feet besides sandals even though like everybody we've ridden past is just in sandals sometimes bare feet i'm not as good of a rider as them for pants i have ugly brothers pants they are kevlar reinforced in all the spots it would hit if you actually slid out there's also the option to slide plastic armor in both the knees and the hips we're riding pretty slow here if you did slide out it'd be like sliding out on a mountain bike at a top speed so i'm not too worried about heavy impact or anything but it will save raspberries in case you low side your motorcycle on some gravel and that's worth wearing those pants to begin with up top most of the time not all the time i have my leather jacket on unless it's way too hot again i don't have armor in any of this this is custom made in hoi on by the way yeah right here uh but it's gonna save road rash and that sort of thing and then finally up top and i think most important probably most relevant if you're coming over here we brought our own full face helmets we had a hell of a time trying to find full face helmets especially for a melon my size our first trip three years ago now i know that ticket where we rented our bikes from you can buy them for 35 dollars there and we're gonna put this little infographic up on the screen instead of my stupid face right now but hey if you're gonna crash it's like over 30 percent most likely that you're going to hit right here right in your face and i don't have a lot to lose because i'd probably hit nose first but it makes sense that if you're going to wear a helmet you'd want to cover the place you're most likely to smash up so it's not the most comfortable thing but skip the little bicycle helmet get a full face helmet you can buy them here in vietnam real easy now over to you allison what's up ladies i will say as a beginner rider half of it for me is just feeling protected because that was a big thing when i was driving the first time when it was my very first time on a bike i just felt so unsafe i kept visualizing myself falling so now that i am fully protected i just feel more confident too which is a nice mindset to have and um let's just walk through the same gear like we did with tim because it's helpful just to know what it is first of all at the very least if you are just a backpacker and you're just coming up for the hajjang loop for like three days or so i wouldn't necessarily say that you have to bring all of this specific motorcycle gear just for that trip but definitely bring long pants and some type of arm protection for that trip i've seen too that they sell like pads like elbow pads and knee pads and stuff if you want to buy those just specifically for those few days since this was a little bit of a longer trip for us i and i'm married to tim and there's motorbikes in my future i invested in some motorcycle wear so let's get into the details going from the bottom up these are lems hiking boots they're so super lightweight and they actually are able to kind of roll up in your luggage so these have been awesome for travel and you can see they're pretty beat up from being through the mud but they're super comfortable and i've been getting a lot of compliments on those so that's what they are lems and then these are real motor biking pants because they are kevlar lined which is a protective liner if you are not you know familiar with the motorcycle world but it's just so that you don't get road rash if and when you fall they did come with knee guards but those were too uncomfortable for me riding for a long period of time so they were removable which was great which made these more comfortable it is really hard finding women's pants for more recycling i found they sell but i put those on and they basically just like felt like men's from what i've read online it's really tough for women to find good pants but these are great they're essentially just like leggings so they just fit as leggings would fit they're just really hot anyways i have been really loving wearing synthetic t-shirts every day because they just don't absorb moisture like cotton does and that is a good thing to remember always for travel that these just wear better so i've been wearing those this one's just from old navy you know like five bucks or something and then oh because they have tall even in shirts okay i am wearing a speed society motorcycle jacket i mean this is like if you are just a biker chick which apparently i am uh it is really comfortable i cannot believe how breathable this thing is like really props to them this these are people who have done their research they could invest more time in pants but this thing's awesome it's got zippers for ventilation i have removable shoulder and elbow pads in here like there's actual hard plastic in here right now it also came with back plastic that i just thought was excessive overkill to bring on this next week's trip but that i have at home wherever i have my parents house we don't have a home and i do think the jacket looks nice rocking the all all black biker chick thing and then i also own my own helmet again being married to tim so i just brought the one that i have i do really really like this it's incredibly comfortable and lightweight i remember even just on the last trip having a really heavy helmet on your head all the time just like kills your neck after a while so i haven't been having that with this the visor is everything tim already told you the importance of wearing a full face helmet having a visor in the rain with bugs with all the gravel i don't know honestly like some places we go through there's so many butterflies and we just like keep hitting butterflies whatever obstacle you encounter on the road it is important to have a visor and i like that even better than just throwing on a pair of glasses even though those are fine within here it just blocks the wind the rain all the elements and you can go into your little like uh astronaut space and it's pretty meditative in there it's nice and that's it for women's protective motor recycle gear who are your gloves oh i they only had blue in a size that fit me i'm not loving the whole it's throwing off the ensemble but i was able to pick up these gloves for i don't know maybe five or ten bucks at ticket where we rented the bikes they were selling gloves there so these were helpful to keep my hands warm when it was cold except for the one day they were too cold and tim gave me his glass and they help you grip the handle because you control speed like this and it's just helps you out a little bit because i feel like i would have a callous by now if i didn't have these so and then they have protection on the outside see that you see that too last thing rain protection at ticket or almost like anywhere on the side of the road you can get a poncho for like four or five dollars it's going to keep you dry enough if you're doing a long trip here bring your own rain pants from home bring your own rain jacket you'll stay much drier than just working with the poncho the poncho keeps everything up here dry but your legs and your boots and stuff get so but just plant it's vietnam it's gonna rain you're here for two days it's gonna rain you're here for one day it's gonna rain that's it so some of that stuff you can get here some stuff bring from home if you have a longer trip set up safety first safety first [Applause] [Music] me [Music] wow these roads are nice not that i did but you certainly could get your bike up well north of 100 kilometers an hour safely oh hey look a waterfall this is a nice easy ride i think we kind of need this after so long out being remote [Music] hey since we've spent 10 whole days on these motorbikes i thought it'd be time to talk a little bit about them since we have that experience this right here this is a honda winter 150 why is it a winner it wakes up in the morning and pisses excellent and that helps me out too 150 means it's got a little bit more displacement than allison's motorbike the other major difference is this right here this is a clutch that means it works like a normal motorcycle so you're gonna have one down five up that's right this baby's got six whole speeds to it why no wonder you're so much faster and more engine that's true uh that comes with benefits and drawbacks but i'll talk about that when i get on finney's bike over there the major difference you're gonna notice is she's got a big behind back here this is the only option that comes with bags hard bags saddle bags whatever you want to call them from tigit these things have completely changed our entire trip i thought they were going to be awesome they were even more awesome it's a great waterproof place to store your cameras drone all that stuff you need to get access to all the time without having to pry into here the last trip our motorcycle had a rebar luggage rack and we were always rooting through it to get to our cameras this time all you have to do is use this key thought look i can get to all my stuff these bins are not just awesome for things like electronics that you need access to very important stuff like snacks can go in there only drawback with the bags on the back is driving in the city it is something you need to think about otherwise you're going to take people out or rip uh one of the bags or boxes off the side what i do when i'm driving in the city when i first got it in hanoi was just instead of keeping my legs like it normally would i keep my knees out which sounds really silly but i mean that way you're making sure that you're not trying to squeeze into any spaces that you wouldn't fit with these because they will let you know if you hit them this is a honda blade 110 110 little less power than the hound winner the other major difference is this is a semi-automatic bike which means i don't have a clutch right here there's nothing here but if you're a beginner rider that's going to be awesome for you because look i can come to a full stop in first gear and it won't shut off all i have to do is accelerate again it kind of works like a scooter and then you don't have to work a clutch but you do have to shift so watch this i just go like this i'm in first gear i'm in second gear i didn't use a clutch it's amazing so that might be easier for you if you're a beginner rider the other thing is man if you're trying to use a camera while you're riding something it is so much easier on one of these i would not make fun of the ease of using a scooter we took a scooter with us on our rv trip across america and canada and yeah it's just so much easier to have an entire hand free while you're driving another huge advantage on these they're just so lightweight again if you're not very experienced or anything you don't need a ton of power in fact you can't really get a big bike in vietnam there's some crazy tax thing going on anything over i think 250 cc's somebody will correct me down below i'm sure but like you can't come over here and get a fast street bike you're not going to get a ninja or something like that and also look at these conditions you don't want to drive a street bike you're going through gravel you're going through mud uh you're coming around a corner and stopping all the sun because there's a bunch of buffalo in the road like wait yeah water buffalo you're coming around a corner and there's a bunch of water buffalo in the road you're not going that fast most of the time we went like 35 or 40 kilometers an hour on the highways got up to 60 maybe 70. like you don't need a ton of speed or cc so if it's your first trip coming over to vietnam haven't ridden a bike before the honda blade from tigit is gonna be your go-to they're super safe super easy to operate and just not too much bike for anybody however if you're gonna be two people on one motorcycle we tried to fit two of us on a honda blade and it was just too much we're both really close to six foot uh normal i guess size western people we had a back rack made out of rebar that came off with all of our luggage it was just so much weight every time we hit a bump the suspension just bottomed out and uh it really hurt so you might want to go with something bigger or both people should drive their own bike it's just safer you can stop faster accelerate faster and it's not that hard to learn how to ride a bike here in vietnam phoenix bike is so easy to drive i'm gonna just take this the rest of the way to hanoi so she knows how to drive the clutch on bye guys it's the last day and we need to start it by giving you a little bit of a tour of a vietnamese bed [Music] it's good for the back today is the very last day of the 10-day motorbike trip through northern vietnam [Music] [Music] this is fun this is ridiculous i love it [Music] i'm excited to cross the finish line today i feel like marathoner status when you're just like the final push um this was really hard for me it's time to get on the bikes we got to go to hanoi maybe i'm stalling a hundred more kilometers this is easy we gotta hit the road let's go [Music] look who's right behind me this i don't go over 40 kilometers an hour we're not going 40 kilometers an hour [Music] we're an hour and a half north of hanoi now city driving after being out on the country roads and just whoa we did see one guy tipped over after mass of an accident it's just like it's not as hectic as you think it would be you just kind of go with the flow but after having all the space in the world out in the country it does suck to come in the city to drive around dusty trucks are running you over no bueno [Music] oh yeah she's just been bobbing and weaving through trucks you would think you just go slow and be careful but honestly the best thing to do is just speed past all these people and by people i mean massive massive trucks like this guy yeah you get ahead of them behind you made it across the bridge really really hard driving three years ago you guys went around hanoi with tim today you're gonna go with me our first mission is to find the hotel off we go okay first things first just pull out into traffic that never stops and you just kind of like go and hope for the best but there is no traffic lights and nobody ever stops and then really the goal is just to keep up with tim and again hope for the best i'm making a little dramatic there are traffic lights and i really like the countdown so all the way up there i can see that it was about to turn green and you see how long that you have while it's green i wish we had those in the states that it's helpful if you're bombing towards it before the yellow first intersection rule of thumb as people always go no matter if they have a red so you gotta watch that we've already done 100 kilometers of driving oh god today i got the car goes this guy's coming you just like pick someone in front of you and follow them that's a good rule of thumb watch out ladies so yeah welcome to driving with finn you guys have spent a lot of time with him this whole trip because it is way too hard for me to film and ride it's hard enough just to ride i figured you might want to hear some of the thoughts that go through my head as we've been driving this whole time sometimes the traffic lights are just really hard because everybody stacks up like this and then it's just like a free-for-all when everybody gets going so you're like they're all coming up from behind me tim wants to get over there there he goes i'll follow him and now just like this whole cluster of bikes and cars all at the same time and so now you're just here with everybody i mean like look at him he's all the way up there i'm just going along with traffic he like got through everyone he's exhausting i told you i mean look at i am going at the pace of traffic now i just need to pass 13 vietnamese riders to catch up and meet them back at the next red light okay the motorbike cluster again drop down to the second try to balance wiggle back and forth as you're going really slow on the bike it's really hard you're kind of like on a bicycle the dust has been so bad today it hasn't been so bad this whole trip but that's why you see a lot of people with all the face masks on it's not like you know it's an illness thing it's everybody keeping the dust out of their lungs i kind of wish i had one on right now let's see do i want to go around the bus into this oncoming oh god oh god oh god okay i just i intentionally don't make the stupid decision to keep up with him because it's just it's too much there comes some traffic from the right nobody stops see how like the traffic just enters traffic all the cars are gonna go try to go to the left all the bikes go right you can just kind of weave around and get back over here oh hey look it's tim this is the celebration welcome back to hanoi thanks freaking jesus everyone's got their blinkers on i'd say about 30 of all drivers keep their blinkers on as they go can't believe we're here i'm so ready here comes the meshing and there goes tim off into the missing i don't know which direction we're going and i wish he would put on a signal so i could tell let's see it looks like he's going left or straight yeah he's definitely going left so i will go left too here comes this dude and we're going straight got it tim is doing the hard part because he is doing directions up there on his phone google maps is talking to him through the phone you can kind of hear it over traffic and then he's killed enough to sometimes pick up his phone and look down at it like he's doing right now and he's gonna turn no he's not gonna turn looks like we're gonna turn soon though maybe we missed that one oh this guy's saying stop i don't know if i should stop okay sorry and then we just go over here oh that was fun here at a stop light oh being stopped in the sun is brutal there's no time we must be in the front hey there's some backpackers okay we must be back in the city always careful oncoming traffic as you can see it does not stop everybody everybody has the right to wait more travelers fun careful this guy and this lady everybody's going to merge and nobody stops moving old god ever and then you just go around this bus see you later okay this looks like an absolute cluster up here oh my gosh okay i'm totally gonna lose tim okay let's try to get around this car oh trying to do the pg version of color commentary is a little challenging okay don't hit anybody all right there's timmy there oh i like her outfit yeah girl and then what's kind of hard is you don't want to put your feet down because like someone's just gonna run over my feet like that's part of it or step in this puddle here okay like i don't want this car to run over my foot just what i'm thinking and then it's hard to balance okay now we're just gonna cut across all these people but if you hog with the car then no bike's going to hit a car so that's part of the strategy oh shoot i lost him maybe you guys saw where he went did he go left all right [ __ ] no i totally lost him oh no he's up there yes okay are these two lanes or is this on coming okay sweet despite having been in hanoi like multiple oh god no everyone's gonna go right now oh [ __ ] and then that lady this is so okay this is just so draining like i mean granted the traffic hasn't been like this you know in the mountains and stuff but everything has its own just like stressors and you know tim's been doing a good job showing you like wow this guy is beautiful wow this guy is beautiful maybe now you're getting a little taste of just like this is freaking exhausting stand up my butt is so sore and just soaking wet i'm just i'm just ripped in sweat we're gonna have to peel these clothes off oh here comes the text and there's that guy don't hit that guy right in front of you oh my god apparently we're turning left everybody turning left turning left turn left really slow as long as you don't stop or make sudden movements i think it's okay please don't go please don't go please don't go oh oh god oh here they come here they come here they come all right go ahead ladies you've got i got you but not all of you okay oh here's a bus and there's a car and here's these people all right so what is this a roundabout two roundabouts it doesn't matter you just keep going do not stop okay the honking here you kind of do to not um to like let people know where you are which i kind of like better than somebody hitting you that's for sure okay [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] all right timmy are we going right here baby i mean look at this intersection i mean there's there's 12 ways to choose from but are we going left that's a train track so it's probably not okay so the left you just like you go through everyone okay and then here all these deals are coming so i'm gonna go behind them and in front of this guy and then behind okay yeah i mean nailed it like that is the way that you do it oh i'm starting to recognize this yes we're here we're here over here we're here we're going back to a hotel that we already stayed at before and it's right here i'm done okay i do have to make go back to the return but nailed it we are here they are burning money she's literally burning what looks like american dollars in that bin good job good job you know what's hard google maps on a motorcycle that's what i'm saying um if you've ever been contemplating a motorbike trip in vietnam there's different ways to do it one of the very best parts about riding a bike in vietnam to me is just how focused you are on the road even with some experience um you just you don't know what's around the next event and that's when you're just so focused on the road so focused on like all the stimuli that's hitting you you just get lost in the ride and that's my favorite like experience to have on a motorcycle it's just not the same at home i have a bike back in the states if you just you don't need that level of focus it's kind of boring you know the way like around your town or wherever you're riding it's really hard to like hit that same level and just be on not knowing the roads like just all the towns are different you're like looking in shops as you're driving by you're like what are those guys doing what are they doing on that farm field it's just so interesting yeah every day is definitely different even though it's just like oh vietnam motorbike no no it's like every 100 kilometers sure it's so different yeah yeah and your brains just like firing at full capacity the whole time so it's addictive and uh i guess my major thought after leaving vietnam is like how much more there is to explore we've done two motorbike trips there's still areas we haven't visited and like what about doing this sort of trip in other countries i know that it might not be in some people's uh well you know what no but like that i think that we probably are a good representation if you're watching this to try to plan for your trip i think the two of us represent two different people which granted causes um like a little bit of controversy between the two of us trying to find the balance of what's the right for two people traveling together if i was planning this trip for just myself what would have been i mean hindsight what would have been better for me is it's really popular to take the bus from hanoi up to hajon rent the motorbike there and then you complete the maybe like two or no three would be the minimum day three to five day loop that was the most beautiful drives we were doing without being super like dangerous roads like the sapa to hajjang was really really challenging and very rural very real so it took us maybe i think it was 10 yeah it was 10 days total and that was too much for me the three to five day hajjang loop would have been a better trip for me to appreciate it more not like okay i like physically have to get through this day and sometimes we're concerned of how some of how we communicate comes across on camera because we're weary not to make sure that i don't know like if i'm sounding like i'm complaining or something but also the point of our entire channel is to go behind just the instagram like oh wow what they're doing is so pretty and all that and like we're getting a lot of that on instagram right now but when people watch this later on youtube the point is to be like okay these are also the challenges on the road this is how we feel and so that's how i felt a lot of the time so it was almost like a too long of a trip for me and i don't think it was long enough for you right you're on the other side of the spectrum like the day i went to the waterfall it poured the entire day that might be miserable for other people i was grinning like an idiot the only negative on the day is that i had to worry about the cameras getting too wet i didn't want to break anything but like it just the drive the uh how hard it is to travel sometimes like that is the stuff i love and that's when it comes alive for me but we're also coming off of the cave trip which was also really really challenging with only one down day in between so i guess like maybe sapa in the pool would have been done but you know it's just like that you don't want to hit that travel burnout stage because it's claustrophobic and you're in the middle of wherever you are and it's hard to recover in like a budget hotel room with the bed inevitably if somebody feels that finn is being overly negative about the experience i challenge you to come travel with me for this long and keep up with the pace and keep a smile on your face right no and it wasn't a negative experience i mean like obviously the stuff i mean it was so insanely beautiful i mean it's starting to cry or something like i don't think that almost anywhere we were that whole first trip was as beautiful as even just one day up here in the north it was beyond expectations epically savagely it's like you're really interested through like movie sets and everything it's it's incredible it was incredible and now that we're closer to hanoi i'm remembering more of the other trip it's just more flat you're going through towns which is interesting but it all kind of meshes together that was every single day was different and epic in its own way different types of mountain different types of crops different types of typography topography different different cultures up there there's so many indigenous groups that all speak different languages apart from vietnamese and they all have their own like way of life and yeah it was i mean that piece was amazing it's time to get on the bikes we got to go to hanoi maybe i'm stalling 100 more kilometers that's easy 100 more kilometers um so that's the wrap-up um if you've ever been contemplating a motorbike trip in vietnam there's different ways to do it absolutely do it it remains my number one thing i've ever done in my life it's my favorite place to travel just yeah it sticks with you [Music] we're looking at north korea [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: TIM and FIN

Views: 1,133,981

Keywords: ha giang loop, northern vietnam, ha giang vietnam, ha giang motorbike, sapa vietnam, ha giang northern loop, ha giang loop vietnam, ha giang motorbike loop, vietnam motorbike trip, ha giang loop motorbike, northern vietnam travel, northern vietnam motorbike loop, ha giang loop vietnam map, ha giang loop vietnam scooter, northern vietnam motorbike documentary, tim and fin ha giang, motorbike, motorbike videos, motorcycle adventure documentary, motorbike travel documentary

Id: k39wJEHnyec

Length: 117min 31sec (7051 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 25 2020