VIETNAM | Solo Backpacking | Ep2: Hoi An to Phong Nha

I'm currently spending six weeks solo backpacking through Vietnam you can't help Amelie fall in love for this place sure starting in Saigon I'm travelling by bus train boat plane and bike finishing up at [ __ ] Anne in very more the interesting to see what is that you'd like to see if it's worth the day out or whether it's just a picture so let's go find out now it sounds like we're going to a rave you go around a corner open so whoa Isis all person so at the start of the high van pass if we're going at these views for the next hour it's gonna be either sick why something from a different world like a different planet it's unreal [Music] my trip began two weeks ago spending a few nights checking out the various tourist highlights around Ho Chi Minh City then I made my way up to the beautiful town of dalits Aki shed before hiring out a bike and riding through to Central Highlands if Dani who I made friends with at the hostel the sooners down he speaks Vietnamese are like wow they love it they look Mexican arriving in that trang i didn't think much of the town so i head up to keen on but i was unfortunately a bit under the weather so i rested up so i could properly enjoy the next leg of my trip [Music] I got up at 5 in the morning to get the bus from keen on up to oh yeah so it's 8:45 good morning just gonna stomp on the bus Jenny as a wedding dog and that blast of music out like so baby [Music] it's a five-hour journey up to Highland and I'll be meeting up with Danny + Emmanuel who I met in Saigon and although our schedules hadn't aligned during a day we'd been meeting up for beers at most of the stops on my trip so far [Music] all right baby I'm feeling bad now crushed hey holds nearly gone so I'm doing good the manuals been the walls falling off his bike head down Asians can't sculpt as always well yeah I'm gonna have a little explore around a town it's supposed to be really beautiful town we're looking for this [Music] it's like I'm back in Morocco when they just jump on here what's that the most touristic whoever [Music] Wow bio reporter Haiyan used to be a major port city for the trade moved up to the nearby town of the Nang at the start of the 19th century the old town preserves its incredible melting pot history with the colorful French colonial buildings Chinese temples and the iconic japanese covered bridge hoi an center became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999 in its primary business now being tourism okay it's officially the most pretty town in Vietnam it is wins absolutely wins oh it is busy and touristy but you can't help immediately fall in love for this place just like it's got such a nice charm to it it's so beautiful and I can't wait to see it at night as well as all these lanterns lit up well yeah we're spending the afternoon actually this exploring a town started this little cafe the relaxed stir it is weird okay notice I don't drink coffee but I do like egg so 50-50 chance I like this now it's a coffee I skeletal building in the balconies randomly reminds me of the oles yeah [Music] everybody's pissed by buck loud somewhere so last year traveled rounds quite a few countries that are predominately Muslim so nice to be able to just walk around with a beer cheers guys cheers yeah [Music] just at the fish market take a dive watch what you're standing in for they have this huge party on huh finally for Chinese all the men and women we're all drinking together Danny bought the faux metal jacket singlet and I was like I want one too and then I was gonna get that but then I also saw Yoda you're gonna have to get that - yo - yo you may want to get one size up though it'll probably strengthen it how much for - for toggling okay yeah deal yeah yeah yeah okay don't go away so ya want some badass t-shirts in hoi an come to this shop very nice shot a new t-shirt been a fun afternoon exploring if I am caught - singlets - t-shirts and two beers so far yeah I love this town these giant model boats and everything a miss Vietnam Top Gear special I'm not riding with one of them on my bike this only way now we're like a two-minute walk from the japanese bridge but just so back away from the main street and then you know still t-shirt shops over there but it's like at a local joint in the corner that we'd swap paths again once again the blessing of having dining with you is you can just translate the water stuff for you remind you of this what is it it's like a rice noodle thing and then cool it is what vegetables with me we did a tour but they say hey [Music] [Laughter] [Music] to get the number to be known let me play sing it I imagine so I'll let you go from one extreme to the other today eating it as local Vietnamese place just play around the corner for the busy brows and now we've come to nice nice type of proper cool fight amazing music playing start our horse guitar to see the sunset always likes like to try to go [Music] well it's nighttime Latins on and it's just so beautiful if I think it's just only the first day but already my favorite place to be in them these lanterns were introduced by Chinese immigrants at the end of the 16th century when hoi an was a bustling commercial court exchanging goods with merchant ships from Asia and Europe other than their practical uses the lanterns were away for the Chinese to pay homage to their motherland they're made from bamboo and silk and as self had become one appliance top commodities the lanterns grew in popularity and so the rest of the community began to hang lanterns as well for decoration and also in the hope of bringing good luck and a sense of coziness into the town [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is a really nice vibe to the town that you like it's it's busy but it still feels calm and it still feels chilled out so you could easily spend on leaving just wandering around the streets just soaking it all in [Music] we come to the night market by the river get some food tons of different food I love Street food and Asia is just the best I mean it's probably the cheapest one will get because we're in a very serious spot this freshly cooked meat when they feel a bit peckish it hits the spot absolutely hits the spot sitting down on the small zucchini very spicy I put too much on my bun me and then a pancake Nutella [Music] yes I'm a private room the hostel it's only like 13 pounds I don't know sixteen seventeen dollars a night for private room and it got so much on at this hostel like it's really well organized like they'll have lots of free different day activities and also help you book all the actives you want to pay for would transport they got parties every night so I mean your name my name Harry alright anything you want notes you man you got it so this morning I'm gonna do this basketball experience miles who I met in that trying you recommended it so should be a good laugh only takes like an hour and a half doing the journey there and back and stuff okay okay at some and character no I'm sorry have a little ride around maybe do a bit of fishing but padding ourselves [Music] [Applause] [Music] I think about to have got fishing some crab fishing just forget it a little wattage let's see what we can get paint crabby crabby put the bait right by her are they always ran back inside crab fishing failed so far Oh three crabs down Wow Wow [Music] so we've done off fishing we've spun around a bit but it now sounds like we're going to a rave it's only like 11:00 a.m. but get the party started I didn't want to do the spinny thing the boat cuz any kind of ride you just drama like that just makes me want to throw up you know I love a good roller coaster but spinning stuff no how do you feel [Music] why are you from UK are UK yeah I was good clean fun nice relaxing ride around thank you very much after a fun morning with a basket boat experience I head back into town and hide out a bicycle from the hostel to go explore one of the nearby villages all right so I've got myself a bicycle for the afternoon elite a basket the front feels very weird you know fit on the motorbike and a scooter a lot this trip you know the bike like a normal bicycle it's like what you mean you have to pedal so yeah well the only silver I'm gonna go explore am Kim Island just across the bridge from the main minutes out yeah you know me get on a tour the hostel whatever but is for the export myself and see what I find [Music] let's say maybe looking good to have a guy just explain what I'm seeing this it's a guy yep it's a village this where people live beautiful to say about it though wait max he's going away from this with a busy part sound I have a little ride around it's funny no kiss like I love horns death but there's also plenty of tourists there but like anywhere in the world he's for tiny bit further and it's just normal people going about their lives yeah it's worth doing if you know my aunt just come to camp Kim have a cycle round see this of the more of day to day kind of rural life find little beautiful spots like this [Music] back in town Danny and I had signed up for an evening Street food tour with the hostile by the first stop of the street food is a restaurant get this stuff before the white paper you have to massage it most people will be ashamed of my rollin skills better rolling we're doing a street food so organized by the hostel Emma basically it's a really good way if you've come back packing of Vietnam and you want to track the local food but don't really know how to go about doing it signing up for a tour like this is a really good idea I've been fortunate in this trip so try lots of other foods with the help of Danny for other people's you might not know what to order what means what so this kind of thing is really helpful anyway today we're gonna head to Danang go up the Barna hills to the Golden Bridge which is sort of a place it's kind of exploded on Instagram the last couple of years so be interesting to see what it's actually like to see if it's worth the day out worth the cost the ticket going up there or whether it's just a picture so let's go find out hiring out a scooter from the hostel it was just over an hour's ride to the bar now Hills this place feels like a theme park us because it is a theme park it feels like what does it feel like we're in Vietnam it's all modern of Grand View and it's kind of strange doing here she takes a Vietnam literally cheaters riding through fields with real water buffaloes and we paid money to come to a place without fake ones this is so weird [Music] Oh Joey 753 I was in for a ticket which is like 30 US dollars which it normalize nothing in Vietnamese life but just feels like a [ __ ] outta money I would just be a massive total creep so we got to ourselves [Music] - I wanted to let [Music] the cable car ride is 5.8 kilometers long and holds the record for the longest non-stop a single track cable car in the world towering high above the lush green forest below it climbs up to a height of nearly 1500 meters above sea level ever since I was like a two-year-old kid gone on family holidays in Switzerland have just absolutely loved cable cars so going on this was something pretty special [Music] ready go seven walking inside Instagram de Scottie is pretty impressive fetch a minute I mean mi call a cynical Instagram jokes that's really cool in you here [Music] the concept of the bridge was to have two giant godlike hands bursting out from the hills made from fiberglass these hands support a golden thread of a bridge to guide people through nature as they walk above the treetops and the legend of his construction dates all the way back to 2017 a little travel hack you can keep the platform or just stand on the flowerbed script right beside all right good let's go something quite figured this place out it's like walking around a theme park without any rides let's show ya [Music] so the plan is we get in the cable car to another part of the park where there might actually be a ride there's a lot of construction going on down here where maybe they'll build rights or more pics I don't know yeah the alignment what's the only thing to do it's Europe these all of Europe is exactly like this Israel it's kinda like they wanted to do their own Harry Potter world we couldn't get the rights they just made it slightly different [Music] [Music] so I think the thing to understand about the barn are Hills is Bonner Hills isn't aimed at Western tourists it's for Asian tourists really because there'll be plenty of Asian tourists there who may have never been to Europe or may never even get to go to Europe I don't know so for them it's like a cool fairy tale fake version of Europe but for us Western tourists you know I've come to Vietnam to see Vietnam not to see a fake version of Europe so if you spent the whole time wandering around going what then what the hell is this place what am I doing here [Music] I mean I admire it's a piece of construction like the cable cars incredible and the whole huge fairy tale village they've built on top of the mountain but it's just not actually that much to do there it's like mostly overpriced restaurants and cafes so I didn't take too long before we got the cable car back down you know like I said the cable car ride was epic it was beautiful and gone of that rainforest especially in the route down of the waterfalls just looked incredible so that was good [Music] [Applause] [Music] and the Golden Bridge is impressive but there's so much better things you do your time and money wash to here so you know personally I'd skip it it was our last day in high yeah before we hit the road again so we decided just to have a chill day on the beach yeah I've really enjoyed how you and really enjoyed it it's such a beautiful town and there's so much to do but we've also had just so many fun evenings here as well like at the hostel bar is a really great crowd and I got something on every night I mean we even went to a neon party horn night which was a bit of a throwback to sort of backpacking Thailand when I was younger although I much preferred the dive bar in town because I had like a live band and a pool table and that was much more my scene but yeah we had some really good time some heavy heavy nights had some really good times and now heading on to the town of way and to get there we're going to be biking along the hi van pass which was made popular in the Top Gear Vietnam special and so now in Vietnam we just gets referred to as a Top Gear challenge that's how they try and sell it to everyone so you pay your money and hire out a bike and drive it one way and they'll take it back for you so that's what we're going to be doing today nice things is alright like you have to bring it back they transport your back on your bike which is great except I left my GoPro in that bag simply very hard to film this motorcycle challenge as we go so basically there are means is we're gonna film our own there's a Top Gear but with lower production values hoping less casual racism first stops going to the marble mountain instead the road the marble mountains are a cluster of five marble and limestone hills there are about a half hour drive from oh yeah Danny and I were joined by Chris from the UK we met on the beach yesterday and we're gonna explore what's called the water Mountain as each mountain is named after the five elements we follow science [Music] so cool so pretty rowdy and they've caught it all out of the mountain which is really impressive yeah yeah just take my backpack off you skinny [Music] I made it to itself that's one hell of a view so hands back that way - a live show amazing view all around rocks is so slippy another huge cave right here there are several Buddhist and Hindu grottoes within the marble mountains the centuries feature statues as well as relief depictions of religious scenes carved out of the marble [Music] I figure in the main bit the cave then you go around the corner it opens up whoa okay Isis all person [Music] the library's coming through the Telegraph [Music] climbing up to the highest peak yeah very very steep stairs [Music] mate that's some of the highest peak well how hard look [Music] this has been awesome but we're going to make a move get on with our top gear challenge those hills over there that's actually where we're gonna be driving around all right so at the start of the high van pass it's the road here this is what when we drive the pub you see the train going down there as well just gorgeous beaches bro kind of weaves along beside the coast man it's so so beautiful when we're just literally just at the start of it and if we're getting at these views for the next hour it's gonna be sick [Music] I just made another quick stuff all along the roads you always a little cafes you can stop up with viewpoints sound drinks even beer which obviously don't want to drink yeah the views are just incredible it's such a nice Drive whining Alana go see why it's a popular route [Applause] [Music] we just come over the hill and so that way the views are just insane basically stopping every like two minutes to take it in and have a look take some pictures that's what we're right toward down there all right I mean people said Ivan it's good yeah never has to be it's spectacular all right let's go [Music] [Applause] [Music] after we'd finished the pass we still had about an hour and a half's worth of riding to reach way [Applause] all right I've made its away I've got a couple of nights in way I'm gonna keep it simple on the side it wasn't like it'll City torn and I'm gonna towards the dams eases keep a simple Huff's come here around I'm doing myself feel a bit lazy after that long drive but yeah yeah awesome day of riding a bit tired let's go settling enjoy wave a couple days just coming to town and get some much needed food and Emmanuelle's back good to see you [Music] [Applause] the city tour I'd sign up for was gonna take us to the main sites of way including the Citadel as well as some of the tombs of the old Emperor's I was being lazy to sign up for city tour I wanna do it myself and it's already turned into a bit of a [ __ ] the day tour doesn't include the entrance fees for any of the sites we're visiting which is fine except a lot of other people in the group weren't told this when they booked the tour which led to a lot of arguments kicking off from the word go this one is towards you arrive you like very mistake but better make the most of it hopefully it's all uphill from here the first stop was a 19th century Citadel quite was the imperial capital of Vietnam during the Noyan dynasty from 1802 to 1945 and within the Citadel is the Imperial City where the Emperor lived and worked based the city was built to protect the religious and political activities of the region and so yeah yeah murrow's house here and obviously lot the place got damaged during the Vietnam War or the American wars they call it here Karam eyes we the Forbidden City in Beijing this is a lot less people [Music] next up we went on a quick Dragon Boat River cruise dropping us off at the pagoda of the celestial lady all right so this pagoda is the oldest pagoda in the city and its built in 1601 and they've got these five monuments around it for the five elements and one of them's got the second largest bell in Vietnam after we had lunch we drove out of town to visit the royal tombs of three different emperors there were a total of 13 Emperor's during the Noyan dynasty and these monuments were often designed and built whilst they were alive in preparation for their death now we are visit their number two ever Mima we have five hundred wife yes we had five wives and 140 to cure these busy man busy man very nice I wonder if he had names for all the kids or no other names but yeah the whole site is 15 hectares big and no one actually knows where he's buried in the ground it's kept a secret so even though he had 500 wives only the first one becomes Queen the rest just notches on the belt if you like [Music] all right soon number two this afternoon the things for the 12th Emperor 1213 since the Emperor's tomb here apparently this ceiling guy painted that painted with his feet and scaffolding set up a pain in his feet I kind of won as I asked me how come they painted the ceiling with his feet why is that because it's very difficult so you just wanted to put that extra bit of effort in and just show off basically so this last tomb we come to is from the fourth Emperor and because we come right at the end of the day it's actually really peaceful there's not many people about and the Sun setting so the lights really good so yeah it's pretty pretty beautiful [Music] but basically for this last tomb I kind of just walked away from the group just one rat by myself because it's so quiet here right now it's nice to have a bit a long time the thing they spent three years building just to and it's 15 Hector's his name was the first one we went to we had this guy on yet he was a 103 wives but no children so they adopted on one of these places the resting place for his wife his first wife it becomes the quake these places are just magnificent I wasn't sure what to expect when he said we're gonna go see some tombs today I thought it might just be a tomb in a building but these huge grounds that they've built are just beautiful just magnificent yeah I'm really glad am any effort to company yeah he was the tours been a bit iffy still awesome come out here see all this stuff [Music] today during a tour of the old DMZ the Demilitarized Zone and then I'm gonna be dropped off in a town near there and the bus the one thing we're missing right now is I'll push through the tape and the bus showed up and it broke down so just waiting around so they get our soy it was about a three hour drive to our first main stop the case on combat base which was a major US Marines outpost during the Vietnam War [Music] some in case on which was most like a sort of like a cork and a ball to stop the flow of the Vietcong coming in from the Ho Chi Minh Trail from Lao into South Vietnam he's helicopters absolutely huge yeah I got shot down playing here [Music] this place just got battered to death like bombs and artillery from both sides and a u.s. Marine subscribe being here it's just hell on earth so it's kind of strange being here at a place where so much death and destruction happened sounds to be walking now as the tourist taking pictures it's fascinating to see no mass leaving caisson we drove back down the way we came towards the coast we then turn north towards the Ben hai river which ran through the Demilitarized Zone but we didn't actually stop at this memorial site for the DMZ on this DMZ tour because of reasons but we made our way to this afternoon's main attraction of the vinh moc tunnels the kuchi tunnels I visited in the south were part of a massive network that would often be underneath the villages but here at vinh moc they moved the entire village underground this was to avoid the intense bombing from the US and for six years the villagers lived underground in a tunnel system that had three different levels going down to 24 meters deep today we are going to visit the second and a third floor this tunnel system so when they dug out these tunnels obviously had to get rid of all the mud and the clay so what I do is wait for nighttime and then just put it in the safe get washed away so they won't even include sore traces above around for the America system when a few of them they were using this room for meaning for big oppression for waiting even for future and like kindergarten a little baby was born in so these are the one that wasn't discovered didn't get flooded didn't collapse and we got no one died inside hundred seventy five percent and Pickton's who are living for six years but no one died so that was very special well you know the people who were supporting at that time they just want to leave in peace at all they didn't care about him using the capitalism after at all I was dropped off at the town of Dong Ha so that I could get the bus up to Fania where I'll be spending the next three nights so just finished up the DMZ to see aniconic a sound was cool that was interesting in the tunnels was interesting but all day was about 85 90 percent dropping in lovely if you did self driving it might have been alright but we had a whole tour group crammed up like sardines one of those mini fans for hours on end and then we only had a short time at a place to see a couple of things so whether it's worth it for the day I'm not so sure but now we're in first restaurant places wait for the bus to Vegas huh I think the bus should be here in about an hour they should be two hours to fall down this we have no idea so it could be a half-and-half Kabir and I had no idea this way go sometimes say the nice thing about Southeast Asia as they sell beer everywhere temples to zoo neighborhood central ghusl time to go scrap whoo cheers mate by the buses here it's only 20 minutes later that's supposed to be so it's actually not too bad Oh Sheldon rain you go nice 22 hours [Music] [Music] well welcome to Vanya my first day I'm just giving myself a chill day I'm actually doing anything able to sit by the pool relaxing and recharging my batteries and literally for my cameras and figuratively for myself I mean there's so many things I want to do in fog now but I'm kind of having to resist that temptation because the trips been pretty full-on and if I don't get myself a couple days to relax take it easy run the risk of burning myself out but I had my last beer with Danny because he's gonna move on a fish off his bike trip and we had such a good laugh together over the last two to three weeks and I was actually was really lucky to be able to travel with him but you know everyone's doing similar routes here but on different schedules like Emmanuelle's one-stop ahead of me so I'll meet up with him in Hanoi but I'm sure I'll make plenty of new friends in the mean time before then and then tomorrow I signed up for a trip to go to Paradise cave and dark cave because that's what this region is famous for is exploring caves so I can't wait to do that tomorrow that should be awesome vanya is actually home to the largest cave in the world the song dong cave but less than one thousand people are allowed to trek into it per year and it costs you three thousand dollars to do so so I'll happily settle for the two I'm seeing today first up we made a quick stop at the Fania Botanic Garden to check out the waterfalls [Music] then we headed to paradise cave which was discovered in 2005 by the same local man who found the song Gong cave okay we're now climbing up to paradise cave 500 steps up I think [Music] when you go in just walk down and then it's this huge or cabin this opens up in front of you I just takes your breath away [Music] so not to state the obvious but this place is huge I barely cave like this we have plenty caves but this is another level and they've led it all up so you can just really appreciate scale of it [Music] so this cave paradise cave goes on for 31 kilometres we can only go in through one kilometer and then after that I don't mean slit up anymore you have to do like a special adventure to or to go further and but only like it up a few K so if just if you could go and go on a garden it's like slicing from a different world like a different planet it's unreal [Music] the Kaiser Fong yarr National Park are roughly 350 million years old the rock formations coming down from the ceiling are called stalactites whilst the corresponding formations rising from the ground of stalagmites basically because it's limestone as the water drips through has sand in it and basically you know when you're a kid on the beach and your formulas you know like wet sand is formless weird shapes out of it it's basically like that over the course of millions of years and you end up with these GI in giant sculptures [Music] all right reach the end of the line here walk home with her in there go on a specialty or further down there Wow smallest ones I hope the video can do it justice this is just incredible in it just insane once you get filled away from the crowd all you can hear is just dripping water and that's it it's so quiet it's very hard to find words describe things like that other than wow it's amazing you've gotta can I see it for yourself and experience the scale of it see that was really fun really really fun I love that next up we were heading to the dark cave this one's going to be a bit more active as well be ziplining swimming kayaking and crawling into facing a mud bath but before we got started you were treated to an absolute feast of the lunch an engine roaring you leaping with your metal shop and even a Chicken Hawk you eat together with lamb a shot is more delicious yeah the home security advanced me very good fight [Music] dunt alright we gonna swim to the cave now get on with it basically approaching the dark cave and I don't be crude but it looks like a giant vagina take it from the expert [Music] we go to the mud bath I can confirm the helmets worried [Music] hello alright we have arrived at welcome to the mud spa [Music] [Music] the pothole [Music] [Music] I made it out of the cave that was a lot of fun but now we're gonna kayak across bye-bye [Music] well we finished up now at the bear cave that was so much fun the mud bath was great it was really cool experience and then there was like a there's like rope swings a zip lines you can do which obviously I didn't do well I just went for a swim the water and then the guy started showering me for not wearing a life jacket that's like dude I can swim but today has been a really really fun day one the best day of the trip so far I wish I could have spent more time in fun yeah because there's loads more here that I want to do but I've got to keep moving because everything's about to shut down for a few days for the Tet Lunar New Year celebrations [Applause] sign up for this little guided bike tool this is my I wasn't driving I was just like clearly it shows how easily can arrive at place not knowing anyone then within a couple of hours you've got a whole group of friends to spend a day with ten dollars by 36 beers [Applause] I'm getting a bus today up to Hajj young to do the Hajj and blue and this is the thing that everyone rose be a different answer trip than why plant but it's the right-hander trip for I want and how I'm feeling right now [Music] you

Channel: Karl Watson: Travel Documentaries

Views: 512,698

Rating: 4.9331317 out of 5

Keywords: adventure, backpacking, backpacking vietnam, karl watson, karl watson travel documentaries, karl watson vietnam, solo travel vietnam, south east asia backpacking, south east asia travel, travel, travel documentary, vietnam, vietnam backpacking, vietnam motorcycle trip, vietnam travel, vietnam travel tips, vietnam vlog, wanderlust, phong nha, phong nha ke bang national park, hoi an vietnam, da nang, golden bridge, ba na hills, hai van pass, top gear vietnam, vietnam dmz tour

Id: 2-Yeo-Iv_xU

Length: 50min 48sec (3048 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 11 2020