Our Dangerous Arrival into VIETNAM (EP.21)
welcome to Vietnam what the hell is going on this one good that was scary hello Jo Joe W ooh shiny new money hello hello hello this is unbelievably dangerous right now hello and good morning everybody Welcome to day 21 and it's been a long wait for day 21 let me tell you that so we basically arrived here Believe It or Not 3 days ago and for the last 3 days I have been waiting for my Vietnam Visa Naomi got approved quite quickly but what what happened to me was I basically put my passport information in a little bit incorrect so it's my fault I got a new passport and it's been giving me headaches ever since and because of that I had to wait basically a three full extra working days just to get my Vietnam Visa but it finally came through last night so today we cross from Lao over into Vietnam completing our second country and now it's time for another new country we've no idea how long it's going to take us to get through Vietnam it's quite a long and vast and beautiful country but we're very excited for all the Banh mi 30 km to Laos cross into Vietnam and then another 90 or so to Vinh hopefully our longest day yet we us look yes indeed so today's journey is going to take us from the mountain town of laxao in Laos all the way to the city of Vinh on the coast of Vietnam so it's would be quite an interesting day very very cold right now I've literally got a long sleeve fleece I have a long sleeve t-shirt and I have a t-shirt on underneath that as well so it's bitterly cold right now it's so so bloody windy right now oh it's horrible it feels like it's really hard to move the bike we have some really crazy headwinds this morning so it's not only the first 30 km like steep elevation or Hills and so on it's also wind from the front and now here on the left side kind of here that's where we will cross into Vietnam hello final stretch towards the Border we have like 9 km to go there is elevation but the elevation is not the issue at all it's pummeling wind and it's actually a rain storm as well I think just ahead of us I'm not sure if it's rain I think we might just be I'm not sure if it's rain I think we might just be so high that we are actually in the cloud yeah so it just feels very moist very moist yeah just getting to the Border today is tough so I really hope that the Border process will be smooth it never is on land borders but once we're across it's mostly downhill so we'll see what happens hello the Nam Phao border region here we're only 3 km away it's all rainforest we really thought for a second that this road to the right was going to be us but thankfully we're going straight the visibility up here it's getting worse and worse as well I don't know I think we are in the middle of the cloud there seem to be some dogs as well all of the trucks are waiting to be led through oh I hope this is going to be an okay border crossing I don't know if you guys can even remotely see me uh we made it out of Laos thank God very very sorry to say that but I don't think Laos is a place that we will be coming back and now we're in no man's land walking to the Vietnam part all right guys so we're currently just got stamped into Vietnam Believe It or Not weather is absolutely atrocious I'm I'm sorry for the bad angle I'm trying to be as like I'm not filming myself as possible this border is just so you know just be willing to accept a stamping fee uh we have the we even got change in Vietnamese Dong so we can show you that once we get over to the other side but yeah there's roughly a $2 stamping fee I uh Naomi paid twice so she paid four $4 stamping fee but uh yeah I've heard online that it's very uh heavy with this anyways there's reviews all about this um but yeah we just experienced it so we can definitely confirm that for you as well let's go into Vietnam and we have a downhill Journey now of about 90 km towards Vinh well we just got across and um I just realized that my helmet is gone now Luke's helmet as he just said is gone which is really bad because we're now having about 30 km are so downhill on wet ground with zero visibility in between trucks so uh we're going to go as slow and steady as possible and in the next bicycle shop buy a new helmet for Luke hopefully they have sizes for watermelon sized heads just to let you guys know as well you do need you do need an eVisa to cross into this border which a lot of Backpackers don't have they just show up at the border and think that they can can get a visa on arrival but that's not the case and they're all being turned back we met so many people in Laxao and also the two Irish girls they're on the border they also didn't have their EVisa ready yet so um yeah you just get turned back and uh sometimes your luggage continues on to wherever you had booked so that's not good anyway if you have your e Visa you need the equivalent of $2 either in US dollar in Kip or in dong it doesn't matter really they take anything and uh yeah then you can cross it was overall smooth just I paid the stamp fee twice so I paid $4 and Luke paid $2 that's all right though we have been checking the weather forecast over and over and over and nowhere did it say that it was raining but I suppose in the mountains you can't really uh trust the weather forecast regardless of what it says and we haven't even had breakfast yet so there's that now 11:20 am and we have another 87 km left to get to Vin oh my God this is nasty so cold can see the bare minimum you just see kind of the backlights of the trucks and every now and then you hear them honk so I think they're letting each other know that they're there there's I think two trucks in front of us right now thank God none behind us but I don't really want to get stuck in between all of these trucks Oh welcome to Vietnam it's not your typical glamorous travel Vlog here in uh Ha Long Bay or the spinny teacups of uh Hoi An it's a mountain pass through the rainforests we are the Two Mad Explorers after all this is a two-way street by the way and it says everywhere not to overtake but people do it regardless of course because why not this is unbelievably dangerous right now we're slowly sliding downhill on our bikes here totally wet squashed between gigantic trucks that are also sliding downhill so what an arrival to Vietnam Luke uh nearly slipped and hurt himself a good bit but uh I think he's overall okay just I just got my bike into my scrotum yeah he he hit his saddle I think into a scrotum or something but uh straight to the balls I think better the balls than a broken ankle or something or a broken head skull there there signs everywhere around here that are warning about potential landslides it's nothing but jungle and Mountain up here oh my God my fingers feel like they're just going to fall off I'm already like all shrively don't know if you can see that feel like I just took a nice bath and then went for a cycle the trucks going down as well do you see the smoke coming off of all of the trucks that's their break pads because of how hot they are running it smells like burnt rubber in the air it's absolutely insane and we're just kind of cycling behind it which is probably not the healthiest thing to do I suppose but we need to get down down this mountain somehow uh we're kind of wedged in between trucks again I don't feel confident in overtaking I don't know some want to keep breathing in the rubber just have a look okay as long as the trucks don't keep don't start overtaking each other now okay that was scary we're okay we are okay okay out of the danger zone oh my God that was very scary I didn't like that at all so I think we found our first Village close to the Border all right so that Village had quite literally nothing that we needed we also need an ATM next Village is not too far away though we have 50,000 dong to our name at the moment they can definitely buy us some type of food but I'd like to get some more money out Wow have a look at this corn fields big massive rainforest over here on the left side too very nice sort of undiscovered area of Vietnam all right so we're somewhere in Vietnam right now we have no idea there's a literal rooster fight happening behind me I'm not going to show it but there's chickens fighting each other to the death behind me right now and a group of men just smoking and betting on it and we stopped to try and get get ourselves maybe like a a tea some cha and maybe a bowl of bun bo or Pho and this place looks like it's open but it's it's entirely abandoned so yeah we're just going to have to keep on trucking right uh we were actually just standing around here a little bit trying to warm up and dry a little bit hello and uh the owner of the shop actually came so she's there nice nice it's 1:00 p.m. and we still haven't had breakfast so let's just sit down relax a little bit have some Pho and then we can Soldier on one thank you oh it smells so nice oh this one amazing this [Laughter] one this one oh shinsu also good Shin good good I forgot how you say tasty me too spicy spicy ginger and okay and then come on okay yeah I have I try first and then I'll see where this uh look at that for a dog that's a healthy looking dog it looks good oh heck yeah oh it's already spicy by itself yeah bo bo bo beef yeah this one good oh ah you made double okay okay want try very good very [Laughter] good Bo good on a cold day that's amazing it's literally Heaven I think ngon is tasty yeah I don't actually remember I need to put it into Google translate or something something perfect it's exactly what we need tasty oh oh yeah non non non oh n n n very non unbelievable keep saying to add spicy stuff what do you want to add it's already a little bit spicy I think but not a lot it's amazing just don't make it too spicy yeah [Laughter] exactly I'm so happy couldn't be H couldn't be happier yeah that's really like warming me up now yeah yeah I'm a little bit cold all clothes got like completely soaked and these are literally our last clothes they're not even clean clothes like we're just wearing dirty clothes we're really hoping that we can get a Laundromat uh when we get to Vinh oh your English is very good yeah you learn you learn English in school um no no what is your name name I am Naomi Luke uh Jo Jo you now now and an oh nice nice very good very very good byebye byebye byebye I love you love you too have a nice day oh 59 wow wow you look very nice yeah look a lot [Laughter] younger oh yes okay okay okay whatever but nice good oh you smoke two oh two pet w that's a lot you're going to sound like Darth Vader soon come on thank you so much thank you so much hello hello what a warm welcome to Vietnam nice hot bowl of pho incredibly Smiley locals very happy to be here oh everybody's so excited hello I'm so happy to see all of the happy faces here oh what a change of pace hello hi it's so nice oh my God I'm so happy we found an ATM in the next Village and it actually worked immediately so uh yeah we're super happy campers we have money now we we had a pho between the two of us so I think nothing can stop us now um we're so so happy to be back in Vietnam as well and uh ooh shiny new money this one looks very new one million Dong we got a million dongs we got a million dongs yeah that's like 50 50 bucks 50 Euro but what we appreciate so so much about Vietnam as well around here you can see it already Coffee Culture is alive and well and that's one of the biggest things that we were missing in Laos because it's just no one drinks coffee in Laos it doesn't seem like it there's no kettle in the rooms everybody just kind of like makes it at home but it's not in the guest houses and it's not in the sort of like the streets of the towns and The Villages but here Vietnam is all about coffee and we love it yeah I mean you can you can find like ice coffee or something but to be honest like a lot of Laos was not warm so I don't really want to drink ice coffee every single day when it's not warm outside wow very nice nice view we're seeing parts of Vietnam that uh not many people have ventured through put it that way absolutely beautiful I have to say Countryside here in Vietnam something else wow that was like the the biggest bull I think I've ever seen what a crazy way to get around proper rural Vietnam oh wow the stuff that you see when you do an adventure like this something else we're only about less than 40 km now 38 38 outside of Vinh it's the home stretch let's get to the coast of Vietnam hello our idea is at the coast that's where the least amount of elevation will be so far Vietnam what a mad place all right so we had some navigational issues let's say it like that and uh added like another I don't know 5 or 6 km again to our route for today we have another now we now have another 38 km left and uh it's half 4:30 pm sun sets at 6 and uh I don't think we will get there before Sunset School pickup time oh my God hello hello hello oh my God what a chaos byebye hello hello well 18 left 18 km it's 6 minutes until the sun sets not that I can even see the sun anywhere because it's a lot of clouds in the sky and it's very foggy at the moment but yes probably have another hour of cycling incredibly tough day we're going to be cycling through some Darkness I think a few of these street lights work but other than that it's going to be pretty much totally black until we reach Vinh we have arrived at our hotel um just say both of us are not happy with how today went was quite exhausting we're both covered head to toe in dirt look at how how our saddle bags look and don't let me get started on how our bicycles look and uh we pretty much broke every single rule that we had set for ourselves today which was like don't cycle in the dark don't cycle when it's wet and don't cycle when you're hungry we haven't had anything to eat other than the pho that you saw and uh now we're here at least we have arrived it's time to go out get some food and sleep how many kilometers was it in the end do you know there we did 127 km with over a thousand meter of elevation 8 hours and 30 minutes it's the longest we've cycled in distance and it's twice the amount of elevation that we've ever done in one day and uh that's the way we feel yeah see you in the next one
2025-03-04 10:07
