Experience the essence of Northern Vietnam in our latest adventure - Motorbiking to Ba Vi National Park and Ninh Binh from Hanoi. Amazing hikes, temples, monkeys, & more!
0:00 - Intro
0:58 - Motorbike rental
2:07 - Ba Vi National Park
5:07 - French Ruins
7:42 - Hostel life
9:08 - Drive of our life
11:32 - Ninh Binh
13:21 - Hang Mua
14:56 - Vietnam hiking views
18:25 - Van Long boat tour
21:54 - Trang An river restaurant
22:37 - Back to Hanoi
23:26 - Bloopers
Immersing ourselves in the rich beauty of Vietnam was A MUST before we left the country. So, after being in Ho Chi Minh City for a month we flew north to Hanoi. This was our base destination, where we rented a motorbike to travel Ba Vi & Ninh Binh. It only cost us about $22 for a 3 day rental, and we wasted no time.
Ba Vi Homestead was the first hostel we stayed at for a night, less than 2 kilometers from the entrance of the national park. It cost us about $8 and was perfect in every way. At this point in the 5 day trip, we are already starting to feel like this is a crazier adventure than usual for us.
Ba Vi National Park was stunning. Fog layered the roads circling up to the base point of our hikes, making for a mysterious vibe. Once we started the hike, we realized what a unique place we were in. The sounds of the jungle were beautiful and we were smiling the entire way up. At the top we admired the Bao Thein Tower and Ho Chi Minh Temple. The temple was extremely unique because it had a shrine to Ho Chi Minh himself in it, instead of the traditional Buddha statue.
The drive that we made from the Ba Vi area to our next stay in Ninh Binh is what we both consider the ride of our life to this day. This was our most rural experience of the northern Vietnamese countryside and had us nearly in tears. This ride will always hold a special place in our hearts. It was 3 hours of purely stunning landscapes, with villages and animals to observe in between.
The ride we made across the metal bridge on this drive was genuinely an adrenaline filled moment. We were unsure going into it, but our maps seriously took us that way! We followed it, and will forever have that hilarious memory of bumping along the bridge, somewhat concerned we were going to fall off!
In Ninh Binh, we were very happy with the choices we made on what to explore. Hang Mua did not disappoint. The hike to the viewpoint is the reason to go, but the cave, docks, and other natural areas around it were great as well. We thought for a touristy spot, it wasn’t too busy, and provided those must-have shots of the mountains.
Perhaps our highlight of the entire adventure was our boat ride at Van Long Wetland Nature reserve. Our expectations were LOW to see any monkeys, so that was obviously a shocking and amazing moment. However, the entire ride was genuinely surreal.
While we are able to spend the night in Hanoi at the hostel, see the area, and hit a few coffee shops (including the note coffee featured in the video), we didn’t get a full Hanoi experience. Our goal of this 5 day trip was to immerse ourselves in Vietnam’s nature, go hiking, go on long motorbike rides, and to do a few other outdoor excursions. We also wanted to test ourselves by traveling only with what we could fit under the motorbike seat and on our back.
Traveling Vietnam has been wonderful so far, but this part of our journey is where we truly experience the rural part of the country. So, we would love to return to Hanoi in the future to make another Vietnam vlog, as well as cities we didn't even go near like Da Nang.
Lastly, I did want to make a point to say that this type of adventure is our favorite. We truly embraced our vagabond ways for these 5 days, even though we always go with the flow. This adventure was barely planned and we used google maps and online blogs to build our adventure along the way. Our hope is that this INSPIRES YOU to do the same. Go explore Vietnam!
#southeastasia #travelvietnam #vietnamvlog
This video concludes our time in Vietnam, but not our time in Southeast Asia!
Next is Thailand 🇹🇭😍