We LOVE Northern Vietnam! ❤️ (Visiting Ban Gioc waterfall + Ba Be Lake by MOTORBIKE)

This week we're going on an epic motorbike adventure through the breathtaking mountains of northern Vietnam. We just finished spending a couple days driving part of the Ha Giang loop where we conquered crazy mountain passes, went on a boat ride, and saw too many gorgeous views to count before making the scenic drive east to the Cao Bang province. And over the next few days we're going to be exploring Vietnam's largest waterfall. I am pretty sure that we are floating on China right now. Visiting one of its national parks, experiencing the local culture, and so much more with tons of fun memories and a little mishap along the way. Are you okay? This morning we are continuing our road trip through the Cao Bang province and first up we are heading just up the road from where we stayed last night to the Lenin river in Pac Bo. So I guess we have to hop on a tram to get the rest of the way. Like we mentioned in our last video we know a lot less about this stretch of our road trip so everything is just a fun surprise. Pac Bo is home to the Lenin river which is a stunning and refreshing spring-fed river with a vibrant turquoise color. This water is crystal clear and there are so many fish just right here along the bank here, like hundreds of them. When they kind of turn over or rotate in the water they're super silver. While this place is loaded with natural beauty it also has some pretty interesting history as well. In January 1941, after 30 years away, Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam. When he did he lived in this area first with a local family but then in the Coc Bo cave. Here is where he began to coordinate the independence movement from France and just four years later he became the leader of Vietnam. It is now considered to be one of the most important historical sites in the country. This was such an incredible spot. Adam just described it as idyllic and I think that's the perfect word. It's just so peaceful. All I hear right now are just birds chirping, the water flowing, the water's so blue, it's just so green and lush. I had no idea this place existed and I'm so glad we came here. Back on the bikes. Cutest little block of goats, little babies too. Cutest traffic jam ever! You have been taking us to some delicious local restaurants and we have not been disappointed yet and today we have some kind of looks like slow roasted pork ribs, some soup, some spinach, some spring rolls and then all the sauces and some rice. Oh my gosh! This pork is kind of like pork belly. It is so fatty and so rich and it's piping hot so it just melts in your mouth. It's so hot. We have about 100 kilometers more to drive today and I don't think we have any major stops but the scenery should be really beautiful. This is our fourth day on the motorbike now and I gotta say I'm still loving every minute of it. I've been able to enjoy the scenery fully. I'm usually the one that drives us everywhere so I can't always enjoy all the scenery but I've been able to do that on this trip and it's so fun and beautiful. It is a lot more of a workout than I thought it would be. When you're going downhill and uphill you really gotta hold yourself in place a bit more than I thought you would but overall love it. We are making a quick stop for fuel for the bikes and fuel for us because we are tired. As Adam mentioned we just didn't expect this to be such a workout. Your knees tense up, your butt tenses up, you're just working all these muscles that maybe you don't normally work so we're just extra tired. Look at these coffees. They bring it to you with a candle underneath to keep it hot. Oh my gosh. So cool. We had to get hot coffees because as you may have noticed we've put on jackets now. The last few days have been so hot and sunny. We actually bought our family some chocolate and it's been in our backpacks and after one of the days the chocolate melted so much that it was liquid inside of the wrapping. It has firmed up since though thankfully but it's only 72 degrees fahrenheit out which isn't that cold at all. It's actually kind of warm but with no sun out today and just the wind whipping you. We had goosebumps on part of the ride earlier. Oh yeah. I freaking love Vietnamese coffee. It's so good. Hi. Hello. Stretching break. Sometimes we stop for coffee breaks and sometimes we stop for stretching and whatever this is breaks. They're good. The scenery on this ride is similar but also we almost just had a why did the chicken cross the road and the answer would have been to get hit by a motorbike but thankfully we did not hit the chicken. Oh my gosh that was close though. We just made it to our home for the night and there are dogs so I already love it here. Come here. Oh my gosh. Hi. Hi. Hello. Hi. Oh you're gonna bite me. It's biting my arm. Cutie. Are you so cute? You're so cute. This is the best. I'm so happy. I said this place couldn't get any better. There's a freaking cave here. What? Tonight we're staying at the Yen Nhi homestay which is right next to the Ban Gioc waterfall which is what we're going to check out tomorrow and this place is amazing. Like Catherine mentioned there's a cave here, super cute dogs, we have our own private room, private bathroom and it is surrounded by gorgeous scenery. And now there are just cows walking down the street including some really cute babies. This place is awesome. The Yen Nhi homestay is located in A Te village which is the second largest ethnic minority group in Vietnam and as we enjoyed dinner we were able to learn a bit about the Te culture, hear traditional songs and do a traditional dance. I only kicked it once. That was so much fun, so amazing to be a part of. Bye, I'll miss you. You're a good doggie, okay? This morning we're heading to Ban Gioc, the largest waterfall in Vietnam. Before we actually go to the waterfall, we're making a quick stop at a nearby temple which is supposed to have amazing views of the area at the top and of the waterfall. Holy cow, it is steep to get up there. We see the waterfall. The Ban Gioc waterfall is on the border between Vietnam and China and those mountains on the other side of the water is China which is so wild. The waterfall is more than 300 meters wide and 30 meters tall making it not only the largest waterfall in Vietnam but the fourth largest cross-border waterfall in the world behind only Iguazu, Victoria and Niagara Falls and we've now been to two out of the four. The best way to truly grasp its size is from a drone but since we're on the border with China, it's not a good idea to fly a drone here so this overlook is a good substitution but now we're gonna head down to the base of the falls to see them from eye level. This is amazing. The waterfall has so many streams of water. It kind of reminds us of Bernie Falls in California with just so many terraces and cascades. You can see a lot more of the waterfall from down here and yeah there's just so many streams. There's streams there, streams there, streams everywhere. It's extreme. We're here in the dry season so if you google photos of this waterfall it has a lot more water than this. They actually open up a dam every day around 10 30 a.m to let more water out so if you come here in the dry season don't expect for it to look exactly like you see in the photos but it is still so impressive. Each individual waterfall would be impressive just on its own if that's all that was here. The whole reason we came to this area was for this waterfall and when we found out that we were coming in the dry season and that there might not be as much water as the photos we saw online we kind of questioned whether we should still come but now being here and seeing it with our own eyes it is way more impressive than we even thought it would be and we 100% recommend coming and seeing this. I was so scared that this waterfall was going to be lame and it was going to be a letdown but I cannot stop smiling. I love this waterfall. It is incredible. Not only can you check out the waterfall from various viewpoints on land but you can also take a boat for $50,000 per person and get up right by them so we're obviously gonna go do it. These rafts are made out of, this looks like the big wide PVC pipes. It's a bunch of them. So everyone on this boat right here is from China. We just got to wave at them. How cool is it that we have people from different countries all enjoying this experience together. I just think that's the coolest thing ever. I am pretty sure that we are floating on China right now. Wow. Our phone also thinks we're in China because it's an hour ahead. 1 30 instead of 12 30 Vietnam time. And now we're back in Vietnam. I think these are hazelnuts. Nova just bought a whole bag of them. Oh those are so good. They're boiled I think right? They are fried. Oh it's like it's soft. It's like starchy like a kind of potato. Yeah that's good. We have 130 kilometers to our final stop for today. This is so neat to see China right across. These chickens have a death wish. Oh my gosh how cute. Horses. The road is so sketchy. Oh my gosh the view is insane and this road is terrifying. Oh my gosh we are off-roading now. Yeah we're doing off-road. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh we're still going. We're still going. Oh my gosh I think it makes them both. That was the most thrilling part of this entire five-day journey so far. That was a fun ride. This right behind me is called Angel Mountain Eye and it's a mountain that just has a humongous hole just in the middle of it. This is just such a gorgeous setting. There are all these rolling green hills, tons of buffalo roaming around, and then just mountains everywhere. He let me off to walk up this really steep part which is probably a good idea because I was kind of dreading it. The thought of it really made me scared. All right. Beep beep. The horns got so close to me. We have made it to Cao Bang. There's some bigger buildings here than I thought. This is a big city. After being in remote areas for five days now it's so strange to be in a city with just so much going on. Day five done. We did it. We didn't bring our camera out with us last night but we wish we had because we ended up going to the weekend night market and it was so fun hanging out with all the locals. But today is our last day on the motorbikes and we're heading about 130 kilometers from here in Cao Bang to Ba Be Lake National Park. Since it's a longer drive and we want to have time to see the lake we're going to try to get there with minimal stops. How cool do I look right now? I look like I'm about to like tear down a house with asbestos or do like an open heart surgery or something. You can't tell it's raining out today. We luckily have had great weather or mostly great weather the whole time but the last day it has decided to rain. So this is what I get to look like today. Uh-oh you did it wrong. Rain doesn't stand a chance with this gear. How's your surgery? I mean how's your ride going so far? The patient is doing okay. They're in stable condition but I'm kind of worried. No it was great. A little wet but that's part of it right? We're definitely going pretty slow but if we had to have rain on any of the days of this trip this is probably the best day because it's the day with the least amount of scenic driving so we hear so we're feeling very lucky that the weather has held out until now. Hugh in his green outfit he kind of looks like a Teletubby. This is what you look like today. And Hugh just slid out. Are you okay? That was scary. Oh my gosh I heard it happen that scared me so bad. Oh my gosh I've been so scared that was gonna happen all day. Are you okay? Yeah. Are you sure? I think so. It's got like my hand. Your hand okay? Yeah I think so. Are you okay Hugh? That's all right it's okay. I just want to make it clear that our drivers have been impeccable the entire time. They've driven so safely. Just wanna make it very clear we don't blame them or think they were driving bad or anything like that. They have done an incredible job keeping us safe and accidents can happen and thankfully everyone was okay. Scary but it's gonna be okay. Well thankfully all the humans are safe but I think our camera broke. It was in a bag that was loose that fell on the ground and we're not sure if it's the lens that's broken or the camera but the lens will not go into focus and yeah the screen kind of comes on really delayed so we'll have to diagnose it later but if that's the worst thing that happened it's okay you can replace technology you can't replace humans. All right back in the saddle. So scary. The accident definitely shook us a bit but in the wise words of Taylor Swift we decided to shake it off and enjoy what was left of our amazing trip. We still had a bit of driving to go but thankfully it went super smoothly and safely and after a couple more hours we made it to Ba Be Lake. I see the lake. Oh we did it. We're going on a boat ride. Ba Be Lake is the largest natural lake in Vietnam and is actually three lakes connected by channels with Ba Be meaning three lakes in the Tay language. The lake lies in the middle of a vast limestone mountain range in Ba Be National Park with its depth up to 35 meters. It is absolutely gorgeous out here. The mountains have a completely different look than the mountains that we have been seeing but they're still so unique with just these interesting shapes to them and these like super rocky cliff sides. That boat ride was awesome. The moody weather, the lake, and all the green covering the mountain sides just gave me Pacific Northwest vibes. Tonight we're staying at a homestay in the village which is home to the Tay ethnic minority right along Ba Be Lake. We have our own private bedroom, private bathroom, and a gorgeous view of all the mountains around. We spent the evening enjoying a delicious dinner full of local foods like fish from the lake and bamboo which was the perfect way to end an exciting beautiful and extremely special week motorbiking around northern Vietnam. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys. Group hug. See you. Bye. Normally this tour ends back in Ha Giang but we have a flight out of Hanoi tomorrow so instead we're taking a five-hour bus ride to Hanoi. We have safely made it back to Hanoi and I cannot think of a better way to end our time in Vietnam than motorbiking around the north. We're struggling to put into words just how incredible of an experience that was but we truly saved the best for last. This trip was just really really special. We got to experience other cultures in a way that we never have before, met amazing people, and saw stunning scenery. There were so many big epic moments but also so many small moments like just hanging out with our guys that we will cherish forever and of course every adventure has to have a little mishap to make things even more memorable. A huge thank you to Nova and Hugh for taking us around and being so fun to hang out with during the last week. You guys are the best. We'll link to Ha Giang Road Trip's website below if you'd like to experience this part of Vietnam with a guide or on a motorbike. They have a variety of tours and we are so glad that we got EasyRiders because it helped us enjoy the experience so much more. If we were driving on our own we would have crashed many more times. Those roads out there are no joke. Yeah, I don't like to think about what it would have been like if it was just the two of us out there. EasyRiders, we're a thousand percent the way to go but we're here in Hanoi for the night and then tomorrow we're going to be flying to Ho Chi Minh City to begin our multi-day journey back to Texas but before we leave Asia we have a fun layover in Singapore planned assuming we don't have flight delays. I was just used as a photo prop. A girl wanted a photo with me and not to try to one-up him but two men wanted a photo with me earlier so we're hot commodities here. She like had her arms around my waist like up in a field. So popular again today. Nice to meet you. Have a good day. Look at you. We have our own film crew now. They're watching our videos right now at lunch. Ready to eat. The camera ate already. Thank you for asking. Okay. He knows us too well now. Enjoy.