the INCREDIBLE HAI VAN PASS 🇻🇳 VIETNAM by MOTORBIKE Ep:18

Hello everybody! I'm on the beach here. I just had a great day. I'm going to share with you how I managed to get to this incredible beach here in Da Nang. We're going to start in Hue. We'll have a look at some of the sights there. Hello, there's a Dalmatian randomly. Then we're going to do the Hai Van Pass, one of the most famous mountain beach coastal roads here in Vietnam. Gorgeous by the way, no spoilers. I just told you and showed you some stuff so there is spoilers. Anyway, we're going to end up at this spectacular beach that faces west. It's called Secret Beach and as you can see it's a massive secret. Nobody knows about it. Nobody's here whatsoever. So come and join us. Today's a good one. This is a banger. Before we leave Hue and get on the beautiful Hai Van Pass towards Da Nang, we can't leave Hue without having a little look around. With it being the old imperial city and the ex-capital city of Vietnam, of course it's littered with palaces, royal buildings and all kinds of historical landmarks. But I think the most interesting and the only one I'll visit today is here. This is the mausoleum, a tomb of an ancient king. So if you've ever wondered what kind of a tombstone you're going to get if you were an ex-Vietnamese prince or king, this is what you're going to get. So let's have a little look around. Before we have a little look around actually, I just want to take a moment to say thank you. Feeling very grateful today that this is my job. I get to drive around the beautiful country and share with you my experiences. Hopefully they're useful if you're coming to Vietnam. Hopefully it's a little bit of light entertainment. I hope it's just vaguely interesting. So just thank you. Thank you for watching because it enables me to carry on. So just wanted to say I haven't jumped on and said thank you for a long time but I'm very grateful and I'm very thankful. So thank you, thank you, thank you. But yeah, let's go have a look at this posh bloke's tomb. So this mausoleum is very interesting because it was built for the 12th emperor, Emperor Cai Dinh. It took 11 years to build and was finished in 1931. But this guy, he was not very popular with the Vietnamese. He worked really closely with the government of France and apparently by the end of his reign he was considered nothing more than a salaried employee of the French government. This made him very unpopular with the Vietnamese and unbelievably this mausoleum was built by him. I think because he was very unpopular with the Vietnamese he decided to build his fancy tomb before he died. And what makes matters worse for this guy was not only was he not very well liked because of his connection with the French government and the fact that he had to build his own mausoleum but to build it he raised taxes by 30% to pay for it. Can you believe it? Absolutely outrageous. It is beautiful but yes, quite a controversial fellow, Emperor Cai Dinh. There's one more place I want to take you to which was recommended to me by Will from Will and Jose. They recommended that near here in this town, and I've just checked on Google Maps it's five minutes away, is an abandoned water park. Now it's built, I just checked, it's built on an ancient burial site so it's completely haunted and I think scared away any customers and then it was shut down before it could even get going. So it's abandoned, it's haunted, it's going to be terrifying. We might get in, we might not. Let's go check. It's only down the road. Here's the entrance, no visitors. Hello, can I go in? Okay, okay, okay, okay. I think apparently 30,000 is the going rate. There you go. Okay, thanks. How was it? Was it scary? The way is not really good, like you can drive this way where it gets really like bumpy and bad and then at one point when you go there it goes like splits and then you have to go left down. Is anybody there? Yeah, some people, not really many people. So yeah, as I mentioned before, abandoned water park on ancient burial grounds, super haunted, super bad vibes and it never got going and then they abandoned the project completely and now it's a famous Instagram spot. Oh my gosh, wow, isn't this beautiful? Not scary whatsoever yet. This is stupid. The abandoned water park. Now I have seen this on Instagram so this isn't like a shock horror but the reality of this place is a lot cooler than I thought. I thought it'd be actually a tourist place and full of people and stuff. I mean, obviously we saw that one girl but the grass is kept. Doesn't look that abandoned around here. It looks kind of brand new. Okay, I am a sweaty Betty. We'll leave Super Dreamy here. We'll go inside on the GoPro. I don't think anyone will nick my stuff because there's nobody here. I've flown the drone quite extensively looking for other things to see. Obviously, beautiful concrete artwork. By far my favourite thing is this claw right here. The way that the nails dig into the floor and create this little entranceway now. It's awesome. Really cool. This is the nearest thing you could get to a Buddhist temple in Thailand because it looks a little bit like Naga, the historical dragon water god thing. And should we go in? Let's have a look in the tail. You have arrived. Yes, I have arrived Google. Okay, nothing in the tail. So you've got the usual abandoned stuff. Trash, graffiti and spooky vibes. All of this was supposed to be an aquarium. So they would have fish and all sorts of stuff in there. Maybe starfish and all that kind of thing. And then this, this would have been the tunnel that you walk through in the aquariums that you get in modern day aquariums. You know, there would be the tunnel and all this would be, this would be a tank with stingrays and trevallies and god knows maybe sharks. And they've even got the coral rock display. And as we come through, you can see all the, oh there's water. Yeah, this is it. This is kind of spooky actually. Little hop jump and we're here into the mouth of the dragon. Okay then, abandoned water park. Mausoleum of the old King Tik. There are lots more things to see in Hue, but for today that's going to do because we're going to get onto the highway. We're going to brave the highway for the first time because it's the only way to get to Da Nang. Half an hour on the highway, then onto the Hai Van Pass, up and around some beautiful mountains along the coast. Fantastic views in store. We got to go. Plus some people have just arrived. I saw that girl at the tomb. Right then, let's get on the highway. So it turns out it's not half an hour. It was more like an hour and a half on the highway. And my first experience here on the highway was not pleasant. I can be honest with you, the trucks, the buses are very, very pushy and give no respect to anyone, especially little motorbikes. So it was dusty, it was hot, it was stressful. And yeah, I'm glad we haven't been driving on the highways at all so far. And I don't think I'll be getting back on them anytime soon. Eventually, after driving through what seemed forever, the mountains that we needed to climb over revealed themselves and it looked beautiful. And thankfully, finally, I got off the highway and onto the famous Hai Van Pass. This is the beginning of the Hai Van Pass. Look up there. That's where we go. We're going up and over this mountain range. Looks bloody beautiful, doesn't it? Actually, let me show you. So over there in the distance, you can see the big trucks going over that water and then into that tunnel. That is the highway that cuts through the mountain range and goes to Da Nang in half an hour. And that's the thing, actually, about the Hai Van Pass, guys. Don't expect some mammoth, long, epic road. It's actually 45 minutes from here to Da Nang and to the hotel and civilization. So it's not really like you don't expect a full day's drive. I mean, that was an hour and a half of being on the highway and it was pretty rubbish. This is now the highlight of the day. But yeah, it's not massively long. We should be there in an hour. If you're wondering, by the way, what's all the fuss about? Well, not only is it a beautiful road, but it's very famous because of, do you remember the Top Gear special? I think it was 2006 when they went from Saigon to Hanoi. They bought motorbikes and they ended up actually in Halong Bay. Very funny, very good series. And one of the highlights of the series was the Hai Van Pass. That was one of the moments where they got a little bit reflective and they started to really enjoy their surroundings a little bit. And so because of that, lots of people became inspired and backpackers ever since have been coming to Vietnam to do the Hai Van Pass. Well, this is the Instagram spot. This must be a photo opportunity. Let's see. Sometimes I like to just see what other people are doing and then copy them and pretend I came up with the idea first. Pop your jacket, look to the left, look to the right. Very good, very good. Look left, look down, pop your jacket. Oh, that's it. Very elegant. Scratch the back of your head as well. This guy's a pro. So you can tell this is now well and truly on the touristy backpacker route because look at this. They've built cafes now with viewpoints and cold drinks and ice creams, which I'm actually going to take full advantage of. Holy sugar puffs. I have never seen anything like this in my life. There's a plane taking off. That's Da Nang, right? Da Nang. Okay. So there's the big city of Da Nang. Wowza. I'm from England. Down there is the trail and then we're going to go along this beach and then we're going to stay way over there. But I found a secret beach on Google Maps, which is on that peninsula facing this way. Have a look at this. That right there, right now, take a picture in your brain because that is one of the best views from a motorcycle on planet Earth. I mean, what? Wowza, wowza. Let's be a little bit naughty and come over here on the wrong side of the road just to get this view real quick. And there's loads of little beaches down there. Which you can't get to. Very, very remote. Yes, the Hai Van Pass was incredible. The only thing I have to say was that it was too short. Driving from Hue to Da Nang really was mostly just on the highway. The Hai Van Pass is so brief, guys. You go up, you go over and you come down and it's glorious. But don't expect it to be draw-droppingly beautiful the entire day. The views, the feels, pass you by way too quickly. That said, coming into Da Nang, the views were incredible. It's so nice to see a big coastal city, our first of its kind during Vietnam. And it felt quite strange to be somewhere so urban and so modern after being on the DMZ, the Ho Chi Minh Road and, well, the middle of nowhere for the past few days. So before we go to our secret sunset beach spot, let's check in and get a feel for this place. I've made it to town. Lovely drive down the mountain. I've checked into our hotel. It was quite cheap. It's a double twin room. That's all I had. And it's called Nagunagia or something. Nagunagia, here I go again. My, my. I go crazy when I drive a bike all day. No rest for the wicked. Let's get changed. Let's get into our swimming costume and let's go down to the beach, the secret beach with the epic view of the sunset, hopefully. Let's go. Let's go. Okay. Cheesy peace sign because I'm very cheesy right now. This is the first time I've ever been to the beach. And look at this. Oh, this is nice. This is nice. Cheers, big ears, to a successful day here in Vietnam. We got to see some of the And we finished here. And I am going to drink my beer, go for a little swim and then watch this sun go over these mountains and just do something spectacular to the sky. Thank you so much for watching. In the next video, we'll explore Da Nang, obviously. And down the road is Hoi An, a very famous popular place too. So while the copyright free music has just begun, I think this is the perfect time to end the video. Bye bye. Thank you. I love you. Thank you so much for watching the videos. Love you. Love you loads. See you in the next one. Take it to the grave, but it doesn't end with you You say you haven't been yourself for a long, long time Barely awake and it is already on your mind But even if you open up and it's all pretend And I know you think it's worth every dime you spend You can take it to the grave, but it doesn't end with you