DISCOVERING PHONG NHA - The ADVENTURE capitol of Vietnam 🇻🇳

It's a very exciting day because I officially got my visa for Vietnam after being in Laos for 11 days, almost two weeks. They denied me a couple times. First time they didn't like the address of the guest house that I was staying at so I had to fix it, send it back. Second time they denied me is because they said that they couldn't issue me a tourist visa because I'm already living in Vietnam with a residency permit which I'm not and they said I have to be out of Vietnam. Anyway, but I'm in Laos so I was out of Vietnam so I sent it back again. Third time's a charm. It got approved which means now I can go back and get my bag because yeah I'm excited to have a full wardrobe again or at least a full traveling wardrobe. Lots of exciting things happening here. It's New Year's in Laos and Thailand and Cambodia so there's lots of celebrations. You can hear the music in the street, there's water fights and stuff happening downtown. Yeah but it's just been so hot I haven't been able to go out and check anything out. I'm more excited that I can go back and get my stuff. So now I'm prepping to head back to Vietnam but I gotta show you the guest house I've been staying at in Phat Khek. I absolutely love it. If you come here, I can't recommend this place enough. It's called Sau Long Guest House and it's completely family-run and the family is so amazing. They have a little restaurant here, really great coffee, really great food. Yeah I absolutely love it. Phat Khek also has some very amazing scenery. It's built right on the river's edge and a very large river I might add and there's coffee shops and bars and lots of places that you can sit like this one with air conditioning and take in the ambiance. It's bright and early here just after 6am. I was told the bus is going from Phat Khek to Hue at 6 but now it's just after 6 so I don't know but I'm sitting here waiting and the guy from the restaurant here is so nice. He brought me a coffee and a tea which is pretty hot. It's actually quite peaceful here this morning. I've never been to a bus station before 6am when I got here. Well I probably have but it's been a while. It's just everything's waking up. People are just starting to open up shops. It's kind of nice. I'm a little sad to leave Phat Khek even though there's not a lot to do here. I've loved it. I absolutely loved my motorbike trip doing that Phat Khek loop but I'm so excited to get back to my bag and yeah I just I'm leaving this little place in gratitude but I'll be super grateful when the bus shows up and that I know I'm actually going somewhere. Also I have to say I've really loved traveling with just this tiny little bag and I'm so grateful I had my laptop with me so I could keep working. I mean traveling so light has been a treat. My bus ride from Phat Khek back to Vietnam well I'll say it was very reasonably priced so you definitely can't go wrong with the price but then when I was back in Vietnam and on their VIP buses I was like where have you been all my life? There is nothing like the VIP buses in Vietnam. I am officially back in Vietnam. Best part about being back is I got my my suitcase back because I was using 1.5 outfits for almost two weeks. None of the clothes in Laos would work for me. Feels good to have a full array of clothing again. Also it was nice traveling with a very tiny backpack because now that I have my roller duffel again she's heavy. I forgot how heavy my bag is so it was actually a treat to travel with only the little backpack on my back and only having 1.5 outfits at least I didn't have to choose what I was wearing. I knew every day what I was going to wear so I was wearing the same thing but yeah that was all my rookie move. I'm in Phong Nha. This is where my bag was waiting for me. This is where my motorbike trip was supposed to finish so my bag was sent here. All part of the adventure though. That's also what I love about traveling and spontaneous events is you know you wake up in the morning and you never know what your day is going to bring. You might just end up stuck in another country for a couple weeks and then I had the most epic solo motorbike trip of my life over there so if you didn't see that video definitely check that out. It was the best but I'm so happy to be here. Phong Nha is beautiful. It's built right on the river's edge. I'm staying at this very cute little homestay with the perfect view of the mountains. My room window looks straight out. This is awesome. Check that out guys. It is so so beautiful and look at my cute little room. There's a window with the view. Yeah this is perfect. It feels really good to be back in a small town. I mean I'm from a small town so I always feel at home in small places. Literally right around the corner from my homestay is the river's edge and there's lots of homestays on the river's edge. Lots of restaurants. I'm gonna get a bite to eat. I honestly could not get enough of this view. It is so beautiful here. Absolutely stunning and because it's cooking outside I had to get a fresh coconut so I could rehydrate my body while I take this in just to survive and then I got this amazing noodle dish. So beautiful here. It's the perfect place to go cycling. You see everyone riding their bicycles. I was having a bit of a mission finding a bicycle to rent because my guest house has them for free but they were all totally broken so I was like there's no way I can ride any of those. Went to another guest house. The bikes they were going to rent me. The brakes didn't work. They were too big. So went to a third place. They had bicycles. I got one. It's also very rickety but the brakes work which is the most important part because on the other bikes even the brakes didn't work. I'm like no way I will crash. So I got one where the brakes work but the pedals are definitely wonky and it's rickety but I don't care. I am loving it. It is so beautiful and there's a nice breeze today so it's not too hot to be on the bike. Gives you that natural air conditioning. Yeah I am in my happy place. You can see look at the mountain view around here. All this nice big sand pile. It was a very long one so yeah but besides that behind that is this beautiful mountain view. Flowers on the trees. This is great. There's basically one road that goes straight through town along the river's edge so it's super easy to get around. Phong Nha is a town of about 12,500 people. It's located right by the Son River and contains part of the Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park which is a UNESCO world heritage site and has a cave that's 7,729 meters long. Tonight for dinner I'm eating at my guest house and I got some banana wine which is my first time having banana wine. I've had rice wine, love it. I got this amazing plate of sauteed vegetables and I got some handmade dumplings and some soy sauce. I'm so excited. Let's give this banana wine a go. It's really good with the ice. Chills it. It's a little strong. I mean the rice wine is quite strong too but I like it. Yeah really like it. Oh my gosh I've been craving vegetables so so much so I'm very excited about this. Okay next up I'm gonna try a dumpling. They look amazing. I love dumplings. I haven't had dumplings in a while. Looks so good, so fresh. That is really very nice. It almost like melts in your mouth. Like everything's quite soft inside and it's a soft dumpling. Yeah this is a very good dumpling. I'm off to return the bicycle that I rented yesterday because I rented a scooter today. There's a couple places I want to see that are a little far. My bike is a little too rickety to go to these places because they're 10 kilometers away so I rented a scooter. I'm gonna drop off this bike, get a bite to eat and then go and see a couple really cool spots. There's this vegan restaurant which is right here behind me and actually I wanted to try this vegan restaurant and right next door right here is my other favorite restaurant that I ate my lunch at yesterday but today check out what I got. I got a fresh watermelon juice with no sugar. I got fresh spring rolls. So excited and I got papaya salad. I just wanted to eat lots of vegetables and fresh and healthy. I also thought it was important to get some sustenance in me since I am going to be on the scooter in the hot sun cruising around going to check some stuff out. I just want to make sure you know I got some good greens, healthy vitamins in my body so I can have the best adventure today. If you listen you can hear someone singing karaoke over there. This is one thing I really love about Vietnam. People are always singing karaoke any time of the day. Now it's hard to hear because the boats are coming across but anyway back to this. I'm gonna get right in there. I'm gonna try one of these salad rolls. I'm so excited. Look at that. There's tofu, rice noodles and some lettuce and some herbs. I think I see basil and mint in a couple of those. That's perfect. That's exactly what my soul wanted. I definitely feel like I might have over ordered because the salad is so much bigger than I expected. The wind's trying to blow these little chips off my plate and yeah more spring rolls than I expected but I can always take it to go. Put it in the little fridge in my room. I can't wait to get into this. Oh look at that. I love the dressing. It's not sweet. It's a little bit spicy. Super fresh tasting. That is heaven right there on that plate. I've cruised about seven kilometers into the mountain just outside of town and I came to the botanical gardens. I heard it's just a beautiful spot. You can go swimming. You can enjoy a bit of nature but this bike is something else. I mean it's definitely not as good as the bikes that I've had in the past. It is missing a rear-view mirror and because I'm big on rear-view mirrors it's difficult for me and then this brake sucks. You have to pull really hard to get that brake to work so this one works so that's a little dodgy so I find myself driving extra careful on here. It costs 45,000 dong to enter the botanical gardens, 40,000 dong for your entry, 5,000 dong to park your motorbike. There's like a loop you can do and there's a couple stops on the loop. The first stop is the swimming hole, second stop is the waterfalls, third stop is the other waterfalls and that takes an hour and a half or there's a shorter thing you can do. It's just going to one of the waterfalls where you can also swim and that takes 40 minutes so that is what I decided to do because it's getting later already. It's 4 pm and there's one more place I want to stop by 6 pm so I figure since I have to cruise back to town and go to the other place I want to stop. I'm just going to go check out these little waterfalls, enjoy a little walk in nature, listening to all the bugs and animals and yeah just just be for a little bit. It's definitely more more like you're immersed in a jungle now. I wish I like a little off the beaten path so this is a little more what I was after but I know I'm actually quite close to these waterfalls. There's a rope to hang on to because it is a little rocky and steep here. These are the little waterfalls where you can go for a little swim or I guess you'd just be chilling in the water and then from here you go back up this way start making your way back up. It's like a nice little little mini loop, not the big loop of the area but a little mini one. It is so hot and humid in here though. I am pouring sweat. That water looks super refreshing but I don't want to like get my clothes all wet. I mean I'm already wet from sweating but that would be even more excessively wet and then it takes long to dry and like I said I want to try and make it to another location so I guess I'm just gonna take a rain check on the swim. All right back up to where there's a rest point up here for you and it's just a nice place you want to stop on your way to those waterfalls but I literally just got absolutely annihilated. I did not know this hike was going to be like crawling through rocks and scaling and I'm wearing croc sandals which are death traps to hike in because they get so slippery. They're like slip and slides so I was having a very tough time climbing back up all through that and now whoo drenched, drenched, annihilated by that whole situation. Oh that was tiring it was just because it was extra work wearing my slip and slides. I took them off a few times I was going barefoot but there's just so many like spider webs and things in these rocks. I absolutely love driving through these roads it's just so beautiful and picturesque in here. Still though this bike is very dodgy. I mean it's fun but yeah I would not be taking this on a long distance trip. That whole little hiking excursion to the waterfalls took longer than I anticipated so by time I got back it was a little too late to go to the other place that I want to go. I'm back at my guest house I just love it here so much. This little homestay, love the family that runs it, the energy here, it's fantastic. So I'm gonna just link them down below if you are visiting Phong Nha definitely I would recommend booking in here because they're amazing. Also tonight I'm trying the rice wine since last night I had the banana wine and oh I really like the rice wine. I like them both they're different and both super delicious and with the ice nice and cool yeah it felt good to go in nature today. I'm just on a nice little high for the day. This looks really good and I love kimchi I think this is gonna be perfect. No exaggeration this meal is absolutely delicious. I love the kimchi. The pork is actually really good too. I rarely eat pork but it's actually very nice. That's two nights in a row they knocked out of the park with their meal. I came to my favorite shop to get a little bit of gasoline and today this guy who owns it he gave me a big hug and said thank you because I always come to his shop for everything I need and it was just so sweet. I got a new bike and I have my little helmet on but now I am cruising out of town. I'm going to my next destination for the day. I'm excited about this one it looks like lots of fun from what I see in the photos. Right now I'm surrounded by rice fields and it's pretty epic. I finally made it to that other stop I was going to so you come here they have all these ducks and you get to feed them and then they have some local food for you to try. It was just a little bit of a mission to get here because it was so hot. I thought I got lost. I went through some country roads. I love that though. Now I'm here they give you the hat to wear, some shoes and yeah I'm good to go. That's so funny. Oh my gosh that's crazy. That is so funny. Three kilometers up the road is a place called Monkey Bridge so I just stopped up here. It's absolutely beautiful. They have some really cool activities like they have this swing and there's also this bicycle game that you can do. You're trying to go across a really thin thin platform and there's water on either side so if you can't make it across you fall into the water. It does look like a lot of fun. I think it'd be more fun if I was here doing it with friends so I opted not to do that today but I did enjoy a very delicious jungle honey lemon and ginger juice. It was amazing and I took in the beautiful view and had a great time watching everyone participate in the activities. Wow it is so beautiful driving through these little villages. This is incredible. Look at this. I honestly love waking up to this view. It is bright and early in the morning and it's definitely bright out but I could spend so much time here in Phong Nha. I absolutely love it. It is such a beautiful little mountain town. Look at this little breakfast that the owner made me this morning. I love this place so much. Look at that view. I love this view.