2 Days in NINH BINH (THIS is Vietnam)

10 out of 10. Would recommend. This is so cool. Good morning and welcome to Ninh Binh or more specifically Trang An. Now that we've been in northern Vietnam we've kind of been using Hanoi as a jumping off point so we took a two-hour train from the city into Ninh Binh where we're staying here at Trang and wow this place is like something out of a storybook. This is so beautiful with all these limestone karsts around this is honestly a dream. We're really excited to be exploring here over the next couple of days but we're also just excited to get a little bit of relaxation and some distance from the hustle and bustle of the big city. I have a feeling we're gonna be really happy today that we have this Insta360 X3 to capture all the fun adventures we're about So we rented motorbikes from our homestay and it was like eight dollars per day. A lot of people seem to think that riding motorbikes in Vietnam is pretty crazy which it is in some areas but once you leave the city we've been finding that it's actually quite manageable and not that crazy especially here in Ninh Binh. A lot of back roads it's quite simple to navigate but we've also seen a lot of people riding bicycles as well so that's also a good option here. We're starting our day with the Trang An boat tour and we have a special guest today. This is my friend Whitney. She's a little camera shy but I'm so happy she's here. Let's go go on her boat. It's more uneven than I was expecting. How y'all doing? It's wobbly. Do we face the other way? I think you can face whatever way you want. So we basically had three different options for boat tours. This tour is pretty much three hours no matter which way you slice it and our homestay lady, what do I call her? Homestay host? Homestay host? I don't know. And our homestay host said that number three was the absolute best. She had worked here for 14 years she said so I'm going with that. Oh and this is our rower Lam. Hello. Our fearless leader. I love these super fluorescent life jackets they gave us. I feel like this thing would come right off my head. Oh yeah I'm not convinced it would save me but you wouldn't lose me. So along this boat tour we also get to go through a series of caves and stop at a number of different pagodas. So we're here at our first spiritual stop and we're given about like 10 to 15 minutes to kind of walk around and just enjoy it and it is so beautiful here just built into the side of the cliff but also on the water it is just gorgeous. Whoa look how many mouths there are. If I put my hand in there do you think they'd nibble at my fingers? Yeah try it for real try it. They know that my hands are in food. Wow those are massive. We're about to go in our first cave. We have to duck? Yeah. Wow these are a lot smaller than I was expecting. I feel like we need helmets on. Where are you taking us lamb? This is so so cool. I can't believe how long this cave is. Yeah this is amazing. This leg might just look so cool. Wow I love this so much. It's never-ending. Yeah we just keep going. Wow and then you just come back outside and you just hear all the bugs and birds and you're back in nature. So cool. That was so long. We were in there for like a good like 10-15 minutes. That was crazy. That was so crazy and wow okay. It's too beautiful. It's too good. I'm gonna set this thing up. Man this thing is actually so perfect for situations like this where we don't want to fly a drone off the side of a boat. You can get like a drone like shot the whole time. Probably the coolest part about the Insta360 cameras is that it deletes the selfie stick so it doesn't get in the way of the shot. Plus it's super easy to arrange a shot after the fact in the Insta360 studio app. And even though at first I was kind of bummed it's not sunny today, it's actually so mystical with it being so humid and I don't know, what do you call that? Misty? It's mystical. I feel like it's so, I don't know, kind of spooky and nice. Also not as hot sitting on this boat. I don't know, spooky the word for it? It feels like I'm in a weird movie you know? Going around these little edges and you're like what's gonna be there? Someone's gonna pop out of the mountains. I love it. King Kong. Yeah, it's so peaceful. King Kong's gonna pop out. Yeah, see? Spooky. Kong Skull Island. The caves and the pagodas are so cool but I think my favorite part is just cruising through this river and just throughout all the mountains. It's just so beautiful. It's so peaceful too. You hear all the birds and although some of the stops have felt kind of crowded, I feel like when you're on the boat there's not really that many people around us. It's so calm. It's so lush right now. I feel like it's super green. I'm loving this. I could do this all day. Yeah. What happened to your pants, Eric? I almost fell out of the boat and so I stepped really big and then my pants ripped. And they're your only pair of pants? My only pair of pants in this country so I might just have to go get some made. Embarrassing. Wow, that's actually a pretty big hole. Wait, let me see. Let me see. It's a good thing we're wearing black underwear. Well that was really really cool. I'm so glad we did that. That was incredible. I know it's a very touristy thing to do here but there's a reason because that was so amazing. So beautiful. I feel like this might be one of my favorite places just exploring-wise. Like we've been able to just take our bikes and go like literally anywhere in this area and there's just so many different views but there's also different coffee shops and like restaurants that we can go to to eat some food. So we are here right now with a little bit of bun cha and a little bit of and some noodles and a nice view, of course. Epic view, always. Wow, this is so much nicer than yesterday. I'm so excited. Look how sunny it is. It's so clear. I'm so excited for today. Man, my absolute favorite thing about this Insta360 camera is that it's really just foolproof. Like I just throw it up behind the bike and because you can reframe it after the fact it just always looks super cool. It's so fun to use. Well we made it to Mua Caves and as you can tell, it's not a cave. I'm going up the stairs. There's 500 steps to the top of this karst. It's called Mua Caves but the main attraction is this viewpoint. How are you doing, Sarah? Good. I feel like my legs feel really good. I just feel very sweaty. Very, very sweaty. Very fast. I just can't believe how beautiful it is around here. These rock formations. Hello. You can do it. Wow. This is incredible. This is worth it. Wow. This view. This is incredible. It's stunning. So worth all the steps. I can't, I just, I can't believe over the views here in Ninh Binh. It's like, it's so interesting how the mountains just kind of appear out of nowhere and the rest of it is so flat. Like it seems so confusing that you would just have these random limestone mountains. Without having like hills. Yeah, there's no hills in between. It's like big karsts. It's so interesting. Ah, it's just, it's incredible. I love it. Unbelievable. Look what I found. There's goats. Mountain goats. I don't know if you can see them. Hey buddy. There's another little one. Oh, hey pal. Want to be my friend? I actually love that so much. It seems kind of random. Not sure they naturally live up here, but I like it. And as if one hike was enough, there's a second peak we can hike to. And it's officially the middle of the day, which is the absolute worst time to be doing that. We just checked with everything. It's 31, feels like 36. And it's noon. I don't know what we were thinking, but this was not the move. I feel like I'm going to get heat stroke. Get out your water. Yeah, probably fine. A little legs can handle. Oh look, little baby steps for me. But so hot. So I think it's time to walk down and get some coconut coffee. Absolutely. Yeah, don't wear uh chacos. Don't wear chacos up here. It was not the move. I didn't even make it into sport mode. Yeah, but it was not the move. Yeah, air gloss a shoe. I got it back. Yeah, it's very slippery up here, so wear proper shoes if you want to explore. Well, all is right in the world again. Got some coconut coffee, some food. You finish your coconut coffee. Oh yeah, I'm always, I'm already halfway done it. And we're just watching the boats come by in the little town of Tampcock. This is so interesting because here, like our boat yesterday, where they just like row with their hands, but here they row with their feet and it looks hilarious. Love it. Sorry, I was laughing as Wendy's making faces in the background. So much for being camera shy. Wow, this is so beautiful. This is insane. This is literally what I was talking about earlier about how just taking a scooter, you can just go wherever you want. But also, we're so glad that we've had this Insta360 with us the whole time because it's been an absolutely great way to capture the memories. It's so fun. If you liked some of the shots that we captured today, make sure you check out Insta360 and you can use our link in the description to actually get 10% off. That's right. Highly recommend. Honestly, this is so fun. So fun. It's so fun. Never gets old. Apparently, there's a big festival going on here tonight in the old like ancient capital. Our hostess at the homestay basically just said like we have to go to this. It starts at 7 30. It's now like what, like almost 8 30? Still pretty quiet. We're very much early. We honestly have no idea what it's for or what the deal is, but she was very excited. So we had to come check it out. I'm here for it. There's nowhere that bikes are not allowed to go. So even in the middle of the festival, all the families are just showing up on their bikes, just going down the middle, middle of the festival. Gonna love it. Okay. So far it has big fair vibes. There's just a bunch of food stalls and kids carnival games. So we got some food. I got this tortilla thing with some sort of meat. There's no signs. I don't know what it is. And you got potatoes with, what is this on there? It doesn't really taste like anything. Let's try this. It's like whole pork inside. Tortilla is really good. I'm not gonna explain it. It's almost like sugar based. Interesting, but yeah, so far a big carnival vibes. We have yet to find out what the deal is with this festival. Like what, why, why is there a festival? We'll keep you posted. Well, it turns out we are a day early to the festival. That big concert thing doesn't actually start until tomorrow apparently. But I did find out that it was for the first emperor of Vietnam who actually founded the independence for Vietnam. And it's his birthday. Yep. 1100 years. So happy birthday tomorrow, I guess. But we've had a great couple of days here in Ninh Binh. Well, technically Trang An, but you know, same thing. And we've absolutely loved it. Yeah. This has been so, so nice. I highly recommend coming here. This is, this is, I want to come back here. Like it was that good. This is so cool. It just feels so nice to be in nature. I feel so relaxed. Yeah, absolutely. Love it. Love, love, love. Thanks for watching. See you in the next one. Bye.